Review: Reprisal

Frank Grillo plays a bank manager who has a hard time coping with a robbery committed by disgruntled Jonathon Schaech, who has a sideline in making bomb threats too. Grillo suffers PTSD as a result of the ordeal, whilst on leave from the bank. With no video footage of the robbery, the Feds seem to think Grillo (who was held at gunpoint, I might add) was somehow involved. Sitting at home and stewing over it, Grillo gets to talking to his ex-cop neighbour Bruce Willis about the whole ordeal. They deduce that Schaech isn’t finished doing whatever he’s doing, and start to piece together what his next move might be so that Grillo can figure about restoring his reputation. Meanwhile, Grillo’s wife (Olivia Culpo, a former Miss Universe apparently) starts to worry about him. They have a cute diabetic daughter. You can see where this is headed, no doubt. 

This review was originally posted before the announcement of Willis' illness/retirement and certain comments are obviously no longer relevant. Nonetheless I'd rather add these words than subtract anything, perhaps as a reminder that we don't know someone's personal circumstance.

Director Brian A. Miller (“Caught in the Crossfire”) and slumming actors Bruce Willis and Jonathon Schaech deliver another underwhelming direct-to-DVD cheapo with this 2018 misfire. They previously teamed up for the mediocre “Vice” and subpar “The Prince”, and boy do they look like “Citizen Kane” in comparison to this incoherent mess. Scripted by Bryce Hammons (a debutant, unsurprisingly), when it’s not incoherent it’s merely idiotic, a definite Bottom 10 of the year candidate, I’m afraid. And that’s a shame, because Frank Grillo has got the tools to be a pretty decent action movie star, but this is not going to be the film to launch that idea. He’s the only decent thing here, but powerless to save it, unfortunately. Speaking of powerless though, Jonathon Schaech is rendered powerless by his poorly-written character. He’s not a bad actor, and his performance is fine, but the character is completely absurd. The poor guy just hasn’t got a chance with a character so overblown. I did like how indiscriminately he kills people, though. Quite ruthless.

As for Mr. Willis…oh boy. If you’ve seen Bruce Willis in anything not named “Sin City” since about 2004, you know that the man just doesn’t give a shit anymore. He acts for money. This is especially evident in his direct-to-DVD films. In theory it’s fine that you’re not necessarily passionate about your work. A job is a job, no one has to love their job I suppose. However, not everyone is publicly viewed at their job by a large audience. Willis is, and it’d be nice if the man would give half a shit from time to time about his chosen profession. His ‘performance’ in this film might just be a new low, but for a slightly different reason. You see, there are actually moments in the film where he looks like he’s trying to give an actual performance. Unfortunately during those moments he’s even worse than when he’s just delivering the words without emotion or effort. It’s Nic Cage levels of wild extremes in a single performance. He’s underplaying and overplaying at the same time like he’s an amateur or something. It’s bizarre to watch, but not in any enjoyable way as Willis alternates between angrily going over-top and being violently disinterested. The only thing I can compare the performance to is a 2 year-old who has had a sugar fix but ultimately really needs a long nap. He also looks a bit unwell, actually. It’s a bit concerning to say the least. I’ve read that Willis uses a double sometimes, presumably for trivial ‘pick-up’ shots that he can’t be arsed to show up for. Perhaps the double was required to do a bit more than just stand around and look like Bruce Willis this time. Perhaps they were given a bit of dialogue too, and that might be why Willis’ opening scene (some of which is filmed at a distance) seems so awful. Whoever and how ever many people contribute to the performance that Willis is ultimately credited with, it’s terrible. Almost as bad is Olivia Culpo as Grillo’s wife and mother to their child. This kid is, through Culpo’s dreadful performance, talked down to like they’re two years old. And deaf. They’re neither of those things. Gal Gadot-lookalike Culpo just can’t convincingly act the part of a mum to save herself (Whether she actually is one in real-life or not I don’t know, but the two ideas aren’t actually mutually exclusive).

Initially, I liked that Grillo’s character was no superman action hero guy, just a bank employee. It’s a bit different from the norm in these things  Unfortunately, the circumstances in which he gets involved in the action don’t jive with that character at all. I’m all for a bank employee being the protagonist of an action-thriller, but not for that character to be like John McClane. It needs to be a more measured approach befitting someone who isn’t used to picking up firearms and engaging in violent combat. The guy is suffering PTSD from being a witness at a bank robbery for crying out loud. Why isn’t he giving the information to the cops and letting them sort it out? He’s not exactly a one-man army type ala John Matrix (“Commando”) is he? In a film of little coherence, this didn’t make much sense either. The stupid thing is that the plot synopsis shouldn’t have led to such an incoherent mess, it’s quite a straightforward plot, really. However, I defy anyone to tell me what any of the scenes with Grillo and Willis are talking about. I didn’t have the slightest clue how they were figuring things out, except one stupidly obvious deduction: ‘He’s after money!’. No shit, he’s a bank robber, genius. Well-done, skip. Here’s a cookie. Other than that, it felt like information was missing somewhere in the editing process. The final shootout wants to be the L.A. street shoutout in “Heat”. It’s so fucking not, though. Eye-rolling ending, too.

Somehow even worse than Miller’s previous turkeys, this complete mess of a film wastes a perfectly decent performance from Frank Grillo, whilst Bruce Willis gives one of the worst of his disinterested paycheck-cashing performances. “Heat” it ain’t, with dreadful shaky-cam not helping in the slightest.

Rating: D