It used to be easy to mock Bruce Willis and his descent into the VOD doldrums where he’d show up in half a dozen bargain basement action thrillers per year until the truth came out. Diagnosed with aphasia – and then ultimately dementia – the Die Hard icon was simply trying to work as much as possible before he couldn’t live his dream of being an actor anymore.
That paints the entire last decade and change of his filmography in an entirely different light, but sympathy isn’t the reason why the Detective Knight trilogy has been scoring some of the best reviews Willis has seen in a long time. In fact, all three installments – Rogue, Redemption, and Independence – boast identical Rotten Tomatoes scores of 67 percent.
That makes the trio Willis’ top-rated live-action features on Rotten Tomatoes since Rian Johnson’s sci-fi classic Looper a decade ago, but it’s bittersweet that some of his final credits are being showered in the sort of praise and popularity he hasn’t enjoyed in a long while. Nonetheless, streaming crowds are eager to check it out and round out the triptych for themselves.
Per FlixPatrol, Detective Knight: Independence is currently one of the most-watched features on Prime Video, Rakuten, and iTunes’ global viewership charts, with the last stand finding Willis’ James Knight attempting to stop a rogue vigilante from putting an entire city on the precipice of disaster on July 4, all while his family home is designated as a target for detonation.
As tragic as it is to say, we’re running out of new Bruce Willis flicks, but at least he’s bowing out with some of his best work to emerge in the last 10 years.
Published: Mar 22, 2023 11:32 am