‘Corrective Measures’ Review: Bruce Willis Cannot Save This Low Budget Superhero Film
Tubi has become one of those strange streaming platforms that no one actually sees and yet, the service boasts around 50 million active users every year. Because the service is becoming a sleeper success, they have entered the business of creating their own content under the label of Tubi Originals. Corrective Measures is one of those films, which makes the movie basically free to watch to anyone that downloads the app.
However, this bears the question. Is it worthy? Is Corrective Measures just a waste of time, or is this a great hidden gem waiting to be discovered? The answer, sadly, is no. Corrective Measures is a very low effort movie that has a great setting but doesn’t have the necessary resources to achieve its full potential.
The movie is based on the graphic novel of the same name created by Grant Chastain, and it tells the story of a prison designed for super villains. There, the equally villainous Overseer Warden Devlin will try to get the secret fortune of one of his most famous prisoners, Julius “The Lobe” Loeb. The film stars renown actors such as Bruce Willis in the role of the Lobe, Michael Rooker as Overseer Warden Devlin, and Tom Cavanagh, as Gordon Tweedy.
Corrective Measures is one of those films that makes you really wonder why they were made in the first place. You start wondering the reasons why anyone had the idea to pick this material. And then you ask yourself even more questions, like, for example, who would give the filmmaking team an amount of money and think that it was enough to actually make something good. I have always believed that there are no filmmakers that go willingly into making a bad film. However, movies like Corrective Measures give me doubts about that statement.
The film lacks some pretty vital points that are key in the filmmaking process. One of those elements is an actual plot. The movie jumps between several characters and introduces them with a vibe that can be said is very similar to the one found in movies like Guardians of the Galaxy or the latest Suicide Squad. Nevertheless, none of these characters or their introductions go anywhere. They feel like a number of sketches pieced together one after the other, but there is no sense at all that a coherent narrative is being built here.
The second element, and one that is just as important, is the sense of what you can do with the resources you have. When deciding to make the adaptation of a comic book that has superpowered beings as its main characters, you need to be certain that you will be able to replicate their powers, appearance, and sense of being in your movie. Sadly, to do that, you need money. The more money the better, the less money you have, well, it is worse. Corrective Measures just don’t have the resources needed to even start to think it can do a good job at adapting the source material, but tries to do it anyway.
The result is a movie that feels cheap, uninteresting and aimless. It is actually pretty spectacular that a production like this was able to get actors like Willis, Rooker, and Cavanagh to appear, but when you watch the movie it becomes clear why they are in there. This is what you would call a paycheck gig, and each one of the actors feel like they are on autopilot.
Rooker for example, does most of his scenes alone while looking at a computer screen. While Willis just sits there, alone in a cell staring down at nothing, and when he talks he just utters one or two words at max. Willis’ performance is of course explained by his condition, and his retirement from acting just confirms that while doing this movie he was not capable of doing more than this. It is sad to see. I think Willis deserves more than being remembered for his work in films like this one.
Bruce Willis filmography is filled with some authentic gems that cement him not only as one of the best action heroes ever, but also as an amazing dramatic actor that was able to perform in some truly fascinating films. Maybe his work in Moonrise Kingdom, and Looper were really his last great films. So, possibly it is best to remember him that way, instead of watching films like this one, just to see him at his lowest point.
Corrective Measures does feel like a student film. It is a movie with big ambitions, but it just doesn’t have what it takes to make it right. It really makes you wonder who greenlights stuff like this in the first place, and what is the purpose, let’s hope that at least Willis was well paid to appear in it. He deserves every penny.
