Common Sense Media Review
By Brian Costello
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Violence and strong language in low-budget action movie.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 16+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Wire Room
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In WIRE ROOM, Justin Rosa (Kevin Dillon) is a former Secret Service agent who switched to Homeland Security in the hopes of seeing more action. To that end, he comes to work at his new job in the wire room: a command center monitoring the world's most dangerous criminals. Rosa is 10 minutes late on his first day, a move that doesn't sit well with Senior Special Agent Shane Mueller (Bruce Willis), the no-nonsense boss of the wire room who's getting close to retiring. Rosa's first night on the job sees him surveilling Eddie Flynn, an Irish arms dealer working with a Mexican drug cartel and an unknown contact who goes by "Junior." After Mueller and Rosa's other co-worker Nour Holborrow (Shelby Cobb) clock out for the night, it looks like Rosa isn't going to get the action he hoped for, as not much is happening on Flynn's end. That soon changes: Flynn's home is inexplicably invaded by SWAT team members. Now Rosa must decide if he needs to break the rule about contacting the criminal being watched, because Flynn needs to be kept alive. If he does contact Flynn, Rosa must accept the consequences.
Is It Any Good?
This wasn't the best way to end Bruce Willis' long and storied career. The fact that Wire Room is slated to be one of Bruce Willis' last movies due to his being diagnosed with aphasia before he retires will go down as the only real noteworthy aspect of what's otherwise a dull and clichéd low-budget action movie. While the lack of a budget certainly doesn't help, even with a Michael Bay budget of kajillions to work with, this still wouldn't be very good, because the story isn't very good.
A lot of it just doesn't make much sense. Kevin Dillon plays "the new guy" in a wire room in the Department of Homeland Security that's surveilling an arms dealer who works with Mexican cartels. After some terse exchanges between Dillon's character and his boss (played by Willis), Willis' character and the other analyst leave Dillon to work the graveyard shift alone. New hires in grocery stores get more training bagging groceries than this poor guy, because while Willis' character is off getting hammered in a bar (keeping him out of the entirety of Act 2), things pop off between the bad guy and a bunch of corrupt SWAT team cops who are determined to kill him and everyone else ensconced in what looks to be less a gaudy Tony Montana-style villain mansion and more a suburban McMansion for midlevel executives and their families. It's a little too easy to pick on this movie, and not really worth the time for anyone to bother watching it.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about action movies like Wire Room. How is this a typical action film? Does it follow the standard formula?
This is a low-budget movie. Do movies need big budgets to be good? What are some examples of low-budget movies that are actually good despite not having money for expensive special effects, elaborate sets, and so forth?
Was the violence excessive, or was it necessary for the story? Why?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : October 12, 2022
- Cast : Kevin Dillon , Bruce Willis , Oliver Trevena
- Director : Matt Eskandari
- Studio : Lionsgate
- Genre : Action/Adventure
- Run time : 95 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : Strong violence and pervasive language.
- Last updated : October 24, 2022
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