The Siege is an action thriller made in 1998 and follows Denzel Washington and his FBI crew tackling terrorist cells in New York City.

I was so surprised how the film has aged so well. The filmmakers obviously had incredible foresight, or were just able to come up with a very good story. Nobody would have ever thought that the USA could be that draconian, but we are ever so close to what was envisioned now.

Some of the film was a little disappointing though. The first part of the film was excellent up until the bus bomb, but seems to go a little downhill after that. The bus bomb was incredibly well filmed, but the later terrorist acts including the destruction of the Broadway theatre and the FBI buildings were poorly executed and looked a lot less impressive.

Looking back at the September the 11th attacks the world did not go to pot as this film envisions. Basically after three relatively small Islamic attacks, the city goes under lockdown and into marshal law. All Muslim men are sealed into a baseball stadium and routinely tortured. The torture scenes too are very well filmed - very reminiscent of Abu Graib, even though it was made several years before Iraq.

The Siege is certainly strange to look at now post 9/11, the film does predict a number of things but its realisation isn't quite there. The first part of the film is a decent fast paced thriller, but when it starts to become overtly political it loses some of its impact.

The Siege is well worth another watch, I hadn't seen it since it first came out and enjoyed it again this time around. The ever dependable Denzel Washington is very good here as the workaholic agent hunting the terrorists. Bruce Willis is less effective as the bad guy - but this is probably down to his short screen time. Annette Benning was irritating as hell - but I liked Tony Shalhoub's portrayal as the FBI translator.

In all The Siege is a good thriller with a novelty factor post 9/11. Worth checking out.