Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Manthast Absolutely amazing

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Paul J. Nemecek Right after the end of the Cold War, screenwriters were faced with a serious problem--what to do now that we don't have the "evil empire" to kick around anymore? It is clear that the new bad guy in films, the guy we love to hate, is the terrorist. Whether a foreigner (as in Die Hard, True Lies or Executive Decision) or homegrown (as in the Rock or Eraser) the terrorist has become the new guy we love to hate, and has provided viewers with a new spin on an old genre. The urban terrorist films are essentially westerns without the horses.As in all genre films, the problem for the director is to create a work of art out of the conventions of the genre and the inventions of the director. In The Siege, Edward Zwick (Legends of the Fall, Glory, Courage Under Fire) follows the conventions of the genre fairly closely, but manages to throw in enough creative inventions to make the ride worthwhile.Denzel Washington plays FBI agent Hubbard, a dedicated law enforcement officer committed to tracking down the terrorists who are wreaking havoc in New York City. In this task he is assisted by Frank, a Lebanese-American FBI agent (wonderfully played by Tony Salhoub). The FBI is trying to track down Arab-American terrorists in the city, and along the way gets occasional assistance, and frequent interference, from representatives of the CIA (Annette Benning plays agent Bridger) and the US army (Bruce Willis plays General Deveraux).The plot follows a standard formula but has enough innovative twists to make it engaging. Denzel Washington is playing a character we have met before. His character here is quite similar to the true-blue character he played in Crimson Tide. Bruce Willis's rendering of General Deveraux is good, but the character is pretty one-dimensional. Annette Benning's character brings some of the innovative twists to the plot, and Benning plays the part well. The real scene-stealer though is Tony Salhoub as Hubbard's right hand man, Frank. Salhoub gets all of the best lines and provides some interesting comic relief at key points. Salhoub also helps us avoid some of the caricatures common in this kind of film. It is common in films like this to depict all Arabs and Arab-Americans as militant fanatics. While this type of character is depicted here, the fact that Frank is himself an Arab-American adds some interesting irony, and helps us move beyond overly simplistic stereotypes.What separates this film from some of the rest of this type is the plot twist that has the President declaring martial law and turning the reigns over to General Deveraux (who appears to be modeled on Oliver North). Arab-Americans are rounded up by the military in a scene that reminds one of the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II. At points, viewers will find themselves somewhat unsure about who the bad guys really are.The Seige suffers at points from relying too heavily on formula. However, the performances and the more innovative plot twists make it worth a look. Perhaps more importantly, the film is worth seeing because it raises important questions about the U.S. role as police force for the world. Given our fear of terrorism, and the probable increase in terrorist activity in the world, the scenario depicted in The Seige is not all that implausible. Fear of the other can easily give way to fascism. If we get to a point where the only way to combat their terrorists is to unleash ours, God help us all.NOTE: I wrote this review when the movie first came out in 1998. Events of the past twenty years make the film eerily prescient.

gogoschka-1 It might not qualify as a masterpiece, but this film is so criminally underrated I just had to write this short review. The Siege is a dark, sadly prophetic, gripping thriller with an amazing cast. For reasons I will never understand this film was accused of having a racist message (probably by people who hadn't even seen it) although its intention very clearly is to convey anything but. But check it out for yourself; Denzel Washington and Bruce Willis are so good in this that their performances alone already make the film worthwhile. 8 stars out of 10.In case you're interested in more underrated gems, here's some of my favorites:imdb.com/list/ls070242495

cinemajesty Movie Review: "The Siege" (1998)20th Century Fox presents this most daring thriller on the "war-on-terror" ever-conceived by Hollywood motion picture industries to this day directed by Edward Zwick, who makes full use of the an original script by journalist-turns-screenwriter Lawrence Wright, when "The Siege" fulminate cast by casting director Mary Colquhoun (1930-2000) in favors of any supporting role contracted in a twisting-and-turning suspense-striking plot, where FBI agent Anthony Hubbard, portrayed by high-octane driving Denzel Washington, must keep fast-tracks to unfold countless threads within the City of New York initiated by "Martial Law" executed U.S. military in shapes of death-sentence pushing character of General William Devereaux, given face by never-seen-before hostile beats of utmost disciplines by actor Bruce Willis, who could have earned his first Academy-Award-nomination for Best Supporting Role in a completely Award-season-snubbed highly-visceral motion picture of countless shading grey areas of controversy, when even the love affair between a U.S. governmental official, performed by full-engagement-showing actress Annette Bening, who must question ever aspect of her professional as personal character's life, including the relationship to her Oriental boy-friend character of Samir Nazhde, here portrayed by fully-directed actor Sami Bouajila, at moments of urban bomb explosions captured in utmost of elegance-striving cinematography by Roger Deakins and 1940s U.S. homeland security threatening Japanese habits after "Pearl Harbor" recalling concentration camp scenarios here placed below Brooklyn Bridge exterior production design, when any Oriental-looking and Muslim-religion indulging inhabitant in the five boroughs of New York gets gathered for interrogation under General Devereaux command to a motion picture historical highlighted reverse-cut close-up scene between Denzel Washington and Bruce Willis in a life-or-death stand-off situation under orders-following soldier-drawn machine guns.© 2018 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajetsty Entertainments LLC)

ericzillazillo Let's not talk about 9/11.Let's not talk about all the great points about freedom this film makes, let's not be captain obvious.I think what we need to focus on here is the theater, and this is good theater: very action packed and filled with drama.It contains all the elements: romance, humor, shooting, mystery, suspense, terrorism, clever film techniques, Denzel Washington AND bad guy Bruce Willis.The scale of the film? Unbelievable (but in a positive way), every time the film hinted at something and I was like "they're not gonna do that", but then the subsequent scene happens and for a moment I am amazed by the big budgetyness of this big budget film.The film wasn't afraid to shy away from repeatedly murdering innocents, which is good. Although one murder in particular was too gritty, and the sort-of feel good ending couldn't make up for it, but again - in a good way.What I didn't like was the negative portrayal of the army, that aspect of the film was clearly story driven (although I do imagine the army's intellect might have come along a bit in the past 15 or so years? heh)Not to give away anything, but the ending also had a certain Deux Ex Machina element to it, there were probably also tons of other inconsistencies that I didn't notice, but most of them are negligible.Verdict? This isn't your average Call of Duty patriotic circlejerk, this is a sophisticated and thoughtful reminder of what Murica's constitution was made for and why it should be upheld, and the hyperbolic hypothesis presented by this film will send chills through your spine, making you rightfully paranoid about how paranoia can affect democracy.Also, it is really fun because there are lots of things that go boom, so you should watch it either way.