Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This movie, dealing with the governments rather totalitarian reaction to Muslim terrorism taking place in NYC and other parts of the country, virtually rounding up the guilty and innocent and imprisoning them, was ahead of it's time. Is there anyone who couldn't see this happening today? Decent, but when watched today, creepy.

The Siege (1998): Dir: Edward Zwick / Cast: Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, Bruce Willis, Tony Shalhoub, Aasif Mandvi: Action film not so much about the tragedy at hand but about the siege of the victims. After a series of terrorist bombings in New York, an F.B.I. Agent, played by Denzel Washington investigates. He arrests a mysterious agent played by Annette Bening who may or may not be helping the guilty. Soon a General moves his troops in and orders that all Arab Americans be fenced in and individually tortured for information. This angers Washington's partner played by Tony Shalhoub whose own son is mistreated. Interesting setup deteriorates into a series of recycled scenes that seem to have materialized from other films. Directed by Edward Zwick who previously worked with Washington in Courage Under Fire, where he delivers another great performance. Zwick is effective at presenting action but his cast are mostly at odds with the material. Washington holds his own but Bening steals the film in her rebellion. The big disappointment is Bruce Willis as the General who is hardly convincing. He barks orders and looks intimidating while reminding viewers that he was even worse in Armageddon the same year. Shalhoub fares well as Washington's partner. The big payoff will seize mainly action lovers. Score: 5 ½ / 10

I understood at first this movie bombed, it was an improbability that the United States would be attacked with all its security measures to protect the population...In this post 9/11 era, now it sounds eerie and terrifying...The FBI and the Army clashed on how to stop multiple attacks done by some terrorist cells, Muslim-related, all due to some secret black-ops by the CIA, and backed blindly by an Army General...Good acting by Denzel Washington, Tony Schaloub mostly. Annette Bening does a good job as the confused CIA agent and we would never knew Bruce Willis, in his turn as tough-as-nails General Devereaux, would be as well turn up to be a bad guy in a democracy turned into martial law and send thousands of innocent Arab citizens just to find some dangerous terrorists...Good movie to make you think... And was shot less than 4 years before the Twin Towers fell down... Of course, they're there on this movie...

"Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither." Benjamin Franklin, 1755 (paraphrase)I remember when I first saw the trailer for this movie in the theater. I was immediately really excited, as I had a sense of what the movie was going for - a warning of what could happen in our free country under the right conditions. I applauded this because it is a lesson that was extremely important but not well understood in 1998.When I finally saw the movie I was not disappointed. The issue of Muslim extremism was handled very well. While some Arab-Americans may have felt offended by this I think the viewers understood that this was a tiny percentage of the Muslim community, and it was better for them to recognize this in order to distance themselves from the extremist.However, the real issue and prophetic warning of this movie was not about Muslim extremism at all, but about how our citizens were capable of going collectively insane over a tragedy and throwing away our freedoms in the name of safety, and the tragic consequences of such a short-sited decision. Bruce Willis was exceptional in this as he truly warned everyone of the consequences and was reluctant to accept."The Siege" became all the more important and frighteningly prophetic after the events of 9/11. The U.S. did go collectively insane, and our fears were exploited to serve neoconservative special interest that we never would have agreed to otherwise. I hope interest in this movie is renewed for this all important warning for the future."Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." - George Santayana, 1905 (paraphrase)