Wow… almost missed this later-career 2021 Bruce Willis “starring” movie… looks like I got a watch in before whatever fresh hell 2022 brings us. Which, for the record, looks like it will contain TWELVE more Bruce Willis takes a paycheck flicks.

And the sick, sad thing is, this is easily the best of the sorry lot of his films released this year. It feels like an actual film was made by grown-up adults, including a Bruce Willis who (while still being able to ride out the movie in a chair) actually deigns to bestow upon us a smidgeon of acting talent.

If it weren’t for a muddled evil plan, some cheap stock footage, and a finale that barely limped across the finish line, I’d actually say this is a sincerely decent B action flick. I mean, it’s got a decently witty script, the actors mostly all have talent, the score is pretty decent, and the action… well, it’s decent too. I won’t go overboard there though; sometimes the action is time killing and sluggish.

I just wish someone had gone over the script and come up with a better reason for evil Bruce Willis to be doing evil things. Yes, I said evil Bruce Willis… maybe that’s why he’s trying (slightly) this time around. Now he gets to play a fairly lazy Hans Gruber in his very own Die Hard knock off. Let’s call it Die Hard in (on?) a Dam. It seems he wants answers for a botched police raid that killed his son… and he’s willing to take over a hydroelectric dam to do it. With the “why are they here now?” aid of a team of mercenaries who exists to be killed off one by one by a dam technician (who just so happens to be ex-military).

It feels like a location in search of a reason to film there. Someone got access to a dam (or some location that looks close enough) and they scribbled down a plot – or possibly converted an existing revenge plot. Whatever. It allows them to have a higher-than-usual production value for a low budget action flick (full of CGI squibs).

I think people who are willing to give a pass to a B tier action flick might get some fun out of this one. On a strict movie-making level, it almost gets to a solid review but it flubs its finale a little too hard. It’s an admirable effort, especially by the low, grim standards of Bruce Willis movies these days.

Score: 74