Available on Tubi
Arcana Studios
Corrective Measures is a movie that looks at the prison life of supervillains. They have a varied range of abilities, and the most feared are the psychic types rather than genetically enhanced. In a world where they were nearly created overnight, to have heroes around who can stop them took time. But humanity persevered and managed to contain them in a questionably maximum strength facility run by The Warden (Michael Rooker).
Four new inmates get put here. Only two seem matters in this narrative: Payback (Dan Payne) is a vigilante of sorts, and he’s not loved by many since he has superior strength. Diego Diaz (Brennan Mejia) advanced abilities won’t help him survive, and just why these are of concern ties into how they can help Julius “The Lobe” Loeb (Bruce Willis) escape. He is this prison’s most dangerous inmate.
Sean Patrick O’Reilly‘s adaptation of Grant Chastain‘s graphic novel isn’t too bad. He’s the CEO of the comic book studio which bought the rights for this work, and I’m curious why the author didn’t receive any further mention when the credits rolled. There may have been aspects from the print version not carried through to the live action work. I’ll have to seek the print version just to get an understanding of the source material. There’s something missing which didn’t get carried over.
The facility used is very low-fi, and it doesn’t make too much visual sense, since it looks like these villains can break out anytime. What stops them is an ankle brace which hinders their abilities. I can see that anyone with the right items at their disposal can short circuit them and break free.
However, there’s more than a few guards around to monitor the worst offenders. “The Lobe” represents everything that can go wrong had Professor X turned evil. It’s not Willis’ best performance, all things considered. I love him as John McClane. These days, instead of appearing in high budget Hollywood movies, he’s been taking on indie works, B-films included. It’s less stressful for him because of his medical condition, but I can’t help but think that Corrective Measures may well be his last film.
Rooker is certainly hamming things up and has fun with the role. That southern drawl of his reminds me of all those other prison type films set in the South. But in this film’s case, the setting is somewhere in the Pacific Northwest.
I’m okay with this casting, though I can’t help but wonder what if the roles were reversed between him and Willis. Most of those scenes are mostly by himself and his secretary, which at first I thought was unusual. He rarely interacts with the inmates out of concern; security is light and anyone can attempt to do him in.
Stealing the show is Tom Cavanagh. He plays Gordon Tweedy, a mutant wanting to avoid being targeted. There’s a reason; he most likely knows what’s going on and just doesn’t want to snitch. If he does, everyone will want a piece of him.
In that regard, I wouldn’t rate Corrective Measures as a thriller. What’s presented wasn’t tough for me to guess that The Lobe is biding his time to make his escape. Just how it happens was the only thing that kept me interested in seeing this movie through. The payoff is reasonable enough to make me wonder if O’Reilly will consider another film to continue The Warden’s story.
3 Stars out of 5
