A heist takes place in this thriller starring Bruce Willis, but it is audiences that might feel shortchanged.
The prolific action director James Cullen Bressack spits out cheap thrillers like bullet casings. His latest sneer-em-up is “Fortress,” and in it, there are two heists afoot. The first concerns the plot: Mercenaries have stormed a secluded retirement community to seize $600 million in cryptocurrency. The second robs the audience: Bruce Willis, enlisted to play the hero, pockets his salary while giving the acting gig his absolute least. At onetime, Willis’s presence boosted a small movie; lately, he’s a liability. “It’s an emergency alert,” Willis’s ex-C.I.A. agent yawns to his estranged son (Jesse Metcalfe) as though sirens mean the postman is at the door. Whatever, on with the gun show.
As a distraction, Bressack and the screenwriter Alan Horsnail surround their indifferent lead with tinsel. We get lens flares galore, drums that pound like the marching band of Valhalla High and an endearing effort from Chad Michael Murray as Balzary, the villainous leader of a death squad bringing hellfire upon morning yoga. Balzary enjoys shiny vests, Damascus steel knives and shoulder rubs forced upon his tense hostages.
At the same time, a sports-bra clad resort manager (Kelly Greyson) explains that the compound was deliberately constructed on an energy vortex that scrambles Wi-Fi, satellites and drones. By the time Shannon Doherty parades in as a four-star general, it’s tempting to succumb to inanity. (Doherty is tasked to assure everyone that Willis’s character does, in fact, feel the human emotion of pride in his son — he just happened to tell her so off-camera.) But then the film starts droning on and on about wire transfers and allocated funds and registration processes and L.L.C.s, techno babble designed to drag this nonsense into a sequel (which Bressack has already filmed). The hustling director might be the only one to believe it when his own film makes Willis say: “I’m having fun.”
Fortress
Rated R for relentless murdering. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
