Wire Room is to be one of many last movies in Bruce Willis’ storied profession, however his billing on the poster represents a cameo, at greatest. This incoherent thriller directed by Matt Eskandari (his fourth and last dud with Willis) hinges on a drained locked-room situation, an idea which largely finds lead Kevin Dillon alternately muttering and yelling narration to himself alone in a server room. A catastrophically unhealthy first day on the workplace unveils a conspiracy of unhealthy police who will cease at nothing to get rid of witnesses and proof. Wire Room is a crooked cop motion drama that performs out like a low-budget, straight-to-VHS schlock from many years previous.
Dillon performs Particular Agent Justin Rosa, a brand new switch to the Homeland Safety Investigations’ titular wire room for third shift. A title card explains what precisely a “wire room” is, with all of the posed gravitas of a category presentation which begins, “Webster’s dictionary defines….” Earlier than the title is a protracted style of the movie’s finale, stuttered footage which sees Rosa and Agent Shane Mueller (Willis) combating off waves of faceless SWAT officers. That is the movie spoiling its personal ending for no obvious cause, and it doesn’t get any higher from there. Rosa’s first wire room shift proves coincidentally eventful, as his myriad safety cameras zero in on cartel member Eddie (Oliver Trevena) enjoyable in his lavish property, fully unaware that the feds have some 4 dozen cameras scattered all through. Eddie lives tucked away in luxurious with three ladies and a minor arsenal, and Mueller’s been watching him for ages in hopes of closing his last case earlier than retirement. He’s satisfied that Eddie protects himself with invaluable dust on some unhealthy police, however he is by no means confirmed his hand to the cameras. Tonight, nevertheless, could also be Eddie’s final stand, with a cadre of cops in tactical gear descending on his hideout. Within the first third of Wire Room, Rosa breaks protocol and dials his cellphone, revealing to Eddie that his home is bugged however probably saving his life within the course of.
These wishing to thoughtfully linger on one in every of Willis’ cinematic swan songs might as effectively tear the band-aid off shortly right here, as his character reveals up disoriented within the first jiffy of Wire Room after which promptly checks out of the remainder of the movie to get drunk at a bar. Willis is on digicam for roughly 5 – 6 of the movie’s 97 minutes and barely ever shares a single body with one other actor. As a substitute, the viewers will get an uncomfortably lengthy sequence the place Dillon is left to gesture and reply to an off-camera Willis, even whereas the character is supposed to be seated in the identical room. It comes off as an unintentionally well-produced TikTok gag — which isn’t to say that Dillon fails in what Wire Room asks of him. The Entourage star fills each second with drained scraggly power, summoning no matter faint attraction he can muster whereas hardly ever having fun with the privilege of a scene companion. His desperation for Mueller to return virtually reads as Dillon begging Willis again into his personal film, which is not less than considerably amusing by itself.
The crooked cops enter and invade Wire Room’s drab units like faceless armored cannon fodder in a online game, a sensibility solely emphasised when seen by way of the varied safety cams at Eddie’s property. The movie by no means is smart of how Rosa’s minimally informative instruction saves Eddie repeatedly, or what these villains actually intend to do after annexing a federal constructing by murderous power in broad daylight. A hostage is taken at one level, then inexplicably executed the following. Eddie makes use of a corpse as a decoy of himself to get the drop on two attackers, who in some way fail to understand they have been duped even after dragging it behind them. Dillon’s character even distracts an enemy with a baseball in a stealth gameplay transfer straight out of Metallic Gear Stable.
Wire Room seems like a foul direct-to-VHS tape film, and the cut price bin CGI secures that analysis, the place each bloody headshot is cartoonishly rendered, and even smoking buildings and computer systems seem like looping injury results from late-2000s Name of Obligation. Virtually each side of Wire Room is equally shabby and crude, a tragic, embarrassing movie to function the tip to the pairing of Eskandari and Willis.
Wire Room launched in restricted theaters and commenced streaming on demand September 2. The movie is 97 minutes lengthy and is rated R for robust violence and pervasive language.