The Cold Light Of Day Film Review

The Cold Light of Day Film Review

Initial Thoughts

            When I first saw this movie at the library I thought that it was going to be a good movie, I was in the mood to see an action film done right, after seeing the horrible Remake of Red Dawn. I mean, this one stars Bruce Willis; it has to be good right? Well unfortunately all my dreams were crushed only 20 minutes in. When I found out that it is a Bruce Willis film without Bruce Willis.

            Well you know me, you can't base an entire movie off one point, so lets get into more detail.

Storyline: 4 out of 25

            Unnecessarily confusing, unexplained plot devices (including the main plot device). A story that makes no sense in terms of logic, or natural human instincts. The story is just a complete mess. The entire storyline is driven by one plot point (and a particularly weak one at that) but we don't even no what it is, like, they never explain at all, what it is, what information is inside, who it really belongs to, or really who the two sides are who are actually fighting.

            A fairly simple concept has been turned into a very confusing jumble of death. Plot points aren't even completely developed until they start explaining another one, so they will cut away from letting us know something and then start telling the audience something totally different.

            The main character, their biggest star, dies within the first 20 minutes. Sure his character is important and everything, and is still discussed after his death, but they killed off Bruce Willis within 20 minutes! And he was a main character! That is a huge slap in the face to every audience member, and don’t tell me that he was just a minor character because the other characters mention him and discuss his life throughout the rest of the movie, he pretty much drives the storyline, and plus, his picture takes up half of the box art, his name is massive and is bigger than every other actor’s name.

Action/Special Effects: 5 out of 25

            Just because it has pretty special effects does not mean that the action in general is good. For example when the fighting logic is totally thrown out the window, the score will suffer. The logic in this film is the worst I have ever seen, consistently characters are thrown into situations where they would be dead, true that is nothing new for Hollywood, but other films try to cover up facts like that, this film does not. It openly makes many stupid situations that no one would ever survive, and when that happens many audience members tend to just throw their hands in the air and not give a crap about the characters because obviously they can survive everything, thus reducing or completely eliminating any kind of emotional build up for the characters. This is one of the reasons why action scenes exist, to build an emotional build up to the protagonists and antagonists. It is not only just to blow stuff up.

            So in short, it doesn’t matter how beautiful the special effects are, if the emotional impact of an action scene is gone, because the logistics of the action scene is gone. The audience members need to be invested in the character’s situations or they will no longer care about said characters.

Characters: 4 out of 25

            Every character cliche I can think of is in this movie, aside from making extremely stupid decisions that would make anyone bang their head against the wall, they aren’t developed, they aren’t interesting, and well, the Bruce Willis is killed before the main action even begins!

            When a major action star is killed at the beginning of an action film, and the only person left to kill people is some no body that we have never heard of before, who can’t act, or give any human emotions that will eventually hurt the characters in general, considering that he is the main character here on in. The character motivations are never explained, more specifically, the antagonist’s motivations. Any teenager my age will never understand who the villains are associated with, why they are trying to kill the main hero, or what they are doing in the country in the first place! This is simply one instance of a character action not being explained, and considering that the story is the main element that explains character actions, I really shouldn’t be surprised.

            Not explained, or developed, or well-acted (I mean horribly acted, I have had more feelings for the dust under my bed) and just generally done poorly, these characters are a prime example of how a bad story can, and has, destroyed the characters in a film.

Nostalgic Value: 5 out of 25

            Many old action stars have a certain nostalgic value in their newer films; this means that their newer movies have the same atmosphere and style to them as the old flicks did. This is sort of a tribute to old fans, and informing new fans of the history of their careers and filmography, as well as the importance of the older films. And I am proud to exclaim that this movie does not do any of these things, not only does it not satisfy old fans, it doesn’t satisfy anyone. The film has no atmosphere, plain and simple, the style is sloppy and undefinable.

Okay lets just get this over with before I puke…

The final verdict for the (not so) Bruce Willis film is…

18/100

Battleship: The Movie

Yup, that’s pretty much the only way to describe this film, it is just as bad as Battleship, getting the same rating. Horribly written, directed, acted, along with a terrible story, characters, and logic.

Not to mention that BRUCE WILLIS DIES WITHIN THE FIRST 20 MINUTES! Avoid if at all possible my fellow watchers…avoid.