I was unaware of this unfortunately routine action flick until after the recent diagnosis of Bruce Willis’ aphasia.  Then I checked out his recent filmography and was surprised to see to many straight-to-video or straight-to-streaming titles from a guy who was one of the great action stars of the past three decades.  Deadlock is one of those titles, and I watched it to see if I could tell if Bruce was, well, less than his usual self.  Sadly, he is, and he was not doing himself any favors by starring in stuff like this.

Jared Cohn’s film takes place mainly at a Georgia hydroelectric plant with very lax security.  A team of domestic terrorists, led by Ron Whitlock (Bruce Willis) sneaks in, kills a bunch of people, takes over, and begins releasing water to flood the county below the plant.  Whitlock is angry because his son was killed in a botched police raid, and he demands that the cops come to him, one by one, to face his wrath.  Meanwhile, Mack Karr (Patrick Muldoon), a former Ranger who is working as a welder at the plant, does what he can — which is plenty — to stop the carnage, rescue a bus load of students on a field trip, and bring Whitlock and his hired killers to justice.

There is plenty of action and gunplay but it is poorly staged and executed.  This is one of those flicks where all the henchmen are simply targets to be eliminated, usually by pistol shots to the head, occasionally with rope or knife.  Muldoon is game but his heroics are just too bold to be convincing — and everybody shoots at him and misses, while he hits virtually everyone the first time.  A couple of secondary characters enter the fray on either side to build tolerable suspense but the script telegraphs everything once the initial premise is established.

Bruce Willis is suitably angry and frustrated as the vigilante father, but I could see that he had trouble with lines every once in a while, and that his monologues were definitely shorter than normal.  He still has presence, but he isn’t what he once was.  Of course that applies to a lot of us, myself included.  Deadlock will not be his final film; Bruce has another half dozen or so movies ready to go or in post-production.  I don’t know that any of them are or will be major titles.  I only know that I have enjoyed Mr. Willis’ movies since the incredible Die Hard thrilled me back in 1988; I named it the best film of that year and I have never changed my mind about that.  Deadlock is about half the film that Die Hard is, perhaps less.  ☆ ☆.  5 April 2022.