THE SIEGE
I thought about this film for a while. That's a good sign for a movie that stars Bruce Willis. Basically, it's an action film with a premise that there are these lunatic Islamic Fundamentalists (as they all are) running around NY trying to blow it to shreds to teach the infedils a lesson or two. America, the evil country, being blown up by western technology. Indeed, the film realises many of the ironies on both sides of the divide. The movie indeed says that America, butting into the affairs of foreign countries puts itself up for the risk - the price of cultural hegemony? At first I didn't think it was overtly racist, because of its kind portrayals of a muslim FBI agent. However, what disturbed me was that the end bomber was rational throughout the film - and intelligent - and thought of highly by the intelligence officer. The movie is saying (perhaps unintentionally) that anyone can be a fundamentalist - just because they dress well and act proper - doesn't mean they aren't fundamentalist. Intentionally, the film says that "not all of them are like that" (the second catch cry after, "I'm not racist but..." But the movie in so much as it gets us to think about such issues is a success. As for its action value and its suspense value - I'd say standard for both. This film is confused about what it is saying and this ultimately affects the action and suspense of the film - both of which rely on timing - and timing is certainly lacklustre in this film. All in all, a moderately interesting film that could've been so much better.
60/100