Review: Breach

Set in the future, Cody Kearsley stows away on a spaceship headed for ‘New Earth’ so that he could be with the mother (Kassandra Clementi) of his unborn child. Somehow an alien parasite also manages to stowaway and starts wreaking havoc on board. Thomas Jane is an admiral and Clementi’s stern father who hates Kearsley. Bruce Willis plays an amused janitor on board the ship, with Callan Mulvey and Rachel Nichols also on board. Timothy V. Murphy has a role as hard-arse Commander Stanley.

 

Another latter-day Bruce Willis film, this 2021 ‘alien parasite running amok on a spaceship’ film is more on the mediocre-to-poor side instead of outright crap like many of Willis’ recent output. Directed by John Suits (who directed “Pandemic”, with Rachel Nichols), it also features one of Willis’ better performances of late. That is to say it’s a long way from being a good turn, but he at least seems to be enjoying himself somewhat, and one of the few things here that aren’t that bad.

 

Before I move on, a personal note regarding Willis. With the recent announcement of his health problems and acting retirement, it really puts things into context. I won’t remove any previous criticisms of Willis’ performances or supposed investment in his career. I will simply update older reviews to say that those reviews were posted before the announcement. If any of those criticisms can be attributed to his illness (though I’ve been criticising the quality of a lot of Willis’ performances since at least 1996’s “Last Man Standing”, I might add), I stand corrected 100% and hope that the next phase of his life will be as peaceful and satisfying as possible. He’s left behind an acting career with several fine films and at least one absolute all-time classic in “Die Hard”.

 

The rest of the cast is…oof. Not great. Thomas Jane can’t hide his boredom behind dark sunglasses, and when he takes them off he’s absurdly hammy. Rachel Nichols is flat-out miscast in a role that requires her to convincingly act tough. I wasn’t buying it at all. Worst of all is Timothy V. Murphy, an Irish-born actor who can’t put on a convincing Southern accent to save himself and is ridiculously over-the-top. Aussie actor Callan Mulvey’s American accent is a fair bit better, and he gives the best performance by far. An interesting and versatile actor, the problem is he’s on the sidelines for about 90% of the film. Lead actor Cody Kearsley is pretty unimpressive. He’s not awful, he just doesn’t stand out at all. It’s a shame former “Home and Away” actress Kassandra Clementi is barely in the film, because she’s actually got some charisma.

 

Although I wouldn’t call the FX and production design good, the film looks…tolerable for what I assume wasn’t highly funded. Scripted by Edward Drake and Corey Large (who paired up for “Cosmic Sin” with Willis), the plot is stock-standard, but again it’s…tolerable. Yes, it turns into an “Alien” rip-off (except the budget couldn’t afford a chest-burst), but it’s not the first, last, or certainly worst such thing. This is all very low bar stuff I’m saying here, clearly. Nonetheless compared to a lot of Willis’ other recent films, it’s at least relatively competent.

 

You’ve seen this a million times before and better. However, you’ve also seen it done worse, and at least Bruce Willis is amusing himself in a supporting role. You’ll probably want to skip this film, but it’s not quite a bad film.

 

Rating: C