Over the last few years Bruce Willis has been churning out the straight to home flicks with mixed results. His latest film, Trauma Center co-stars Nicky Whelan, Tito Ortiz, Texas Battle, and Steve Guttenberg. Could this film keep you on the edge of your seat or should it have stayed locked in the basement?

 

Trauma Center follows Lt. Wakes, a vengeful police detective determined to solve the murders of his partner and an informant. Wakes joins forces with Madison, a witness injured during the shootings, after the killers pursue her across the abandoned floor of a hospital and confirm Wakes’s worst fears: the two men are actually corrupt vice cops covering up a crime. Going in I kept my expectations low, but hoped it might be something more than some of Willis more recent efforts.

 

To my surprise this is actually a pretty good thriller despite the fact that Willis is gone for most of the film. What little screen time he has does offer up more than some of his other films and even gives him a little bit of action, but the reality is this film focuses more on Whelan, Ortiz and Battle. The story is pretty simple, but the ongoing game of cat and mouse actually works pretty well and keeps you invested until the very end. A lot of times films like this are pretty unbelievable and while there are elements of that here, but it works for the most part.

 

Once things start it is pretty much a nonstop ride until the end and despite it being predictable on some level it keeps you entertained. Make no mistake there isn’t anything overly original, but they went all in and managed to deliver a film worth checking out. I wish we could have gotten more Willis, but to be honest he still felt like he was phoning it in so probably would have just hurt the overall tone had he been more front and center.

 

Decide for yourself and give Trauma Center a try when it hits Blu-ray and DVD on February 4th from Lionsgate Home Entertainment.