Cosmic Sin
Cosmic Sin
"Cosmic Sin" is just another in a long line of recent direct-to-video releases Bruce Willis has attached his name to, collected a paycheck and did absolutely nothing with.
Bruce Willis, aliens and Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson’s son. It may sound like the start to a bad joke, but it’s actually three elements of a terrible sci-fi movie. “Cosmic Sin” is just another in a long line of recent direct-to-video releases Bruce Willis has attached his name to, collected a paycheck and did absolutely nothing with.
“Cosmic Sin” is a movie so bad it’s hard to know where to start. Let’s go ahead and get the basic stuff out of the way. The human race makes contact with some slightly hostile aliens, the military recruits dishonored general James Ford (Willis) to rejoin the ranks, they quantum jump, fight some aliens, use a quantum bomb to destroy the alien’s gateway and end up having a few drinks back at the local bar.
Sounds pretty awesome, right? On paper, you can easily make a case for this film being exciting and maybe even a little entertaining. However, “Cosmic Sin” is a dull sludge that takes a cool concept and does absolutely nothing with it. It took me three attempts to finally make it through the film because I kept falling asleep.
The biggest issue I had with the film was its lead. You see, I’m old enough to remember when Bruce Willis actually put some effort into his roles. That may sound harsh, but there are moments in “Cosmic Sin” where it appears that Willis is on the verge of falling asleep himself and I’m not joking. Watch closely and there are moments where it looks like they literally woke him up just off-screen, pushed him in front of the camera, and rattles off his lines with no expression or inflection. He’s clearly going through the motions, and that’s all.
The film is filled with stilted dialogue and actors giving over-the-top performances, possibly trying to make up for Willis’s DOA performance. Brandon Thomas Lee has some nice moments as Braxton Ryle, but those moments get lost in his constant yelling and screaming when it’s not needed. I’d like to see what he could do if he tamed down a performance.
The CGI is a weird one too. One moment the visuals look great such as the quantum jump and some of the space battle. Then at other times, it seems like something from the era of “Tron” with clunky graphics and effects that don’t match up well with their environment.
Although they have their fair share of lousy dialogue, I enjoyed Frank Grillo as General Eron Ryle, Costas Mandylor as Marcus Bleck and C.J. Perry as Sol Cantos. They were at least trying to give something to the movie and are by far three of the characters you’ll enjoy the most.
“Cosmic Sin” is a mess of a sci-fi flick that never capitalizes on a solid premise. Add it to a growing list of direct-to-video duds from Willis that you can take a hard pass on.