Bruce Willis is bored. The man who made his name first in comedy, then used the action movie to propel himself into super-stardom. Recently however, in an article with The Mirror newspaper (paraphrased by Slash Film) he expressed his thoughts on the genre.
“Explosions are one of the most boring parts of my job…..When you have seen a few fireballs, it’s not exciting anymore. I know part of my audience enjoys the explosions, but to be honest, I’m a bit bored of it now.”
He then went on to say why he still does them.
“I am very clear with who I am…I work in all sorts of films, but the action movies are the ones that generate the most revenue. I like to earn lots of money from those, but I do all types: small productions, mega-projects, medium sized, even science fiction.”
This is all well and good because he has been working in action movie genre on and off since his hit Die Hard in 1988. It is also not that uncommon to work just for the paycheck, especially if doing these big budget movies lets him stretch his creative chops with films like Looper, which mixed action and an intriguing sci-fi concept. This craving for cash has also left him in the lurch with his fellow actor friends and lost him roles to (see here to see how much he wanted for The Expendables 3!).
So even after hearing this news, it’s not surprising he is still making these movies that bore the pants off him. His new one titled The Prince is directed by Russian director Sarik Andreasyan, with writers Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore. The writing duo has worked on the script while Sarik filmed American Heist, his US debut.
The plot revolves around a retired mob enforcer whose teenage daughter goes missing which forces him to go back to Las Vegas where Willis’ character an enforcer himself, will be waiting for him.
The problem with Willis just doing these films for the money is that for the audience we can tell by his performance that this is the case. There is nothing unusual with an actor phoning in their performances every now and again, but recently all the Bruce Willis action movies have shown him looking really disinterested. The latest Die Hard film one of the best examples of how this can ruin a movie. As a viewer, this really puts you off watching anything else he does, which is a huge shame because the man can act.
Let us hope that he this trend ends with The Prince, which starts filming in New Orleans next month.
Grizzly Bomb 