Bruce Willis' forgotten films find new life on  Netflix

Bruce Willis was forced to end his career. After it was revealed that he suffered from dementia, he stopped appearing in B-class movies and cheap action flicks. Fans of the star are now rediscovering his old films.

Bruce Willis has so many megahits to his name that it's hard to count them. However, the last years of his career were marked by appearances in poorly made productions with low budgets. They were so bad that the Golden Raspberry Awards established a new category to select the worst new Bruce Willis film. When it was announced in the spring of 2022 that Willis was retiring due to an incurable illness, diagnosed with aphasia and barely able to work on set, many people felt simply ashamed.

Let's remind ourselves that in April this year, "Glass," directed by M. Night Shyamalan, was in the top 10 movies on Netflix. The production shone in 2019 when it premiered in cinemas, but it got a new lease of life on Netflix. Viewers eagerly picked up the film, where Willis lost his form. The actor earned a Golden Raspberry nomination for his role in this production. However, with a budget of only 16 million pounds, the film earned nearly 200 million pounds worldwide. Years later, the 2019 production became number one in eight countries (including Sweden, Norway, and Croatia).

Now, in Netflix's top 10, you can find an even older story with Willis. "Perfect Stranger" ranks 7th among the films most chosen by platform users. In this movie, Willis stars alongside Halle Berry. It's a story about investigative reporter Rowena Price, who gets a job in a corporation where the boss is Harrison Hill (Willis). She wants to uncover his connections to the death of her childhood friend. Rowena starts flirting with Hill, but she doesn't realise that her colleague from the editorial team, who has an obsession with her, is also entangled in the affair.

The film didn't become a hit in 2007. Critics' reviews were mostly negative, which also translated into box office results. The movie's production cost 48 million pounds, and ticket revenues reached only 59 million pounds. The production was forgotten, but as we can see, thanks to streaming platforms, it resurfaces from time to time.

While promoting this film in 2007, Willis gave an interview in which he revealed that Halle Berry came to him with the script. "She brought me the script (for 'Perfect Stranger') over," he said. "She knocked on the door and said, 'I'd like you to take a look at this,' and I'm doing it," the actor commented then, adding that he was enchanted by Berry.

She, in turn, recalled in interviews that their first meeting on set wasn't a positive experience for her. Their first joint production was "The Last Boy Scout" from 1991. Halle was an aspiring actress back then, while Bruce had already starred in "Die Hard". "He didn’t even know I was alive in that movie. I don’t even think he looked me in the face. He probably doesn’t know we worked together. He didn’t noticed me back then, and I was so in awe of Bruce Willis and being on a big fancy movie like that," she recounted.

When they met again on the set of "Perfect Stranger," Berry was already a well-known star with an Oscar to her name. "Working with him now reminded me on the absurdity of life on how you can go from one extreme to the other within the same life," she commented.

Today, Bruce Willis has retreated to the comfort of his home and no longer appears in public. On the other hand, Halle Berry is promoting her latest film, "Our Union," with Mark Wahlberg, which you can already watch on Netflix.