Among the ways to glean a movie’s intentions may be not only who’s left standing in the end, but also who receives redemption. There should be a special circle of what-the-heck for filmmakers who inflict sadistic mayhem on minor characters to score pedestrian points about fealty and love. He’s supposed to be the wiser, kinder one how true this is turns out to be one of the movie’s moral hooks.Īn ill-conceived robbery at a convenience store turns brutal and plays up the loose-cannon aspects of the brothers’ relationship. That he has to repeat this fine advice throughout the movie (even as his leg wound looks destined for sepsis) says something about his unhinged bro but also underlines his failure at being a psycho-whisper. “Hey, no killing,” insists Matty (Tyler Jon Olson). It quickly becomes clear that as much as he wants to do right by his big brother, Jamie (Sean Buckner) has impulse-control issues. They’ve left a body in their wake and soon there will be hell to pay. (The film was produced by Emmet/Furla Oasis Films, the outfit behind the 2008 “Rambo” reboot, “Gotti” and 16 additional paycheck projects for Willis.)īefore flying off the rails, “Survive the Night” screams against them with clichés, as Jamie and Mathias Granger wistfully discuss plans to head for “the border” while looking mighty grimy in their getaway ride. Instead the film harkens to a time before streaming, and certainly long before the virtual theater platforms distributors are employing to connect with moviegoers during the coronavirus crisis, when “straight to video” was nearly an epithet. But not because of Willis’ being cast as a one-time lawman with a family under duress.

The on-demand release of “Survive the Night” signals a kind of Throwback Friday. The upright (and self-disgraced) doc can’t catch a break from his judgmental dad and is having an equally hard time mollifying his angry wife. With wife Jan (Lydia Hull) and daughter Riley (Riley Wolfe Rach) in tow, Rich is back living with his sympathetic mom (Jessica Abrams) and a sternly denigrating Frank.

Chad Michael Murray plays Rich, who’s in the process of rebuilding his life after a malpractice suit ended his burgeoning medical career. Not long into the action, a grimace becomes the only appropriate response to this try-hard flick, directed by Matt Eskandari and written by Doug Wolfe, about what happens when two brothers on the lam violently enlist the surgical services of Frank’s son. After a run-in with the movie’s two baddies, the retired sheriff will be hurting physically, too. Emotionally, Frank’s estranged from his son. When the actor’s mouth tightens and his eyes squint in “ Survive the Night,” you’d like to think it’s because his character is feeling the pain. It’s almost as much a trademark as his smirk.

Survive the night riley