Trauma Center

Last Christmas my mom continued her tradition of buying me a random bargain bin DVD for a stocking stuffer. I requested we discontinue this tradition as I have been slimming down my DVD/BluRay collection the past several years, and have traded in roughly a third of my movies, and buy far less than what I use to. I guess my mom could not break from tradition and thus we have today’s entry for 2019’s Trauma Center (trailer). Usually my mom’s hit-to-miss ratio is pretty solid on gifting me a film I have not seen yet and wound up loving with past examples like Sour Grapes, Alpha Dog, Blues Brothers and Trading Places.

Trauma Center is a straight-to-video action movie one would find on the old “Movies for Guys Who Like Movies” pick of the night on TBS. It does have star power in the form of Bruce Willis as police detective Steve Wakes. Willis has been doing more straight-to-video efforts in recent years in other decent action films like Hard Kill and 10 Minutes Gone. It must be working out for him better than his theatrical efforts because I have no idea why he keeps up with these type of films. Digression aside, turns out Steve’s cover for his CI was tracked by a pair of corrupt cops, Tull (Texas Battle) & Pierce (Tito Ortiz).

Tull & Pierce take out the CI, but also injure innocent bystander waitress Madison (Nicky Whelan). They track her down to the hospital and discover the supposed secure room on a vacant floor Wakes sets up for her. What happens next is a game of cat-and-mouse with Madison doing her best to stay one move ahead and hold off the bad cops while Wakes pieces the clues together and attempts to assist Madison. Watching Madison adapt to her surroundings to fend off Tull & Pierce was actually entertaining, despite some too convenient camerawork at times that made it appear an injured Madison could pull off miraculous feats of strength.

Tito Ortiz is a trip as the “bad cop” of the duo, and his overacting is probably the highlight of the film as he stalks and tortures Madison. Rest assured, he gets his well-earned comeuppance. Bruce Willis is as subdued in here as he was recently in his role in Glass. I am having difficulty determining if that is what he was shooting for, or if he was just going through the motions in this straight-to-video affair. If you are going into this thinking this is a Bruce Willis-lead action blockbuster, then you will be disappointed because this is a vehicle for Whelan’s survive-at-all-costs performance. Willis’s character is in the supporting role mostly doing background detective work until the final scenes. Whelan is pretty convincing in her effort at barely managing to stay alive, and the final act is fairly entertaining when all four figures have their respective standoffs.

Unsurprisingly, there are no bonus features on this DVD, not even a trailer! Regardless of that, I do not want to mislead you dear reader that I am praising the movie. I have seen a lot of straight-to-video action films, and this one is maybe a notch or two above average, but is by no means rush-out-and-see blockbuster. That is on the straight-to-video curve as well! The performances they got out of the cast seems about as good as it could get, and there are even a couple genuine moments I was kind of invested into Madison fending for herself. That said this film will not blow you away, but if you run across it on cable/streaming or the bargain bins, than it is an ideal movie to have on in the background with the occasional scene that will divert your attention. Factoring in all this curved grading, and I will chalk this one up as a semi-win for my mom’s annual random Christmas DVD!

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

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12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
21 Jump Street
The Accountant
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
The Avengers: Endgame
The Avengers: Infinity War
Batman: The Dark Knight Rises
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: Civil War
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Christmas Eve
The Clapper
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Countdown
Creed I & II
Deck the Halls
Detroit Rock City
Die Hard
Dredd
The Eliminators
The Equalizer
Dirty Work
Faster
Fast and Furious I-VIII
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Gravity
Grunt: The Wrestling Movie
Guardians of the Galaxy
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
Hell Comes to Frogtown
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
I Like to Hurt People
Indiana Jones 1-4
Ink
The Interrogation
Interstellar
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot
Jobs
Joy Ride 1-3
Justice League (2017 Whedon Cut)
Last Action Hero
Major League
Man of Steel
Man on the Moon
Man vs Snake
Marine 3-6
Merry Friggin Christmas
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpions Revenge
National Treasure
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Nintendo Quest
Not for Resale
Payback (Director’s Cut)
Pulp Fiction
The Punisher (1989)
The Ref
The Replacements
Reservoir Dogs
Rocky I-VIII
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
San Andreas
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Scott Pilgrim vs the World
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Shoot em Up
Slacker
Skyscraper
Small Town Santa
Steve Jobs
Source Code
Star Trek I-XIII
Sully
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
UHF
Veronica Mars
Vision Quest
The War
Wild
The Wizard
Wonder Woman
The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Apocalypse
X-Men: Days of Future Past