Powerful

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Henry Creedlow (Jason Flemyng) is a meek and mild type who tends to let other people take advantage of him. As this story develops, he loses his wife Janine (Nina Garbiras), his job at "Bruiser", which is apparently some sort of lifestyle magazine, and his whole identity, his normal face replaced with blank, mask like makeup. After this, Henry decides that enough is enough. He starts getting revenge on those who have wronged him, including a supposed "friend", James Larson (Andrew Tarbet), Janine, and his extravagant boss, played to the hammy hilt by Peter Stormare. Soon, detectives played by Jonathan Higgins and the eternally cool Tom Atkins pick up his trail.This being a George A. Romero feature - and his first since the 1991 adaptation of Stephen Kings' novel "The Dark Half" - it isn't without interest. The main problem is that it does get tiring and annoying at times, especially when indulging in the eccentricities of Stormare and his decadent employees. Even so, it is amusing to see Romero inject so much blatant humour into one of his films. "Bruiser" is at its best when focusing on the torment experienced by Henry, and Flemyng is a good enough actor to both carry this film and earn some empathy. Early on we get a sense of what Henry goes through with a little fantasy sequence.Those expecting more of a typical horror movie will likely be disappointed with this one. The body count is minimal, as well as the gore. Atkins is a joy to have on hand, as always; Stormare is very good although his character quickly wears out his welcome. Leslie Hope does a decent job as Rosemary, the boss's wife who puts up with too much of her husbands' garbage.An okay watch overall, but it does earn an extra point for the concert performance by legendary horror / punk band The Misfits, who figure prominently on the soundtrack.Six out of 10.

Peter Stormare is certainly more cleaned up than he was in Fargo, but as Milo, the racist, obnoxious, misogynistic boss of Bruiser magazine, he is off the charts. I imagine he will be on the top of Henry's (Jason Flemyng - Layer Cake, Transporter 2) list when things change. Especially when he sees his wife (the smoking hot Nina Garbiras) jerking him off. Maybe she will be first.Henry wakes the next day without a face. It isn't like he is not recognized, but he has a whole new personality. No longer a carpet, he is taking positive action against those who wronged him: his lousy boss, his cheating wife, and a friend who is ripping him off.What will happen when he is through? Will he be a changed man? Will the mask disappear? George A. Romero still gives us a good story. It may not be zombies, but it is food for thought. What would we do if we woke tomorrow with a new personality?

There is about 20 minutes of interesting movie here, in the opening preamble and in the grand guignol of the masquerade party. In between, this is poor.I love Romero films, for, amongst other things, their mixture of grotesque violence and gallows humour. With Bruiser, apart from the delicious viciousness of the set-up of our faceless non-hero, this provided some peculiar and unsatisfactory combination of Zorro and Death Wish, without atmosphere, coherence or even any real energy. Did the whole budget get blown on the set for the masquerade? I wanted to like it, was expecting to at least enjoy it in a time-passing way, and was only bored and frustrated by it.

Bruiser (2000) * 1/2 (out of 4) A business exec (Jason Flemyng) is abused by co-workers, friends and his wife and all of this leads to him having morbid thoughts about killing them. One day he wakes up and his face is gone and in its place is a white mask like thing that takes away all of his features so he goes out for revenge. This was Romero's return to the genre and his first movie since 1993's The Dark Half and sadly it's probably the worst I've seen from him. The screenplay, by Romero, is all over the place and it's never quite clear what Romero is going for. As to be expected, Romero throws in his typical social commentary but he really isn't saying too much. Flemyng is decent in his role but it's Peter Stormare who steals the show as his sleazy boss who has an affair with his wife. Tom Atkins is wasted as a detective. I'm really not sure what could have been done to make this movie better but I'd say you would have to blow up the screenplay and start from scratch. It's a shame that a talent like Romero has made so few films over the past thirty-years but I guess that's the price he pays to stay away from the studios. With that said, he has proved to be good with studio films and something like The Dark Half is a lot better than this film.