Fortress – Late Night Action 101
Director: James Cullen Bressack
Writer: Alan Horsnail (Screenplay) Randall Emmett, Emile Hirsch (Story)
Starring: Jesse Metcalfe, Bruce Willis, Chad Michael Murray, Kelly Greyson, Ser’Darius Blain, Kataline Viteri, Shannen Doherty
Plot: A group of criminals hellbent on revenge, forces a retired officer and his son to save the day.
Runtime: 1 Hour 39 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Fortress starts when Paul (Metcalfe) tracks down his father Robert (Willis) who has been living in a secret residential home, hidden from the everyday side of the world.
After finding the locations, Paul learns that he has been followed by Balzary (Murray) and his mercenaries who have a score to settle with Robert, leading to Paul learning the truth about his father’s past.
Thoughts on Fortress
Characters & Performances – Paul is the tech genius looking to strike a deal with his father who has been out of his life for a long time, once everything starts going down, he must deal with first learning about his father’s past and use his own tech skills to stay ahead of the criminal. Robert is the mysterious father that has been living in this residential compound, his past will come back to catch up with him, where he will show a set of skills his son never knew he had, while showing the reason for not being involved. Balzary is the criminal looking to track down Robert, he feels wronged by him in the past and wants what he believes is his, along with revenge. The performances in the film are solid enough, with Bruce Willis, doing the Bruce Willis thing and Chad Michael Murray enjoying the villainous role. It is the supporting characters of Kate and Blain that will grab your attention the most because they will steal most of the scenes, they are in.
Story – The story here will see a group of mercenaries looking to break into a contained retirement home in search of a man who stopped their boss, only to find that not everyone is going to be as easy of target. The story looks to offer up a few twists along the way, which come from the truth about the relationship between father and son, which is the strongest part of the story. Where this can fall shorter, is by making the fortress itself so much of an important place, but so easy to access for the amount of security it is meant to have. When it comes to the motivates, it does end up falling into the one where everything has been seen before.
Themes – Fortress is an action thriller based at a remote retirement home used as a cover for certain operatives to stay off the grid when things have gone wrong. The type of action is the typical style of mercenaries needing to get the job done, basic shooting styles along with limited combat. The location is used to be the key part of the film, only it doesn’t seem to get used to the highest level, making the secret side to the location feel almost pointless.
Signature Entertainment present Fortress on Digital Platforms 28th March and DVD 11th April
Final Thoughts – Fortress is an enjoyable late night standard action film.
