Bruiser DVD: Review By Moviejunkie4

Written and directed by George A. Romero who began his career with what is undoubtedly the most noteworthy horror films ever put to film, 1968's Night of the Living Dead. It's almost impossible to follow up such a highly influential work of art with any level of uniformity, also Romero's career in the forty-plus years since NOTLD has only randomly showed off the magnificence of his debut. I would rank Romero's body of work, including The Crazies, Knightriders, Creepshow, Day of the Dead and Monkey Shines, as being "all right" to "very good" with only the ineffably remarkable Dawn of the Dead standing out among the others.

Jason Flemyng stars as Henry Creedlow, a modest man who is an employee at a magazine called Bruiser. Henry's accepted the fact that he's a nice guy and a pushover. His disappointed wife, who married Henry thinking he was on his way up in the world, is screwing around with his obnoxious, slightly insane boss Milo (Peter Stormare). After awaking the morning following a party at a friend's house, Henry finds that his facial features have disappeared, covered by an unremovable blank white mask. He doesn't question this; instead, he uses his newfound anonymity to get revenge against everyone who'd screwed him over.

Bruiser does has its flaws. The film's premise is inherently a ridiculous one. The transformation of Henry into "Mr. Anonymous" (as I call him)is so poorly done. I found it odd that Henry hardly even questions the fact that he no longer has a face. Aside from a brief scene in which he tries to pull the mask off, Henry accepts this bizarre turn of events and immediately becomes an entirely different person. Within minutes of making the discovery, he kills his maid for stealing from him (this from the same guy who saw his wife making out with another man but didn't say anything). Evidently, the whole point of the movie is that now that Henry's essentially had his identity removed, he can finally do everything he's always wanted to. However since he was a mild-mannered guy to begin with, his immediate metamorphosis doesn't ring true to me at all.

Peter Stormare's Milo, an absurdly over-the-top invention, surpasses the sort of arrogant prick he's suppose to be and becomes a caricature of what represents the worst excesses of success. The makeup effects are credible, despite the near-total lack of gore. Bruiser certaintly isn't Romero's finest work, and its final moments are absurdly dumb. Still, it's enough evidence to prove that he has what it takes to make a reasonably effective film.