From a string of critical flops to shocking allegations of exploitation, Bruce Willis' final working years marked an unfortunate coda to a phenomenal career — and it all ended with this box office bomb.
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00:00From a string of critical flops to shocking allegations of exploitation, Bruce Willis'
00:05final working years marked an unfortunate coda to a phenomenal career, and it all ended
00:11with this box office bomb.
00:14Originally intended for release in September 2022 under the title Die Like Lovers, the
00:18film Assassin had a limited theatrical release in March 2023, making it the final film in
00:24Bruce Willis' long and storied career.
00:27Directed by Jesse Atlas in his feature debut and written by Aaron Wolf, Assassin sees Willis
00:32play Valmora, the leader of a group of future soldiers who are able to hop into other bodies
00:36for their missions.
00:37This is the future of drone warfare.
00:41It sounds an awful lot like Brandon Cronenberg's Possessor, minus the psychedelic imagery and
00:46wildly graphic violence, although Assassin takes the concept in a very different direction.
00:51When an agent is killed on a mission, his wife must take his place in order to get justice.
00:55Still, while its premise might sound neat, Assassin was savaged by critics on its release.
01:01It currently holds a miserly critics' score of 9% on Rotten Tomatoes.
01:06Critics had a hard time with Assassin, many saying the movie had interesting ideas, yet
01:10had neither the budget nor the vision to see them through.
01:13Dennis Harvey wrote for Variety,
01:15"...this movie pretty much consists of figures, Sans backstory, or much personality, killing
01:20others with even less of either, in episodes minus any particular flair for action or suspense."
01:25That may seem harsh, but it seems to be consistent with other critical assessments.
01:30Take for example Richard Roper at the Chicago Sun-Times, who wrote that Willis seemed disengaged
01:34from the film and was missing his trademark twinkle.
01:37Roper suggested that, while there are some talented actors involved, the whole movie
01:41is a bit of a mess.
01:43He said,
01:44"...clocking in at a brisk 88 minutes, Assassin reaches a heartfelt but ludicrous conclusion,
01:49and you'll start to forget it moments after the final credits."
01:52Audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes call out the film's convoluted plot and hollow acting,
01:56while others complain that Willis has fairly little screen time despite featuring heavily
02:00in the marketing.
02:01That said, it is worth pointing out that the audience score for Assassin is much, much
02:05higher than the critics' rating, currently sitting at 68%.
02:09Whether that's people trying to send Willis out on an inflated high note, or a matter
02:13of real dissonance between critics and audiences is entirely up for debate, however.
02:18It's hard to overstate Bruce Willis' star power.
02:21His career blew up in the 1980s with both the moonlighting television series and Die
02:25Hard, the latter of which made him one of the biggest action stars of his time.
02:29"...welcome to the party, pal!"
02:32Even as recently as 2019, Willis starred in Glass, the third installment in M. Night Shyamalan's
02:37Unbreakable trilogy, as well as Edward Norton's New York City Chinatown riff, Motherless Brooklyn.
02:43Unfortunately, it was around that time that he also began to appear in low-budget direct-to-video
02:48putting out 22 movies in the course of about three years.
02:52Fans were soon left wondering if there was something odd going on.
02:55Some pointed out that Willis seemed totally checked out from his performances, while others
02:59noted that it looked like he was wearing an earpiece and being fed his lines.
03:03According to a report published in the Los Angeles Times, Willis would work for just
03:07a day or two on each film, getting his limited scenes done as quickly as possible, and then
03:11the marketing would try and sell audiences on his involvement.
03:15Of course, it's not unusual for formerly massive stars to take on direct-to-video films
03:19to try and stay relevant and make a buck.
03:22Here though, it was beginning to seem like Willis wasn't fully aware of his involvement
03:25in these movies, or that he was somehow being exploited by somebody in his life.
03:30In the LA Times report, director Mike Burns, who worked with Willis on the 2021 film Out
03:35of Death, detailed some of his concerns about the actor's condition on set.
03:40Burns said that he had been asked to shorten lines to the point that he needed to condense
03:4325 pages of dialogue down to something that could be filmed in one day.
03:47Despite his reservations, Burns ended up signing on for another film with Willis, Wrong Place,
03:52after an associate reassured him that the actor was doing better.
03:55Apparently though, things had become much worse, and Burns swore off working with Willis
03:59again.
04:01Some criticism was much more scathing and humiliating.
04:04For example, the Golden Raspberry Awards created an entire category for the worst Bruce Willis
04:09film in 2022.
04:11The YouTube channel Red Letter Media also took notice of the Bruce Willis Movie Factory,
04:15as they dubbed it, putting together an extensive look into the films while at the same time
04:19questioning Willis' awareness of what was going on.
04:22In 2022, Willis' family revealed that he had been diagnosed with aphasia, a language impairment
04:27that affects a patient's ability to communicate.
04:30In the same statement, they also announced his retirement from acting.
04:34Just a few months later, several sources who spoke to the LA Times accused movie producer
04:38Randall Emmett of exploiting Willis and continuing to employ him despite being well aware of
04:42his declining health.
04:44Speaking about Emmett, one writer and former colleague said,
04:47"'His normal mode of business is being sketchy.
04:49He just spins all these plates in the air and doesn't care how they crash.'"
04:54Many fans are now trying to contend with the meaning of Bruce Willis' final movies in the
04:57context of the actor's greater legacy.
05:00Of course, it's up to viewers whether or not they feel like those final films tarnish Willis'
05:04overall career, though it could reasonably be argued that they represent little more
05:08than a small stumble in an otherwise phenomenal filmography.
05:11"'Zed's dead, baby.
05:14Zed's dead.'"
05:16There are dozens of fantastic Bruce Willis movies out there, and he's worked with many
05:20of cinema's biggest directors over the years, including Quentin Tarantino, M. Night Shyamalan,
05:24Wes Anderson, Robert Altman, Terry Gilliam, and more.
05:28For every one of Willis' late career disasters, he has an equally great film to balance it
05:32out.
05:34But it's a shame that he ended up taking on some less-than-stellar roles during his final
05:37years, and the allegations against those who appear to have exploited them are truly shocking.
05:42But nobody should hold that against him.
05:44Truth is, Bruce Willis will always be a true Hollywood legend, and no low-budget direct-to-video
05:49cash grab could ever change that.