BEFORE: SNOW DAY! I left work early yesterday (after arriving late in the morning, so that's a win-win) and was home by 5:30 in preparation for the killer snow-pocalypse we were supposed to receive, which all the weather-people on every channel were telling us was going to be in the 20 to 30-inch range, so we'd better stock up on bread and eggs and get ready to hunker down for the duration. As of this morning, NYC had been just absolutely whelmed, dusted with a whopping 7 inches of terribly fluffy snow, so great work on the forecasting there. I wasn't scheduled to work today anyway, but my nascent writing career is going to take a hit - I'll see if I can pick that up next Tuesday.
Bruce Willis carries over from "16 Blocks", playing another burned-out cop who has to save the day, a signature role he created in the "Die Hard" series.
THE PLOT: A failed police negotiator turned small town cop must save the lives of a family held hostage, which draws him into a much more dangerous situation.
AFTER: Allusions to "Die Hard" are obvious here (you could say it's just "Die Hard" in a family's home instead of a skyscraper) but also to the classic "Midnight Run". If "16 Blocks" picked up on the "transport the witness across x distance so he can testify" plotline, then this one makes reference to Charles Grodin's mob accountant character. The owner of the home in question has a similar job, keeping track of shady bank accounts and passwords for...well, someone, it doesn't really matter who, because legit businessmen wouldn't need such a guy in the first place. All you need to know is that these criminals seem to have better funding than local law officials in the presumably fictional town of Bristo Camino, CA.
This is where Willis' character, Jeff Talley, finds himself, after working in L.A. as a police negotiator - yeah, it didn't end well. Being the chief of police in Ventura County should be a cakewalk by comparison, but this sleepy bedroom community descends into chaos when some car thieves try to up their game to home invasion, and pick the house of the aforementioned shady accountant.
While I'm alluding to other films, I might as well reference "Panic Room" for the way the house is protected by cameras and other gadgets, and "Home Alone" for the traps that the accountant's son is able to set up, in a house with more ducts and crawlspaces than the ship seen in "Alien". Just like in "Grand Budapest Hotel", the real estate is the unexpected star here - from the minute we first see the house, it's a stand-out, located directly in front of a large rock formation, conveniently allowing for no back-door escapes. I can't see why someone would put a house exactly THERE, unless they were amateur rock-climbers who have a secret desire to die by landing face-up on their own roof. Or perhaps the giant rock formation is artificial, which means this guy's even richer than we think. Either way, it's weird.
To say the plot is overly complicated is a bit of an understatement - you've got the police, sheriff's department, the home invaders, and the mystery criminals, each with their own agenda and ways of doing things, several of which are unpredictable. And of course, there's only one guy who can see the whole picture and navigate through everyone's shifting demands and procedures to try and save the trapped family, and ultimately his own.
Also starring Kevin Pollak (last seen in "Ricochet"), Serena Scott Thomas (last seen in "The World Is Not Enough"), Ben Foster (last seen in "Phone Booth"), Jonathan Tucker, Kim Coates (last seen in "The Island"), Michelle Horn, Jimmy Bennett, Rumer Willis, Tina Lifford, Marshall Allman, Robert Knepper.
RATING: 4 out of 10 ski masks
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