Bruiser (2000)

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Bruiser is the name of the magazine that reserved Henry (Jason Flemyng) is employed. He imagines himself choking and killing people who push him around. At a company party he sees his wife Nina Garbiras) pleasing his crude boss (Peter Stormare) with her hand. They are having an affair. His dog hates him. His maid steals from him and his friend is robbing him blind. Henry describes himself as "house broke." Leslie Hope plays the understanding fellow co-worker and sometimes wife of Stormare who is just as disgusted with him as is Henry. She supplies him with the mask.One miraculous day Henry wakes up with that same plain white mask as a face (see DVD cover). He now has the ability to act out his destructive fantasies...and he does.The movie is an "artsy" dark comedy with a horror/slasher background. George C. Romero likes his symbols and metaphors to be subtle, like zombies walking aimlessly around a mall. This movie is not for everyone as it creates its own genre. It is not really a slasher, although before get killed. It doesn't generate real horror. It is not a LOL comedy, but it has humorous moments.F-bomb, sex, nudity (Nina Garbiras, Marie V. Cruz)

This film seems to suffer primarily from improper promotion. Not a typical horror/Ramero feature whatsoever...Lovely things about this film include: bitingly clever scrip with many satisfying full circles, ridiculous attention to detail in even the most trivial shot, energetic and convincing performances, and cavernously deep themes on identity, shame and self determination. Life is hard when you've been conditioned to bow down and look past and live with the unforgivable .This might very well be American Psycho mixed with Vanilla Sky, for the romantic SOB. Beautiful film. Gosh darn those flaws, but keep in mind it's not no slasher flick. It's a delving deep within, to a place in which we can all in some way identify. Watchable multiple times, tasty each. Cheers, E

This was another fearnet offering - I knew I'd watched before, but wanted to be able to give a review, so I played it again.There are some cool things I liked about this film, and overall I think it was a solid story. We meet Henry, an average, passive guy. He is out of place in his job as part of a cutting- edge magazine. He is out of place with his bitchy self-absorbed wife. He leaves the world and those around him to run his life, and he is content, but clearly not enjoying life.We open with Henry's morning routine - he is exercising while listening to a talk radio show. The aggressive DJ pokes and prods at a man threatening suicide. On-air, the caller kills himself. Henry is fascinated.We glimpse Henry's girlfriend, Janine, who is irritable and refuses to acquiesce to his simple requests that she wrangle her yapping pup. He puts up with being ignored, and heads out.At the train station, he chats with his friend-slash-financial adviser, James. Henry meekly points out that he expected more money from their transactions. James smoothly deflects, and Henry admits that the scrutiny of the statements is up to his wife. Uh-oh.As everyone boards the train, a rude woman pushes past Henry. He fantasizes taking revenge, assaulting her. But, it's fantasy & he snaps out of it just in time to board the already-moving train.Clearly, Henry has some latent aggression buried within himself.At work, we continue the pattern of him being surrounded by egomaniacal, abusive users. His boss Milo Styles is the most blatantly abusive. In a meeting, he berates his staff while searching for his 'hot new cover model'. Styles' wife, Rosie, seems to be the only decent person amongst the circle of sycophants and users that Henry has found himself in. But, even she is trapped in the seedy surroundings.Ever-pleasing Henry plans his boss's barbecue party and gala masquerade. At the BBQ, Henry is fitted with a mask by the meek Rosie. His assignment is to make it resemble himself. Off to rejoin the party - he spies his wife wanking off his boss. He watches for a little while, but in his manner, does nothing.On the drive home, Janine is her bitchy self, barking at a gas station attendant. He brings up what he spied. She yells at him for not saying or doing anything. She eventually drops him off at home, and speeds off - advising him not to wait up. He has another violent fantasy, but does nothing. Defeated, he undresses, and gets himself a drink.He awakes to a startling phenomenon. His face has grown a blank white mask - much like the one he got at the party. At first mortified, he tries to rip it off. However, he becomes resigned, then elated by this powerful shield.When he discovers his maid blatantly stealing from him - he draws on the strength of this semi-anonymity. He asserts himself...albeit overly-so. The maid ends up dead, by accident. He returns to reality, and panic, when his wife unexpectedly arrives home just after this incident. Luckily, she is completely self-absorbed and planning to sneak around, so does not notice anything.High with the freedom of his mask, he systematically goes about confronting all those who have wronged him. There arises a question of whether he, himself, is redeemable as his behavior escalates. Even his ties to Rosie become questionable as we progress through the story. The mask doesn't leave his face throughout this revenge rampage.The ending struck me as semi-cheesy; however, the entire film was definitely watchable. There is good character development, especially with Henry. We also see that Rosie has more depth than one would expect. She could have easily been a throwaway character. Instead, she is layered with complexity.We watch Henry's growth (albeit not down the healthiest path), as the mask gives him confidence and strength. He retains a semblance of his humanity, epitomized in his affection for Rosie; however, he becomes far more a monster than the users around him. I also liked Peter Stormare's performance as Miles. He truly is a horny prick, but doesn't go so far as to chew the scenery. Leslie Hope stays grounded as the conflicted Rosie. And, of course, Jason Flemyng holds it together through the emotional extremes of Henry.It's not a horror - more of a violent drama/suspense, but George A. Romero lives up to his history of good characterization and storyline. Definitely worth a viewing.

I caught George Romero's Bruiser on Fearnet (or Chiller - I loose track!). Having actually seen it uncut over 10 years ago, I was reminded of just how much I enjoyed this flick, and Romero's artistry.Romero horror has been different, and someone born after 1990 would probably have a pretty hard time getting it, much less appreciate it, as it's like no other. George always injects social commentaries, or satire, or both into his horror that make it all too enjoyable (like the Hare Krishna zombie in Dawn of the Dead, or even Dennis Hopper's "George W. Bush" like character in Land of the Dead). Furthermore - it's always going to be either a gore fest, or a violence fest, or even better - both! The colors and pastel hues of everything in Dawn of the Dead (even the blood) was deliberate, not bad special effects. Romero's zombies have always been slow and menacing - but try selling that to a post Millennium crowd, where all the zombies are coked up, or on speed, and in one movie, they could even walk on ceilings and jump from buildings... why bother trying to survive that...Anyway - onto the movie. Bruiser stars Jason Flemyng, as a mild mannered man that gets constantly used, abused, humiliated, by most folks around him. Even his wife is cheating on him, and he knows it and even seems to accept it. One day, he wakes up and realizes his face is gone, replaced with a featureless mask looking one. Realizing that now, on top of everything, he's loss his identify, he decides to make everyone who has wronged him pay. The result is extremely violent payback, and as he kills all who have done wrong by him, he begins to get pieces of his face back. I loved Bruiser. The symbolism of him taking back what all those horrible people took from him is great, and I even found gratification in it. Let's face it - we've all been stomped on by jerks at one point or another - so we all know one or a few people who really should be bruised! It's also different because from society's point of view, he should be the bad guy, after all, he's murdering people. But you find yourself cheering for the bad guy, and you fear he will get caught. You want him to find himself, but also have to wonder, when and if he does, what then? So the movie makes you think on many different levels and perceptions - typical Romero.To add to that - how awesome if a movie with music by The Misfits? Nowhere near as awesome as a movie that has The Misfits performing in it! This is a must see for Romero fans, and anyone not born in the last 20 years!