Trauma Center 2019 * Star

Director: Matt Eskandari
Year: 2019
Rated R
Rating: * Star
Cast: Bruce Willis, Steve Guttenberg, Nicky Whelan

"You're a witness". Yeah I was a witness too. I witnessed one of the worst pics of 2019 in Trauma Center. Prepare to be "traumatized" if you choose to see it (VOD is probably your only vested option).

Anyway, have you ever viewed a film in which the present day lighting looks and feels like a flashback? And have you ever taken in a Steve Guttenberg performance with two short scenes that scream acting 101? Trauma Center is that film and it makes hospital fodder like Coma, Halloween II, and John Q. seem like Citizen Kane in comparison.

Trauma Center, with its muttered line deliveries by star Bruce Willis and its idle production values, feels like it was made by amateurs for amateurs. Director Matt Eskandari (who should know better) favors cue card, soap opera performing over capable casting. He also favors Michael Bay aerial shots over baseline camerawork. Finally, he favors short cut scripting over well, a decent script.

Probably made feverishly on time and on budget (what budget you ask), Trauma Center's story involves a woman who witnesses two corrupt cops kill another cop. The woman (Madison Taylor played by Nicky Whelan) survives a gunshot wound and is taken to an isolation ward for her safety. Sadly, said cops know she is alive. They plan to find her, kill her, and take a piece of evidence she has that will implicate them in the murderous crime (the attestation is a bullet in her leg, hilarious).

As a critic, I have a long-running rule. The rule is never give zero stars to a movie. Why? Because film-making is hard work and involves a lot of hard-working bodies. With Trauma Center's minuscule character development, bad consultation, and nonchalant way of short-changing the audience, I nearly broke that rule. Bottom line: Stay away from Trauma Center and stay away "stat!" Rating: 1 star.

Written by Jesse Burleson