Scott LeBrun 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.

robfather_87 Synopsis: It is about a guy who works in a job with a crappy boss who is not good to anyone, a wife that cheats on him and a good friend that steals money from him. He start off imagining he kills people that treats him bad. You really feel this guy has some very big anger building up inside. Actually he feels that everybody around him treats him bad. He wakes up one day after a party, finding out the white mask he created on the party is stuck to his face. And the anger breaks loose. Acting: Jason Flemyng did the best performance in this movie by far the way he change from miserable to anger is great. He have done a lot of movies in his career. To name a few like Lock, stock and two smoking barrels (1998), Snatch (2000), Transporter 2 (2005), Stardust (2007). Peter Stormare the well known Swedish actor. Also did a pretty good job in this movie as the very bad boss. Just did not care about anything. To name some of his big list of movies like Fargo (1996), The lost world: Jurassic park (1997), Hamilton (1998), Prison break the TV series (2005). He have also been voicing the mercenaries games. Leslie Hope did nothing big but a very decent job in this movie. She have also done her part in movies but nothing very big, maybe mostly known for her role in the TV series '24'. Nina Garbiras did nothing very special performance in this movie. Have done some roles outside of this one, mostly in TV series like Leap Years (2001), Boomtown (2002). Cinematography: Most of the filming was shot in Toronto and Ontario, Canada. Was a good location to film this movie nothing to point out as bad about it. The setting was OK. Nothing big in the camera work but Romero is not known much for his camera work. Make-up: In this category I usually point out costumes and makeup but in these kinds of movies it is better to just talk about makeup. The main thing here is the mask it is very well done actually. But now we talk about man behind the zombie genre the master of masks and make-up. So the mask here is awesome and it is mostly it to mention.Music/Sound: The music here is great and Romero actually did make a video earlier in his career for the band who play in this film. So they made 2 original songs for him and played them in the party scene in this movie. That is pretty awesome. The sound mixing is forgettable but it fits in with the scenes pretty well. And makes a good tension for the movie. Summary: We can start off saying this is George A. Romero's better works since the awesome zombie flicks he made. Like Night of the living dead (1968), Dawn of the dead (1978), Day of the dead (1985). I would not call this a major horror movie though. It is tipping more over to the thriller genre with horror elements in it. It is only one thing that made the rating from me this low and that is the way the movie progresses later on. I would have liked it to go in the same direction as it started off because that was really amazing. If I should point out some similar movies if you liked this one the first movie that comes to my mind is Vanilla Sky with Tom Cruise, it is very similar actually. If you are a Romero fan you should absolutely try this one out. If you like a good thriller I don't really know if I would recommend it to all but it is pretty good, and worth a watch.

Paul Andrews Bruiser tells the tale of Henry Creedlow (Jason Flemyng) who works as an executive on a fashion magazine called 'Bruiser' & he apparently lets everyone 'walk all over him' according to just about everyone he know's. Henry's boss is an a-hole & is having an affair with his wife Janine (Nina Garbiras) who is also stealing lots of money off Henry in partnership with his best friend James (Andrew Tarbet) & even his maid Mariah (Tamsin Kelsey) is stealing off him. Henry has become a nobody, he has lost all his identity & has become a faceless drone in the crowd who no-one notices or cares about to such an extent that Henry wakes up one morning to find his face has been replaced with a featureless, colourless white mask with no identifying features. Henry uses this bizarre twist of fate to his own advantage & sets out to punish those who wronged him & turned him into the faceless entity he has become...This French, Canadian & American co-production was written & directed by George A. Romero who has had a somewhat erratic career & Bruiser was in fact his first directorial film in seven years him not having directed anything since the Stephen King adaptation The Dark Half (1993) which is actually better than Bruiser but that's another story & after he had directed Bruiser it was another five years before he directed again with Land of the Dead (2005) which is also better than Bruiser but that too is another story. So, in the space of twelve long years Romero who was hailed as the greatest horror director of his generation during the late 70's & early 80's after making genre classics like Night of the Living Dead (1968), Martin (1977), Dawn of the Dead (1978), Creepshow (1982) & Day of the Dead (1985) only made one film, this. Bruiser is a departure from what Romero usually makes in one sense that Bruiser is an off-beat somewhat odd-ball psychological thriller rather than a straight horror flick but but it does retain Romero's penchant for social commentary as the whole film revolves around the idea of a man being a faceless entity in today's uncaring society & finally snapping in order to gain back his identity. As a basic high brow concept I thought the idea was fine & I quite liked some of the ideas & themes Romero explores here & I actually related to some of them (especially the fantasy Henry had about squishing the rude woman's head under the train wheels!) but I don't think the film does much with them & ends up like a boring slasher film as Henry kills a few of the people he doesn't like & that's about it. At almost 100 odd minutes the film goes on for quite a while & I did start to get bored with the concept well before the end, the supporting character's are all very unlikable which doesn't help & although it tries to be challenging, relevant & meaningful I personally didn't really take much from the film.Those looking at Romero's past films & hoping for some horror & gore will surely be disappointed with Bruiser, there's a brief scene in which a woman has her head squashed by a train although nothing too graphic is shown, a man is shot in the chest, there's a dream sequence in which Henry commits suicide by shooting himself in the head, a woman is hanged & that's about it. Was I the only one who thought Henry looked daft with that white mask face? I thought he looked like one of those stereotypical French mime artists with white face paint! There's no real scares here, the film has a nice clean middle class look to it but there's no atmosphere.According to the IMDb this had a budget of about $5,000,000 which does surprise me somewhat, I can't really see where all that money went to be honest. Bruiser was the first film directed by Romero not to be made in or around Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, it was actually filmed in Ontario in Canada. The acting is pretty good from a decent cast although Peter Stormare as the annoyingly obnoxious Milo Styles was a little OTT for me while genre favourite Tom Atkins has a fun role as a cynical cop.Bruiser is certainly something a bit different although while I did like the concept I don't think enough was done with it & to be frank Romero is better than this & should stick to straight horror which he thankfully largely has.

Bozo WOW This was an excellent movie.First off, let me say that this was not an easy movie to find. I could not find a copy at any video store or library anywhere near here. Finally, after searching for months, I got digital cable the there it was. I immediately went and watched it and I must say, I was VERY impressed by what I saw.This has to be one of the most underrated films EVER. I looked and saw it only had a 5.0 on IMDb (as of 4/18/08). It should have At least a 7! Romero has created his best horror movie classic since Day of the Dead. Jason Flemyng played Henry Creedlow better than anyone else could have possibly done. Peter Stormare was disgusting as Milo Styles, which is what was intended! Leslie Hope was excellent as Rosemary Newley, Milo's unhappy wife. Nina Garbiras was great as the abusive, dishonest, annoying Janine Creedlow. Andrew Tarbet was perfect to play Jim Larson, Henry's thieving friend. And Ol' Tom Atkins was great as Detective McCleary.Along with an excellent cast there was a very morbid tone throughout the movie which really set the mood in a lot of scenes. Also, the music was very well placed, and even about 4 songs played LIVE by The Misfits (one of my favorite bands).The errors in this movie were quite numerous, particularly those dealing with plot holes. Many things went unexplained in the movie. But...I don't care.This is easily one of my favorite movies. I cannot wait to watch it again! I give Bruiser a 10/10. Romero fans should not miss this one!