Wire Room
Late-career Bruce Willis actioneer sports awesome performance from Oliver Trevena.
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As far as late-career Bruce Willis movies go, I’ve seen a lot worse than “Wire Room” (available in select theaters and on VOD beginning Friday, Sept. 2).
Kevin Dillon stars as Justin Rosa, a former Secret Service agent who’s opted to start a new gig manning a surveillance center overseen by Shane Mueller (Bruce Willis). Working alongside the two men is fellow agent Nour Holborow (Shelby Cobb). Also onsite at the facility is security guard Mike Axum (Cameron Douglas, grandson of Kirk and son of Michael). Rosa gets off on the wrong foot with Mueller when he shows up 10 minutes late to his first day of work.
The trio are investigating an Irish arms dealer with ties to the Juárez Cartel named Eddie Flynn (Oliver Trevena). Flynn is in bed with a bevy of dirty cops and Mueller is desirous of their names to help bust up police corruption. When Mueller and Holborow depart the facility, Rosa is left to surveil Flynn’s residence all on his lonesome. Lo and behold, Flynn’s pad is attacked by a hit squad. Rosa has received strict instructions from Mueller to 1.) Keep Flynn alive and 2.) Do not contact the subject under any circumstances … directives working in direct opposition of one another. Desperate, Rosa reaches out to Sherriff Peter Roberts (Texas Battle, this awesomely-named actor was a fixture of mid-aughts horror sequels such as “Final Destination 3” and “Wrong Turn 2: Dead End”) for assistance.
As directed by Matt Eskandari (this is his fourth film with Willis after “Trauma Center,” “Survive the Night” and “Hard Kill”) and written by first-timer Brandon Stiefer, “Wire Room” is a bit of a mixed bag.
What it does well, it does exceedingly well. Trevena is awesome in the movie … he’s got an “Untitled Gerard Butler Action Thriller” and a M.J. Bassett-directed “Red Sonja” remake/reimagining on the horizon … and I can’t wait for ‘em! This dude has a real presence and his chemistry with Dillon is outstanding despite the two never sharing an actual scene together. Kudos to both performers and editor Chris Patterson for this feat. Sequences in which Rosa directs a silenced pistol-carrying Flynn through his home via Bluetooth headset are the film’s best and call to mind the “Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell” video games. I should probably also mention that I enjoyed the tetchy energy Douglas brought to the role of Axum.
What it doesn’t do well, it does woefully. A lot of what’s occurring makes no sense – Flynn’s wife Cindy (Amber Townsend) and her girlfriends are all done up and dressed for a night out on the town despite it being morning … he tells them to put their pajamas back on. Strangely, Flynn is also eating chicken dumplings for breakfast.
Willis’ Mueller spends the bulk of the movie drinking at a bar (sadly, this plot point is probably an extension of the actor’s aphasia). We know he’s at a watering hole because we see a cheap beer light plugged into the wall behind him and he talks to the doorman Will (John D. Hickman) on his way in. (Hickman got his start in film acting by making a donation for a walk-on role at a charity auction benefitting Children's Hospital Los Angeles back in 2011. I’m all for philanthropy and the cat’s only got two lines or so, but he’s bad. Hearing him butcher the word “hefeweizen” was nails on a chalkboard to this critic/beertender’s ears.) We never see inside the tavern because that would require extras and set dec – the whole scenario screams of cheapness.
“Wire Room” is the second movie in as many months where Dillon plays a hero who spends much of his screen time in a computer chair. Much like the cheesily enjoyable “Hot Seat,” there are jolts and joys to be found here. I’m just wondering if this is the beginning of a new subgenre of film.