smisevich-79649 Reviews

The Retirement Plan (2023)

Paycheck Film for Everyone Involved

[3/10 · 19 September 2023]

Always up for a Nic Cage film. When I saw the trailer, it looked like a good premise and had some talent attached to it. I was just waiting for a DTV release date. Imagine my surprise when I saw that it received a theatrical release. After walking out of the theatre, I completely understand why it is scheduled to drop down to one showing a day for it second week theatrically.

Every known name involved must've been persuaded by the idea of picking up a quick paycheck while soaking up some sun in Miami and the Cayman Islands.

A good story idea.....poor acting, dialogue, script, action set pieces, cinematography, squibs, plug-ins, and I could go on for a lot more.

Nic Cage always brings something to one of his films, but it's very little in this one. There was one semi creative action scene, set up inside his hotel room, but otherwise, these characters seem to spend more time answering their cell phones, then firing a gun.

Trauma Center (2019)

The Good the Bad and The Ugly

[6/10 · 17 May 2020]

Trauma Center is your basic Die Hard in a hospital with the John McClane character being replaced by a waitress (Nicky Whelan), and the terrorists are replaced by some corrupt Vice cops (Texas Battle & Tito Ortiz).

The Good....this film is only 87 minutes, and the story moves along at a decent pace if you find yourself quarantined with a rain storm outside. Nicky Whelan also gives a damn about creating a compelling character that one can cheer for.

The Bad...the corrupt cops played by Battle and Ortiz. The circumstances of why they have to chase down this waitress/witness is almost laughable. The two lunk heads clog around the entire film in moronic fashion. Battle attempts to portray a charismatic villain, but can't due to the fact that he has to lower his acting ability to balance out Ortiz. There are portions throughout this film where I thought these two guys were doing their best Three Stooges imitations.

And Finally The Ugly.....Bruce Willis. Trauma Center is the 1st of a three picture deal that Willis signed with MoviePass film, however I can not find an exact figure for the deal. Hopefully MoviePass will get some acting out of Willis for the final two films of the contract. His supposed acting in this one was cringe worthy. I understand from reading about past film sets that Willis can be very difficult and it translates to "I don't care" performances, but he certainly takes it to another level in Trauma Center. I can almost bet that he never read the script, never studied his lines, sat in his plush trailer drinking and counting down the days till the end of the shoot.

His performance comes across as someone who told Director Matt Eskandari that he (Willis) was obligated to do only one take and had his assistant (who was responsible for studying all of his lines) just off screen telling him his lines for the 1st time. No magic editing can fix that.

Bruce Willis has never been thought of as a great thespian, but when the best performance that you can muster in Trauma Center is standing behind a shot up unmarked police car holding a gun in silence...the movie viewing public deserves better.