BRUISER (2000)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
George Romero's filmography runs between his never-ending "Living Dead" series and the occasional non-"Dead" horror film or even more dramatic picture like the fabulous "Knightriders." Yet his best film, "Martin," is seemingly forgotten and it is his most memorable and humanistic film. "Bruiser," a Canadian film that went straight to DVD, is one of Romero's worst - a slapdash affair that has about as much meat in its bones as a rotting zombie does.
Henry (Jason Flemyng) works for a fashion magazine called Bruiser. His boss, Milo (Peter Stormare), is such a prick that he feels the need to expose it during a meeting (I kid you not). Milo treats his employees with disdain and his wife (Leslie Hope) with contempt. Henry is treated even worse by his annoying, money-addicted wife (Nina Garbiras) who calls him a loser. Even the poodle is somewhat demanding of Henry. What is he to do? Henry contemplates making his violent fantasies come true, including pushing a female passenger out of his way when entering a train! And something excites Henry when he hears a suicide on a radio program. And then, Henry becomes a faceless monstrosity when a white mask seems permanently etched on his face, or is it?
"Bruiser" has got a great premise but Romero is not the right director for this - one can only imagine what Roman Polanski could've managed with the material. What could've been a psychological study with telling details of today's corporate greed overtaking everyone's sensibilities is lost and eradicated for standard revenge fare. Henry decimates everyone who has bullied him and called him a loser but there is nothing to latch on to here - the character is faceless when the film begins or, more appropriately, bland so there is no sympathy, no humanity to build on. He is characterless, bloodless and quite boring before he acquires this blank mask, and the actor does nothing to lessen the enervating feeling.
Leslie Hope brings some measure of credibility to her long-suffering character, and she feels a smidgeon of sympathy for Henry (although I can't imagine why). Peter Stormare brings full-throttle madness to Milo, a cheating, despicable character who is not so different from the Satanic film director he played in "8mm." On the opposite end of decent actors is Nina Garbiras who is so one-dimensional that it is hard to care about her eventual demise; sorry, "spoiler-alert," but you see it coming. Tom Atkins walks through the movie as a detective and, yep, that is all he does, walk through it with indifference.
I can't fathom why Romero turns a compelling idea into a slasher picture. After all the bodies pile up and we get one of the most bizarre costume parties I've ever seen (replete with deadly lasers and performance by the Misfits), there is nothing left in "Bruiser" to care about. It is pointless, directionless and lacks the social commentary stinging-ness of Romero's earlier pictures. And the ending will leave you hootering and hollering and for all the wrong reasons.
