Even when past their prime, some actors do what they can to maintain a legacy that complements their prior achievements. Bruce Willis is not such a person, however, as can be seen with Hard Kill, his most recent effort and one of the worst in which he’s ever appeared. For some reason, though, it’s nabbed a place in Netflix’s Top 10 most-watched list amongst sundry Christmas movies, currently residing in second.
The story sees a mercenary hired by a former soldier to rescue his tech genius daughter from the terrorist who’s kidnapped her in an attempt to force her father to release the activation code for her proprietary software now intended for misuse in military applications. Seriously, that’s it. It’s not just Willis’ lackluster performance that undersells the movie, but also a boring script full of tedious clichés, half-baked characters with barely a functioning personality between them, uninspired camerawork, clunky action sequences, and a premise ultimately revealed to have been shamelessly lifted from Fight Club.
It’s been apparent for years that Willis just doesn’t care anymore, with the last time he displayed anything other than grudging disinterest being sometime in the early 2010s with the likes of Red and Looper, and even they were anomalies amongst a clearly waning interest in his craft. Nowadays, he seems more than content to appear in generic thrillers with plots and titles each so bland that it can be difficult to tell them apart, even when you’ve actually seen most of them.
As actors age, opportunities begin to dry up, as Hollywood will always be far more focused on young sexy talent doing young sexy things to each other, rather than invest anything in maintaining the careers of performers who have brought it a modicum of respect over the years. However, the litany of utter dreck that Bruce Willis continues to either star or cameo in is a prime indicator of just how far it’s possible for someone to fall. But clearly, Netflix users don’t seem to mind.
