[ad_1]
There has been no other actor in Hollywood who has had a career like Bruce Willis. Since getting his start on ABC’s Moonlighting, Willis has proven to be an actor with range by playing both a leading man and an ensemble character in Pulp Fiction (1994). His ability to play both savvy and rough has helped him build the reputation of being the man of the people. The ever-so-smooth action hero uses his resourcefulness and sophisticated humor to defeat the bad guy and save the day. Willis’ films launched him into stardom and helped him gain the title of one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood. It even helped him generate a large and loyal fanbase, who continue to praise the many iconic roles taken on by the actor.
Earlier this year, Willis’ family announced that the beloved action star had decided to retire from acting, due to his Aphasia diagnosis. This cognitive disorder affects one’s ability to communicate. The announcement was met with waves of support from colleagues, collaborators, and fans who have praised Willis for his exemplary career. Despite the devastating news, we here at MovieWeb want to show our love and support to this legendary action star, and celebrate some of his best films from the 80s and 90s.
9/9 Hudson Hawk (1991)
Let’s face it, there can be no “Best of Bruce Willis” list without the mention of the so-bad-it’s-funny action-adventure comedy that Willis himself wrote: Hudson Hawk. He plays the titular cat burglar, Hudson Hawk, who has just been released from jail and plans to lead a peaceful life. He soon finds himself dragged into another scheme where he is forced to steal Da Vinci’s works of art to save his friend.
There’s not much to be said about this epic disaster of a movie, but Hudson Hawk has been described to be both “ludicrous and preposterous, but undeniably entertaining” by The Guardian, with its absurd slapstick humor that will always be a notable Willis film. Despite all the bad reviews this flick has, many fans and critics all seem to agree that, at least, it has some personality. A comedy/musical/action/gangster film that defies expectations in all the best ways.
8/9 Look Who’s Talking (1989)
When the life of a single accountant is turned upside down after she gets pregnant from an affair she was having, Mollie counts on her taxi driver friend, James, to help her care for her newborn baby, Mikey. But here’s the catch: this is all told from the point of view of Mikey, voiced by Willis. Look Who’s Talking allowed Willis to show off his comedic chops by providing commentary from the perspective of a newborn baby.
7/9 Death Becomes Her (1992)
Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis enlists on-screen legends, Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn, to join Willis in this dark comedy about a fading actress who takes a mysterious liquid substance to outwit her rival. In Death Becomes Her, Willis finds himself in the middle of this cult classic as Dr. Ernest Menville, Helen Sharp’s (Hawn) ex-fiance, and the current husband to her rival/ex-best friend, Madeline Ashton Menville (Streep). With an already-brilliant cast, Willis still manages to stand out among Streep and Hawn, according to Collider, by delivering a solid comedic performance that was quite underplayed. This performance only proved to critics and fans alike the dynamic range he has by going for different roles.
6/9 Armageddon (1998)
In Michael Bay’s Armageddon, Willis stars alongside Ben Affleck, Billy Bob Thornton, and Liv Tyler in an epic sci-fi thriller about a misfit team recruited by NASA to save the earth from a life-threatening asteroid. By this point in Willis’ career, he had already exhibited himself as the ultimate “Everyman” hero. It is the ultimate sacrifice that his character provides that makes the ending of this film both epic and emotional.
5/9 12 Monkeys (1995)
It’s the year 2035 in 12 Monkeys, and Willis stars as James Cole, a prisoner of the state who agrees to travel back in time to stop a devastating plague from taking over the Earth. In this post-apocalyptic world, half of the Earth’s population has been wiped out, forcing Cole and the rest of humanity to live underground, due to air quality becoming too poisonous to inhale.
By this time in his career, Willis had been categorized as the everyday hero who can represent the everyday kind of man. The audience roots Willis’ character to solve the puzzle of this strange world that tests his ultimate strengths and weaknesses.
4/9 The Sixth Sense (1999)
In M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller, The Sixth Sense, Willis stars as a child psychologist who helps a frightened and lonely boy, Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), who can see ghosts. The Sixth Sense has not only been known for being the film with one of the best twists in cinematic history, but is also one of the quintessential roles of Willis’ career. Shyamalan even wrote the role of Malcolm Crowe with Willis in mind, bringing in an engaging yet sympathetic performance that only makes the ending of the film more heartbreaking. It is what Shyamalan had intended for: he told The Hollywood Reporter that he shot the film in sequence to “help build the reality of the world over the course,” hence building the connection between Crowe and Sear to end the story on high emotion.
3/9 The Fifth Element (1997)
In The Fifth Element, Willis plays cab driver, Korben Dallas, in 23rd-Century New York City where he unwittingly finds himself as a central figure in saving the universe. The weight of the world falls on his lap when this other-worldly girl, Leeloo (Mila Jovovich), crashes into his cab, taking him with her on this epic journey in this sci-fi adventure from Luc Besson. This film has become a big hit since its release, for its sense of humor and epic galactic adventure that’s full of entertainment. And much of that goes to the iconic Chris Tucker who plays the sensuous and humorous Ruby Rhod, who complements Willis’ stern Dallas, who’s fighting to save the world.
2/9 Pulp Fiction (1994)
Tarantino’s cult classic, Pulp Fiction, enlists the bravado of Willis as a conflicted boxer who wants a way out without crossing hairs with the tough gangster, Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). Throughout the film, Willis’ character, Butch Coolidge lives in a current conflict where he wants to escape the grip of Wallace, so he bets for himself to win, instead of losing the match on Wallace’s orders. The vignette between the two gives us one of the best comedic fight scenes in film history, with Willis and Rhames beating each other up through the streets, from then getting captured.
1/9 Die Hard (1988)
There can be no mention of Bruce Willis without Die Hard coming to mind because the thought of an unknown actor asking then-20th Century Fox for $5 million to star as the iconic John McClane is wild to believe. Willis stars as McClane, the NYPD cop who comes to Los Angeles to visit his estranged wife, Holly, at the Nakatomi headquarters for the company’s Christmas party. The party is soon high-jacked by a group of robbers led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman).
Before 1988, no one had ever seen a hero like John McClane, who represented the everyday resourceful man that audiences. When Willis was cast in this film, the studio was having second thoughts on whether they made the right choice as they were expecting this to be a successful blockbuster hit. Willis was only known for his comedic role in the TV show Moonlighting at the time, so when Die Hard was eventually released worldwide, he was able to branch out into the action star he is known today.
[ad_2]
Source link