What Up Yo.
Now, I love Bruce.
Love.
Since he was David Addison in Moonlighting.
Before he was John McClane in Die Hard.
And I loved him as the Hawk.
The Hudson Hawk.
Others didn’t. Many others. I did.
However, since that film was released back in 1991, he seemed to have felt that his brand of comedy wasn’t going to pay the bills like him being an action star…and he changed his whole on screen persona to that of a squinty eyed, Clint Eastwood-Esque tough guy with little sense of humor and a huge attitude problem.
I first noticed this change in The Last Boy Scout.
An excellent script from Shane Black, glossy Tony Scott directed flick, with a pissed off looking Bruce with a perma-grin mounted on his face.
That kind of ended my love of Bruce films, as he would become one of the most successful actors in Hollywood after that, all for paychecks and phoned in performances.
All with the exception of three films:
1994’s Pulp Fiction, in which Quintin Tarantino pulled the actor from Bruce up and out for the world to see…
1996’s Twelve Monkeys, in which Terry Gilliam reportedly told Bruce:
“I don’t want to see that grin at anytime in this movie.”
And that grin was nowhere to be found in Bruce’s performance.
And 2000’s Unbreakable, which was simply a thing of beauty from director M Night Shyamalan.
So cut to last night.
I’m staring at my television, I have AppleTV on.
I can’t find the damn remote. This skinny brushed metal thing is hiding between the seat cushion a I’ll find out in a half hour after checking every pocket of every jacket, pajamas, robes, jeans…
Looking under all the furniture, on all the drawers, I get to the point I’m checking places there’s no chance this thing will be in like the fridge and in the key bowl.
Whatever.
So the screensaver kicks on.
It shows the movie posters for upcoming film trailers on the Apple Trailer channel.
I look up at the screen at some point and I see this scroll up really quick.
I can just make out a few things:
DEATH WISH
BRUCE WILLIS
I’m thinking…
Director, where’s the director?
Then I see:
ELI ROTH
&
SCREENPLAY BY JOE CARNAHAN
That’s all I need.
Originally slated for a 2017 release, it’s been pushed back to March 2018.
You give me a new version of Death Wish, directed by Eli Roth, who will direct Bruce Willis, from a screenplay by Joe Carnahan…
and I say:
Where is the fucking trailer for this?
What I saw was not what I thought I would see, it was much cooler.
I’m digging it.
Maybe you will too.
Happy Holidays. Love to you and yours.
And here’s to 2018 not sucking like 2017 did.