FORTRESS (2021)

FORTRESS (2021)

Tagline: This prison has no bars.

(Action, Thriller, Yippie Kayak Other Buckets) [R]

In this one, a group of revenge-obsessed mercenaries invades a highly secluded and heavily armed facility that houses people who are considered “no longer safe in society”. What secrets do Robert and Paul possess that would garner so many risking their lives just to get into the FORTRESS?

Okay, I am not going to lie. I get a little upset when someone says that one of my favorite actors “Bruce Willis”(who plays Robert in this and is most famous for DIE HARD), is phoning it in. I mean how is that even possible? Bruce Willis is a freakin legend, right? Yes, he is, but sadly he did mail it in for this movie. I mean, it’s bad. What sucks about this, is that he actually showed a little more effort in OUT OF DEATH than in this damn thing, and this movie had a far better script…at least to start off. 

This movie actually starts off pretty awesome and is conceptually pretty rad. However, somewhere in the middle of the movie this tale goes off the rails and turns into just a flat, uninspired effort to get Shannen Doherty (most famous for 90210, but she’s also done a lot of B-movies including 2014’s BLOOD LAKE: ATTACK OF THE KILLER LAMPREYS) as much screen time as possible. Unfortunately for her, she just isn’t believable as a “military officer” in this movie. I do like her as an actress overall though. There is just a ton of sitting around and talking about the past and why the bad guys are doing what they are doing, but the explanation feels pretty canned. Like it was on the bottom of a “bad guy motivations chart” for a 4th grade writing assignment. 

Acting-wise of course like I said, Bruce Willis is just really bad. However, we do get some actors actually really trying and one of them is Jesse Metcalfe who plays Paul, Robert’s son. Metcalfe is probably best known for playing John Tucker in JOHN TUCKER MUST DIE. Ser'Darius Blain also outclasses most of the cast playing one of the mercenaries named  Ulysses. He is most famous for his role as “Fridge” in JUMANJI: THE NEXT LEVEL. I am also going to give some credit to Kelly Greyson who is a lot better in this than in OUT OF DEATH. She plays Kate who is basically a meet and greets type character at the FORTRESS who also isn’t afraid to kill you. The rest of this cast is just really rough. I did like a few other characters, but wouldn’t say they were doing anything over the top awesome on this production. 

The actions sequences all feel very odd and choreographed and it seems very strange that Robert is the only one in this entire place that is a resident that can handle his business. Everyone else that lives at the fortress seems to disappear after the first act. Production-wise this thing is low budget maybe aside from the cast. It feels like a b-movie from the opening scene. 

The good news is that if you liked this movie there are going to be two more. As in, they have already filmed the trilogy. So yippie kayak other buckets! I can only recommend this movie if you like terribly written stories that actually had a decent idea to start with. You also have to just love b-movies. I do love b-movies, but...

For me personally, I might check the other two out just to see how this ends, but as a stand-alone, it is only going to please a very small portion of the population. It lands at a 3 out of 7 which definitely puts it in the running for one of the worst films of 2021. 

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