One of the Last Bruce Willis Movies Becomes a Surprise Netflix Hit

Summary

• The last few years of Bruce Willis' career have been marked by direct-to-video movies, and one of them has reached the Netflix Global Top 10.
• That movie is 2022's A Day to Die, in which Willis played a small role as a corrupt cop.
• Although the film received negative reviews, fans continue to support the actor.

In March 2022, the family of Bruce Willis officially announced the end of his career due to his diagnosed frontotemporal dementia. The legendary actor, whose prolific activity in Hollywood spans 40 years, is now spending time at home in the company of his loved ones, and we, his fans, can only continue to show compassion and enjoy movies with his participation.

From the 2010s up until his retirement, Willis appeared in a number of blockbusters, but mostly starred in low-budget direct-to-video action films in order to provide as much for his family as possible. Unfortunately, these works did not have much cultural value, but loyal fans of the Die Hard star continue to watch them out of respect for the actor.

And recently, one of his latest movies has gained some popularity, becoming one of the most watched on Netflix.

The Bruce Willis Movie Joins the Netflix Global Top 10

We're talking about the heist action movie A Day to Die, which was released in March 2022 (the same month Bruce officially retired). According to official data from Netflix, the movie was among the Top 10 English-language films worldwide for the week of January 8-14, coming in at number 10 with 3.4 million views.

According to data from What's on Netflix, the movie didn't start gaining momentum until January 12, when it reached number two in views in Brazil and Mexico. A Day to Die stayed at the top for the following week, January 15-21, dropping to number nine in those countries by Sunday.

A Day to Die cannot be called low-budget, as it cost $5 million to produce. However, this movie, a project that had a limited theatrical release in a number of countries as well as a video-on-demand format, is clearly a notch below all other competitors in the Netflix Global Top. Ahead of it, for example, are The Croods, Rebel Moon and Leo, which have held their positions for several weeks, while the list is topped by two other action films, 2005's Transporter 2 with Jason Statham and the heist comedy Lift, released January 12, 2024.

What Is the Movie About?

Overall, Bruce's role in A Day to Die is very small. The protagonist, played by Kevin Dillon, is a disgraced probation officer who, after killing a mobster, finds himself in the hands of a powerful drug lord, well portrayed by the singer Leon Robinson. The latter kidnaps the protagonist's wife, and Kevin Dillon must reassemble his old teammates to pull off a series of heists to repay the $2 million debt.

However, the main villain of the story is the character played by Bruce Willis, a crooked police chief who once framed the main character and now orchestrates criminal operations in the city. Unfortunately, this is the only thing that can be said about both the character and the actor's participation in the project. As we said, due to health problems, he does not have much screen time in the movie, which makes his appearance more of a cameo than a full-fledged participation.

What Are Critics and Audiences Saying?

It had nothing to do with Willis' performance, but the movie received mostly negative reviews. On IMDb, the rating is only 3.5 out of 10, with many noting how awful and pointless the script was and how inept the cinematography is, especially the SFX and VFX, which provided some of the worst green screen work ever produced.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the reviews are a bit warmer, as the audience score is 87%, but quite a few have A Day to Die more than three stars, noting that the actors are the only highlight of the movie, which unfortunately does not save it.