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The Siege
Movie Stats & Links

Starring: Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, Bruce Willis, Tony Shalhoub
MPAA Rated: R
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Kiddie Movie: No.
Date Movie: Sure.
Gratuitous Sex: In infrared, on a little screen, and a naked guy tied to a chair.
Gratuitous Violence: Things get blown up.
Action: Nah.
Laughs: A couple of one-liners.
Memorable Scene: When everyone ducks for cover when a bus backfires.
Memorable Quote: Frank (Shalhoub) tells Anthony (Washington), as they're spying on Kraft (Benning) and the informant doing the nasty, "Beats the shit out of cable."
Directed By: Edward Zwick
Produced By: Lynda Obst, Edward Zwick

The Siege
A Movie Review

MPAA Rated - R

It's 1:50 Long

A Review by
The Dude on the Right
Sometimes a movie just seems too long. Sometimes a movie just needs a little more action. Sometimes a movie just needs a little more realism. Sometimes a movie makes you chuckle, like when the FBI agents pull their guns on the army soldiers and the army soldiers pull their guns on the agents, only to have the an inspiring speech by the FBI man end the stand-off. All of those sometimes were there for me as I watched "The Siege."

"The Siege" tells the tale of everything that can go wrong if or when terrorism hits a major city in a non-stopping way. You get multiple government agencies not working together, you get oppression of an ethnic group, you get an occasional building/bus blowing up, and you get a movie that is supposed to make you think of the freedoms you have, but had me thinking there was so much more potential.

Denzel Washington plays FBI guy Anthony Hubbard, Annette Bening plays CIA-type chick Elise Kraft and Sharon Bridger (she's got an alias), Tony Shalhoub plays Arab FBI guy Frank Haddad, and Bruce Willis plays Army General Devereaux. All is well until the U.S. captures/kidnaps a Middle East Sheik who is the seeming ringleader of some terrorists. Then it's kaboom city in the Big Apple and the citizens are scared. Hubbard wants to use his FBI resources to find the dudes responsible, Kraft/Bridger has more information than she will share which would probably help catch the bad guys quicker, Shalhoub becomes pissed when the army starts rounding up the Arabs, and Devereaux, although saying he doesn't want the Army involved, seems more content to just start rounding up everyone who might look like a bad guy. If only they could all get along, maybe the bad guys would have been caught quicker.

"The Siege" seems to want to portray a film showing a lot of brutality, some action sequences with the terrorists, and the cool, spy stuff needed to get the job done. What it does portray is a little wondering about how far is far enough, and a lot more trying to develop a human storyline that would be alright if it didn't seem so out of place. It's difficult for a movie to mix the action element with human drama, and "The Siege" doesn't. When I was wanting something to blow up or someone to be chased, I got confrontations and hinted romance between characters, and when I got something to blow up it almost seemed like an afterthought.

I guess "The Siege" isn't a bad movie, but for me it just didn't pull off mixing both the action and drama side. Willis is good as the hard-ass, conniving General, Bening does a good job as the agent with something to hide, and Washington comes off as the most human of the bunch. I guess I just kept looking at my watch too often. I give "The Siege" 2 ½ stars out of 5.

That's it for this one, I'm The Dude on the Right! L8R!!

 

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