There’s only one way to get an independent movie made nowadays. A very rich executive producer or a big name attached to the project. In steps Bruce Willis for a couple of scenes but it turns out Bruce Willis is the weakest link in this entire production! Here’s our Trauma Center review.
Alone and trapped in a locked-down hospital isolation ward overnight, an injured young woman must escape a pair of vicious killers who are after the only piece of evidence that can implicate them in a grisly murder: the bullet in her leg.
I’m not sure if director Matt Eskandari, the cinematographer or Bruce himself is to blame for this one but every single scene Bruce finds himself in is poor. His line delivery seems off, worryingly off and there just isn’t something right with this particular performance straight off the bat.
His introduction to the movie sees him awkwardly shouting his lines like that guy at the bar who just won’t leave at the end of the night after one too many whiskeys.
Other scenes feel forced and wooden and never flow naturally or are delivered in any sort of meaningful way. It gives me some serious flashbacks to Replicas starring Keanu Reeves where Keanu robotically delivers his lines like he’s just had a recent internal software update.
Trauma Center is basically just Die Hard in a hospital where Nicky Whelan steals the show in every scene she’s in.
Let’s put aside a forced side-story involving her sister and her deceased mother (three flashback scenes paint our entire backstory here) and let’s focus on the plot which is based around two corrupt cops hunting her down after she has witnessed a murder.
The cops manage to shoot her in the leg and she is taken to hospital. That bullet is the only shred of evidence that can link back to the murder so the corrupt cops are on a mission to hunt her down.
Nicky Whelan is outstanding in this. A female-led movie that doesn’t push an agenda and her talent just naturally shines through any politics. She looks like an absolute badass and her and her alone drives this entire feature and Trauma Center is worth a watch for this performance alone.
The movie lacks in almost every department throughout but it’s watchable.
Simplistic, but watchable only just managing to skirt around the many plot holes we seem to be finding ourselves in around every corner.
She escapes to another floor, they hunt her down, she goes to another floor, they follow. It’s quite a dull little cat and mouse movie in places if not for Whelan’s performance.
When the action scenes do perk up they’re entertaining, the fight sequences are great, the shootouts are believable and well done and only at this moment does the film supersede its budget in quality.
Sadly there are one too many plot holes to fall down and for once in my entire life, I was glad Bruce Willis had a smaller part but his performance certainly left me with more questions than answers as he sadly just didn’t fit into this movie whatsoever.
The performance felt overly dramatic and was really quite poor overall. It’s a shame to see a man of his talent rock up and put in a performance like this and then even worse to have the production sign off on something like this no doubt just because it’s ‘Bruce Willis’.
Star power gets you a long way in the independent realm that’s for sure!
In Bruce’s defense, the script is so mundane and predictable I can’t place all the blame on the poor guy for at least trying to inject some loud personality into the line delivery but he did sign up to the role after all so you’d think he would at least make an effort.
It’s a disengage your brain action-flick. Give it a watch if you’ve got nothing better to do but that’s about it.
Trauma Center is one clinic you want to check out of very quickly indeed.
Trauma Center review by Sean Evans
Our Rating
Summary
Without a stellar Nicky Whelan performance, this film would have been bargain bucket quality.
If there’s genuinely nothing else on the internet, TV, film rental service, streaming service or even a freshly painted wall to watch drying then you can’t go wrong with Trauma Center!
Is it really possible that the director said that’s a wrap.
How can you present that to an audience?
The plot was probably written on the back of a stamp Bruce Willis was just brought out of a coma and given the script in Chinese, there are no doctors in the hospital (I hope I never get shot there) no policemen in the police station no cctv cameras it should have been put on the Disney channel
Do they really get paid for this ? have the patience’s really taken over the asylum?
I’m thinking the beginning of Bruce’s dementia. Very sad.
Yes, sadly this probably WAS the beginning stage of Bruce Willis’ cognitive issues. Very sad to see this happen to ANYONE, and it’s particularly disturbing to see such a decline in a fine actor of Bruce’s caliber.