Saw 'Reprisal' because Bruce Willis has done good films and given good performances in the past, 'Die Hard' is a genre landmark and his performance is iconic in that. Have an appreciation for action and the idea for the story sounded interesting. Expectations were not high though, because Willis has been past prime for a while (several bad films and has looked tired and disengaged a lot).
'Reprisal' is not a good representation of him, as a film it is down there as one of his worst and his own performance likewise. It fails dismally in the action stakes, faring very unfavourably in relation to other films seen in the genre, and while anything involving bank heists have been predictable numerous times 'Reprisal' manages to portray it with no thrills complete with dull pacing, lots of silliness and endless predictability. Not hating it with pleasure, it's my honest opinion and my negative feelings towards it are regrettable.
The least bad thing about 'Reprisal' is Frank Grillo, the one asset of the film to show any degree of effort and engagement. Willis is used poorly, looks tired and like he didn't want to be there. Jonathan Schaech is stuck in a one-dimensional villain role that he overdoes in some places and underacts in others. Olivia Culpo is bland personified.
Visually, 'Reprisal' looks amateurish, the photography here some of the most disorganised, least stylish and self-indulgent for any film seen recently and the editing lacks cohesion. The music is too loud, should have been used far less and some of the placement is inappropriate. This is not Brian A. Miller's first film believe it or not and not his first collaboration with Willis, but somehow his direction is similar to that of an inexperienced rookie to the job.
Dialogue from the very start to the contrived climax is riddled with clichés and cheese and what little there is of the story has no surprises, fun or tension, is very pedestrian in pace and fails to make sense or have signs of maturity. It is good that it didn't take itself too seriously but 'Reprisal' goes overboard on the ridiculousness and lack of plausibility. The action is clumsily choreographed, sloppily edited and not exciting or suspenseful at all, as well as looking at least twenty years out of date. The characters are not compelling or easy to get behind. Do not expect every character in every film to be likeable when characters in numerous films purposefully aren't, but it is an issue if there are characters meant to be rootable and 'Reprisal' has that problem.
Overall, very poor. Only Grillo is halfway watchable and even he is not used that well. 1/10 Bethany Cox
Reprisal
2018
Action / Crime / Drama / Thriller
Reprisal
2018
Action / Crime / Drama / Thriller
Plot summary
Jacob (Frank Grillo),a bank manager haunted by a violent heist that took the life of a coworker, teams up with his ex-cop neighbor, James (Bruce Willis),to bring down the assailant. While the two men work together to figure out the thief's next move, Gabriel (Johnathon Schaech),the highly-trained criminal, is one step ahead. When Gabriel kidnaps Jacob's wife (Olivia Culpo) and daughter, Jacob barrels down a path of bloodshed that initiates an explosive counterattack and brings all three men to the breaking point.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
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A life for a life
Not great, but not so bad either
REPRISAL is another of the straight-to-video B-movie action thrillers that Bruce Willis has been churning out for a few years now; he always tends to play a supporting role in his own movie and generally looks tired and uninterested in the script. This one's no exception, but the film's quality is a little better than others I've watched and it generally holds your attention throughout. It's essentially a battle of wits between good guy Frank Grillo (one of the most likeable of modern action stars) and a renegade bank robber who enjoys butchering the innocent. The film offers enough twists, turns and action scenes to keep the pace from flagging, and it has a certain grittiness and vitality missing from a lot of similar fare.
Incoherent and absurd
Frank Grillo plays Jacob an unlikely bank manager. His bank is hit by a sole bank robber who is on a robbing spree. A security guard is killed and in the mayhem the robber disappears.
The robber is stealing money supposedly to help out his ill father living in a care home. The audience does not give a damn as he brutally killed other hard working people.
Jacob and his next door neighbour who is an ex-cop, James (Bruce Willis) try to track down the robber before his next heist. When Jacob gets in the robber's way, the stakes become more personal.
This is a dull movie, badly written, the action scenes are lame and with terrible incidental music. It is really a cheapo B movie with a cameo by Willis because he is probably on his $1 million a day deal.