The last decade of Bruce Willis‘ career has been completely recontextualized by the actor’s career-ending diagnosis of aphasia and then ultimately dementia, but that still hasn’t been enough to see critics give him a pass for Assassin.
There was plenty of controversy when the film first released after one critic in particular went out of their way to trash the Die Hard legend’s performance, which was egregiously unfair given that everybody had discovered the reasons why he’d been signing on for so many quick and easy VOD action thrillers.
The man just wanted to work as often as possible while doing as little as possible in order to both safeguard his health and continue earning money to provide for his family, so singling him out for criticism understandably left a bad taste in the mouth. Unfortunately, Assassin couldn’t fly any higher than 10 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and the whole thing is bittersweet knowing that it’ll be the last time Willis will be seen onscreen in a feature-length outing.
Regardless of its quality, the veteran’s B-tier output has always performed admirably on streaming, and that’s proven to be no different with Assassin, after FlixPatrol named it as a Top 10 hit on Google Play and iTunes in countless countries around the world.
It’s never easy to bid farewell to a legend – especially when they’re not even afforded the opportunity to bow out on their own terms – but Willis has left behind a legacy and back catalogue of classics that few in the modern era can match.