Bruce Willis – Action Hero Movies

Unbreakable (2000) begins with a few minutes of torture in the form of loud crying babies. I simply couldn’t listen properly to any of the dialog here – I had no choice but to mute the entire scene and ready the subtitles. Not a good start!

10 minutes later, after a slow but watchable scene with Bruce Willis on a train, we discover why this movie is called Unbreakable and it becomes quite intriguing. Bruce Willis’s character basically has the same superpower as Marvel’s Luke Cage – an unbreakable body; and by contrast, Samuel L Jackson‘s character easily breaks all his bones like they’re made of glass, but never dies – hence the memorable threequel called Glass (2019) which came after the sequel called Split (2016).

This 100 minute long movie doesn’t get really cool until around half an hour before the end. The movie is like all drama for plot build up until near the end, then findally it becomes really interesting as everything that’s been set up unravels as Bruce Willis’s character finally entertains the ideas of Samuel L Jackson’s character, and Bruce accepts that he probably is a real-life version of a comicbook superhero with multiple superpowers. Nice plot twist at the very end too, as we discover what Samuel’s character is really all about.

All in all, I think we can say this is a strange “mild sci-fi” mostly-drama movie with just enough action, and superhero concept, and cinematography, and star power coming from the lead cast members, to make it Watchable for action hero movie fans who aren’t really into the slow drama genre. I’m certainly in no hurry to rewatch it though – this is one of those movies to be watched once in a lifetime, and maybe again with a friend who’s never seen it before, and maybe again if you’ve completely forgot all about it. Best to enjoy it sequentially before its threequel (Glass). I’d skip the first sequel (Split) though. As weak as they are on the action side of things, Unbreakable and Glass just about manage to sustain attention and be quite emotive and memorable to action fans thanks to their star power in Bruce and Samuel plus decent cinematography.

Sequels

The first sequel – Split (2016) starring James McAvoy (from Wanted) – is of zero interest to action hero movie fans who aren’t into slow gritty drama and find horror repulsive. There are no action heroes in this movie except for a seated 1-liner cameo appearance by Bruce Willis in the final few seconds of the movie. It’s just a serial killer-kidnapper drama-horror movie with zero relevance to action hero movie fans.

The threequel – Glass (2019) – gets off to a better start with the return of Bruce Willis as the unbreakable superhero. His age is really showing here though, as he’s in his mid 60s already and doesn’t try to hide it.

Spencer Treat Clark also returns, as Bruce’s son in Glass, although he looks nothing like him and never did, and looks even less like supposed mother. Still, he makes a good office-based sidekick in this movie.

James McAvoy also reprises his role from Split, as the serial killer-kidnapper with split personalities, but fortunately his role is far less one dimensional here, and the entire movie doesn’t revolve around him like it did in Split. Bruce Willis gets an equal share of screentime this time round.

In this movie Bruce Willis plays an FBI agent called Art Jeffries who stumbles across a boy who is being hunted by NSA agents and hitmen who have already killed his parents. The boy is autistic and is wanted because he cracked a code. Bruce tries to protect him. That’s the top and bottom of this movie – it’s a fairly simple but effective plot, with screenplay fairly well executed. The traits of autism depicted in this movie are a mix of authentic and misplaced stereotypes. Overall I rate this an OK movie because it stays captivating quite well on a basic level, mainly thanks to Bruce’s good acting and an effective script albeit playing to a very simple plot. It’s generally a mix of mild action with mild drama. It’s also a fairly memorable movie due to its unique and simple but intriguing and well-executed script.

Strong cast members include Kim Dickens who plays Stacey, the lead female, who helps mind the kid; and Chi McBride who plays Tommy, Art’s colleague at the FBI, who helps him out a lot. Alec Baldwin and Lindsey Ginter play the main baddies – the main brains and the main braun respectively. Still, as respectable as is all their performances, Bruce Willis is the sole star of the show by a massive margin.

The autistic boy, called Simon Lynch, was played by Miko Hughes, and his performance didn’t impress me at all. Fortunately, Bruce’s charisma is ever-present in this movie, and makes a natural distraction from Miko’s poor acting here.