American Siege
,
Apex
,
Hors de la mort
,
Cosmic Sin
,
Deadlock
,
Survive the Game...
These films, whose titles are very popular with turnips and direct release on VOD, have in common the presence on the screen of a recognized Hollywood star: Bruce Willis.
The actor's recent filmography inspired the latest edition of the Razzie Awards to create a special category devoted
to "the worst performances of Bruce Willis"
.
However, as revealed by his family on Wednesday, the actor, suffering from aphasia, has decided to put an end to his career because of serious health problems which would affect his work.
“The Razzies are very sorry for the state of health of Bruce Willis
, apologized in a press release the direction of the ceremony parodying the Oscars, not without authorizing a last spade.
This may explain why he wanted to leave with a bang in 2021.
To discover
Discover the “Best of the Goncourt Prize” collection
Read alsoActor Bruce Willis suffers from aphasia and ends his career
On closer inspection, the last years of Bruce Willis' career bore a twilight character.
The actor's appearances had become rare in the course of the 2010s. So much so that since
Sin City: I killed for her
, in 2014, the man of action had reappeared in a blockbuster only for M.Night Shyamalan.
It was in 2019, in
Glass
, for a role already considered at the time as particularly silent.
For lack of great roles, Bruce Willis chained the filmic expedients.
A heartbreaking succession of action films quickly made and just as quickly forgotten then sticks to his skin.
Each bears a name that seems to have come out of a disaggregated generator of titles for B series. Anthology:
Extraction
,
LA Rush
,
First Kill
,
Fortress
,
Anti Life
or simply
Survivre
.
So many feature films that went unnoticed.
Others stand out because, even in the colorful order of nanars, there are productions that stand out for their singularity.
Thus comes out in 2018
The Sentinels of the Pacific
, Chinese film on the Second World War in which Bruce Willis embodies an American volunteer in charge of training pilots of the Republic of China.
This "
cinematic disaster"
, as several Internet users call it, was released in France directly on VOD.
From Nakatomi Plaza to the Razzie Awards
Long gone are the days when Bruce Willis was familiar, year after year, with the most prominent (and most viewed) productions in the film industry.
Born in 1955, he was 32 in 1987 when he shared a headliner for the first time.
Her on-screen partner in
Boire et Déboires
is none other than Kim Basinger.
The following year, he swapped romantic comedy for thriller with
Piège de cristal
, better known by its original title:
Die Hard
.
There he camps John McClane, a cop entangled in spite of himself in a grandiloquent hostage-taking in the fictitious skyscraper of Nakatomi Plaza, on Christmas Eve.
A role that is reminiscent of the one he played in the detective series
Moonlight
.
Now considered a cult film, this triumphant box office success directed by American action maestro John McTiernan propelled Bruce Willis among the most prominent and highest paid actors on the circuit.
Hardly believable for a guy who had for him neither the pretty face of the young first, nor the steel muscles of the warriors of the 7th art.
Bruce Willis in
Crystal Trap
(1988), the first film in the
Die Hard
saga .
Bridgeman Images
A golden decade then opens for the most mischievous of Hollywood rogues.
While participating in the first two sequels to the film, in 1990 and 1995, Bruce Willis collaborated with Quentin Tarantino in
Pulp Fiction
(1994), with Terry Gilliam for
The Army of the Twelve Monkeys
(1995) as well as with Luc Besson on
The Fifth Element
, a memorable cinematographic tribute to the comic strips of Jean Giraud and Jean-Claude Mézières.
The end of the 1990s ended for the actor with a title role in two other cult films, of a fundamentally opposite register:
Armageddon
(1998) low on the forehead of Michael Bay, and the mysterious
Sixth Sense
(1999) by M.Night Shyamalan.
Read alsoPatrick Poivey, the French voice of Bruce Willis, dies of a stroke at 72
In the early 2000s, however, the old-fashioned action film was no longer popular.
In mainstream entertainment, the era is of war films, frescoes of adventures and the surge of superheroes.
Bruce Willis is in decline, like the other stars of yesteryear, the Sylvester Stallone, Jean-Claude Van Damme and other Arnold Schwarzenegger - then converted into governor of California.
He connects the umpteenth sequels to the indestructible
Die Hard
series , has fun as a retired killer in the films
Red
and
Red 2
.
The cast of America's super-muscled ancient heroes invite Bruce Willis in The
Expendables 2
,
in 2012, alongside Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Chuck Norris and Jason Statham.
These figures of the film heritage of the 1980s and 1990s pour into a pastiche and into permanent self-mockery.
It becomes difficult to take them seriously.
His last role in a refreshing, out-of-this-world film was perhaps in Rian Johnson's bizarre
Looper
, released in 2012. The sci-fi story pits Bruce Willis against young hitman Joseph Gordon-Levitt. responsible for embodying his same character, with a few decades less.
The star emeritus signs a succession of choreographed sequences there, even if, at the bottom, the astonishing story of anticipation seems to have seduced him more than the flourishes heard of pirouettes and whistling balls.
“Explosions are the most boring part of my job
, said the actor in 2013.
I know that a large part of my audience is fond of these explosions, but to be honest, I
Eight last productions featuring Bruce Willis are still waiting to appear on VOD and in a few rare dark rooms.
They are all action movies.