BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
(FOUR) UNBREAKABLE
Outside of the obvious, I think the majority of Bruce Willis’s best work is the stuff that’s not huge box office smashes. It’s the misunderstood genre films where he shines the most. In 2000, Bruce Willis teamed up with M. Night Shyamalan and Samuel L. Jackson to make one of the best and most understated superhero movies of all time. It’s an M. Night movie so of course there’s the big twist and in most cases the movie is always remembered on the twist and not the ride. The story here is that Willis plays and everyday man who gave up his dreams for the woman he loves. He works a 9 to 5 security job and then one day he comes to terms with the fact that he is “unbreakable”. I think this is M. Night’s best work and one of Bruce’s best as well.
(THREE) THE FIFTH ELEMENT
The Fifth Element should have been a franchise. It should have had herds of nerds dressing like the characters, tons of memorabilia, and a way bigger following. This 1997 sci-fi movie was awesome. Bruce plays a taxi driver who encounters the hot Milla Jovovich and has to battle the evil Gary Oldman. The script, the story, and the special effects were great for the time. It’s a sci-fi movie that doesn’t take itself so seriously and that itself makes it better than Star Wars. Yeah, I said it.
(TWO) DEATH BECOMES HER
This 1992 dark comedy fantasy movie is retardiculously underrated and underappreciated. Robert Zemeckis directed one of the best movies of the early 90’s and it’s a shame he, Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep, and Bruce Willis don’t get the credit they deserve for this. Sure, everyone involve had better movies that were more successful, but the time put in here should be acclaimed. The movie is just so crazy, obscene, and fun that it’s a shame. It was cool because Willis normally plays smooth guys or bad asses and here he showed he could not only be hilarious but also a completely different breed of person.
(ONE) DIE HARD
In the four movies of Die Hard, some things have changed. Things went from gritty and balls out to a little tamer in the recent release. We’ve gone through a few Presidents. And basically the world as we knew it twenty plus years ago in 1988 has been through a lot. One thing that remains the same is that John McClane is still a bad ass. There have been plenty bad ass good guys in action movies over the years, but not many come close to Bruce Willis’s McClane even on his worst day. The movie spawned three sequels and I’d not be against more. Who else could make “Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!” one of the coolest lines ever? Only Bruce Willis.
|
