credit: Soul Assassin
It’s tough to get excited about Bruce Willis’ movies at this point. A while ago, he was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. His time in the Die Hard movies is legendary. Several of his action movies are still great to this day. But the actor has come to a point in his life when it’s time to retire.
That appears as though it will happen eventually, but Bruce is still taking on a last role or two before he bows out. One of his upcoming movies, Assassin, is supposedly one of the final movies that he’ll star in. For years now, the actor has acted in straight-to-DVD movies.
He’s also battled with aphasia, which is the loss of one’s ability to understand or produce speech. This is one of many conditions that are tough to see happen to an actor. Actors depend heavily on the ability to produce and understand speech.
It does feel that Bruce should have retired a while back when his condition wasn’t as widespread. His time as an action star peaked many years ago. At this time, he’s better off as a cameo character or an extra that shows up occasionally.
credit: Soul Assassin
Die Hard was one of his greatest roles
John McClane was a great character, and he came to define Bruce’s career for a long time. When people thought of Bruce, they thought of a few movies, and this was one of them. But as time has gone on, that nugget of greatness has remained. Unfortunately, it’s now surrounded by a great number of horrible movies.
Much of his greatness came when he was younger. Bruce was hard to stop as an actor roughly one to two decades ago. But when the Die Hard franchise went off the rails, it was tough to keep following him. In a big way, it felt as though he’d forgotten what had helped to build his success in the first place.
Some would say that his decline is obvious, but for others, it has appeared gradual. Bruce has come out with so many movies in the last several years that it’s tough to think that his condition has worsened this much. But there is an idea that it’s grown bad enough that he feels the need to do what he can while he can.
Most of what he’s done lately is not that great
It’s tough to say that anything a great actor has done isn’t great. Bruce helped to set the standard of the action hero back in the 80s and 90s. But in the last decade or so, he hasn’t done much that’s worthy of note. Some would say otherwise since they’re superfans and don’t want to talk ill of their idol. But the truth of this is that many of his movies in the past several years have seen him take on similar roles that don’t offer a lot of range.
His condition could also have made this necessary, but it’s uncertain. What is certain is that he doesn’t have long left in Hollywood and is bound to retire here very soon. Such a development is bound to get a large reaction from fans, and fellow actors since Willis’s career is extensive.
credit: Detective Knight: Redemption
Some actors stick around because they need the money
There are actors who have spent everything they’ve made as though the money will keep coming. Others might have fallen on hard times or found that their acting skills couldn’t keep them fed forever. With Willis, it feels like pure stubbornness that’s keeping him around for even one more movie.
There’s likely something more to it, but this need to keep acting for another movie or two still feels tough to figure out. Bruce is going to retire, as he’s said, and that’s that. What he’ll take with him are a lot of well wishes and fans that are more than ready to wish him a fond goodbye.
One can only hope that this last movie will end up as something to remember. But it’s fair to say that it will not stand up as the magnum opus that many would wish for. There’s always Die Hard, though.
Bruce Willis will remain a legend
A lot of action heroes will go down as legends for their participation in the action genre. But like many others, Bruce Willis will go down in cinematic history as one of the greats. The last decade of his career is going to stick in the memory of a lot of people, but it won’t likely paint a negative image of the man.
After all, he’s one of those who coined one of the most legendary one-liners of all time. On top of that, John McClane is still considered as one of the greatest characters of all time.
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