JFriday

Nothing at all like what the synopsis at the film festival led me to expect. This is the only movie that I have ever walked out on in my life. And I did that with only 15 minutes left in the show.

A clever ad agency might write a tagline such as "It'll keep you guessing!" What they really mean is that you will never know what the hell it's about. There was a vague pretext that seemed to offer a hint of progression and kept you thinking that it would all make sense in the end. When I realized that there was no way they could cobble together a storyline in the final 15 minutes, I decided that their time was up.

Essentially, it was a macabre sequence of situations that mostly gave the viewer a repulsive look at the actions and reactions of unsupervised people with mild to strong mental handicaps. It relied on using midgets, obese people and various unpleasant stereotypes to present a very non politically correct image. While I don't oppose challenging the PC crowd, it ought to at least be done with a message. In this case, the message appears to be "french people are messed up".

The Siege promised the characteristics of a typical suspense thriller.. action, plot twists and realism.. it did deliver that... HOWEVER, it was totally devoid of one critical aspect.. depth.. I left the theater feeling like I just watched a two hour newscast.. Denzel Washington (not to fault his 'adequate' acting) could have easily been replaced by Sam Donaldson.. the story plays on typical stereotypes.. bad mid-east terrorists being eliminated by bad government agents.. and the citizens of New York are caught in the middle.. in the end, you don't know what the point of the film is.. are the terrorists bad or is the US government? I went to see it because Bruce Willis "starred".. unfortunately, his 4 notable scenes were possibly his 4 dullest in recent years.. overall, I'd say the problem was not with the actors, but with the director.. out of 10 stars, I'd give it 5 yawns