American Siege
VERTICALThere are several jabs or remarks that could open a review of American Siege. The only siege here is on the audience at home. All parts of American Siege cut off the essential supplies to good filmmaking. Only an American could make this. There is a trio that could be used, but granting Bruce Willis a rite of passage is both popular and understandable. The man hustled the last few years of his career to make good money. It is a business after all. There lies a new perspective to the Willis-led action feature. All those entries into his filmography – the likes of Precious Cargo, Cosmic Sin, and Gasoline Alley – all have within them this easy pastiche to them. But unravelling the Edward Drake-directed feature is much harder than expected.
Not because it features rich and entertaining spectacles, but because the genuine and strange question still lingers: who or what does American Siege cater to? By the looks of it, Drake is on the right track. An inkling of quality is beaten out of this feature because its premise, while simple and thoroughly dull, does depend a little more on dialogue. Drake has learned from Cosmic Sin and Apex, both of which were made just before or around American Siege, that dialogue is key to stringing pieces of action together. Despite recognising that and thankfully featuring scenes that do not need to prompt an audience into crossing their fingers for some explosion to crop up, Drake is still unconvincing in his attempts to conjure up a few genuine displays of creativity.
Strangely enough, American Siege has brief spots to it. The reverse opening with a heavy cut of action-packed moments, narration that feels threatening, it all comes together nicely. It grabs the attention and that is something few Willis projects have managed these past few years. Hostages and homewreckers join together to make a relatively enjoyable if terribly blunt feature that has no shame in its slower pacing. Timothy V. Murphy gives a solid leading role, doing well to support Willis’ work here. The back and forth between them breaks through with some solid tension, although the dialogue stutters a bit because of how little sense American Siege can make at times.
There will be no shortage of this. The backlog grows thicker and while audiences clutch their remotes, twitching at the overwhelming variety on display, the streaming services on offer, their depth alone enough to stave off months of boredom, some will make the active decision to watch American Siege. Less will finish it, and even less will enjoy it. These are facile features that crave the attention of an older generation obsessively counting down the aeons until their next fix of Willis, their next hit of Steven Seagal, Nicolas Cage or John Cusack. It is understandable. For those in and out of the know there are different layers of enjoyment and try as they might to shimmy themselves away from it, Drake, the rest of his crew and the cast he is in charge of will always be tied to the notion that quantity can sometimes hold a rare quality.