Bruce Willis films find new life on Netflix

Bruce Willis has so many mega-hits to his name that it’s difficult to count them. However, the last years of his career included appearances in poor productions with low budgets. These were so bad that the committee handing out the Golden Raspberry Awards introduced a new category for the worst new Bruce Willis movie. When it was announced in the spring of 2022 that Willis was ending his career because he was terminally ill, diagnosed with aphasia, and barely able to work on the set of these widely criticized films, many felt simply embarrassed.

Let’s recall that in April this year, the film "Glass," directed by M. Night Shyamalan, made it into the top 10 movies on Netflix. The production was a big hit in 2019 when it premiered in theatres, but it got a new life on Netflix. Viewers eagerly reached for the film, where Willis lost his form. The actor was even nominated for a Golden Raspberry for his role in this production. With a budget reaching only 26 million Canadian dollars, the film grossed nearly 323 million worldwide. After years, the 2019 production became number one in eight countries (including Sweden, Norway, and Croatia).

In Netflix’s TOP10, you can find an even older story with Willis. At 7th place among the most-watched films by platform users is "Perfect Stranger." In this film, 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 doesn’t realize that her colleague from the editorial office, obsessed with her, is also entangled in the affair.

The film did not become a hit in 2007. Critics' reviews were rather negative, affecting the box office results. The production cost 78 million Canadian dollars, and ticket revenues were only 95.5 million Canadian dollars. The production was forgotten, but as you 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 confessed 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 at the time, adding that Berry charmed him.

On the other hand, she recalled in interviews that their first meeting on set was not a positive experience for her. Their first joint production was "The Last Boy Scout" from 1991. Halle was then a novice actress, and Bruce had already had "Die Hard" under his belt. "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 privacy of his home and no longer appears in public. Halle Berry, on the other hand, is promoting her latest film, "Union" with Mark Wahlberg, which you can already watch on Netflix.