Alternate Takes 09.26.09 - Bruce Willis

Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 09.26.2009

Bruce Willis made his name as an action star but on the heals of his latest movie Surrogates, Alternate Takes looks at his forays into the realm of science fiction, from 12 Monkeys to The Fifth Element.



Welcome to Week 70 of Alternate Takes. I am your host Shawn S. Lealos and you have now entered my world.

Movie releases for the Week of September 25-October 01

Surrogates - Based on the comic book series of the same name, Surrogates tells the story of a world where people live their lives through robotic bodies that serve as "surrogates" while never leaving the comfort of their own homes. When several humans are murdered through their surrogates, an FBI agent (Bruce Willis) must leave his home for the first time in years to investigate the cause of these deaths. The movie is directed by Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) and also stars Radha Mitchell (Pitch Black), Rosamund Pike (Die Another Day), Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction) and James Cromwell (L.A. Confidential).

Fame - A loose remake of the 1980 film of the same name, Fame tells the story of a group of dancers, singers, actors, and artists over four years at the New York City High School of Performing Arts (now known as LaGuardia). It also presents the reunion of Kelsey Grammer and Bebe Neuwirth on the big screen.

Pandorum - A German sci-fi horror film following two astronauts (Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster) who wake up in outer space with no memory of who they are. They discover other crewmembers on the ship and eventually run across an evil that puts everyone's life in danger. The movie is directed by Christian Alvart and produced by Paul W.S. Anderson. Coincidentally, Alvert's last film Case 39, starring Renee Zellweger, has still not been released yet.

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men - Directed by The Office's John Krasiniski, Brief Interviews is based on a short story collection by David Foster Wallace. It stars Julianne Nicholson as a graduate student interviewing men, each with their own unique, and sometimes repulsive, characteristics.

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell - This is literary adaptation of a novel by Tucker Max that remained on the New York Times Bestseller list from 2006-2008. Max penned the script based on his chapter "The Austin Road Trip Story." The film has courted controversy since it is based on Max's real life adventures and may or may not promote rape and "rape culture" thanks to his having sex with intoxicated women and oftentimes humiliating them.




The most interesting movie to me is Bruce Willis' Surrogates. There is just something I love about Bruce Willis and sci-fi movies which are generally more a hit than miss for me. This week, Alternate Takes will look at Bruce Willis and his forays into the sci-fi/horror genre.

5. THE FIFTH ELEMENT Directed by Luc Besson Written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen Cast: Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Milla Jovovich, Chris Tucker, Luke Perry, Tiny Lister The Fifth Element is, if nothing else, a unique movie. Bruce Willis is not expected to stretch his acting chops too much, playing the everyman he had perfected up to that point. His character, Korben Dallas, is a taxi cab driver in the year 2263. Space travel is common place and cars fly through the air instead of down roads. There are federation battleships in space and there are aliens of all shaped and sizes. The Fifth Element is directed by Luc Besson, the man behind classic thrillers such as La Femme Nikita and Leon: The Professional. While never reaching the level of those two movies, The Fifth Element is a fun movie that provides so much excitement you can almost forgive it for helping catapult Chris Tucker into his annoying, shrieking persona. Gone was the man so impressive in Friday and taking his place was the flamboyant radio personality Ruby Rhod. The movie also made a star out of Milla Jovovich (who appeared naked in the movie as well), who previously had only appeared in smaller roles in movies such as Dazed and Confused. The plot of the movie is secondary to the amazing visual effects and over-the-top acting by everyone from Willis and Tucker to bad guy Gary Oldman and the president played by Tiny Lister. It has something to do with a cosmic weapon that can destroy all life and a group of aliens that are trying to stop it. It is loud, dumb, brilliant fun that opened the Cannes Film Festival and went on to make $264 million worldwide. It was nominated for seven César awards (France's top honor), winning three and was nominated for an Oscar. It is not Bruce Willis' best science fiction film, but it is one of his most successful.

4. THE SIXTH SENSE Directed by M. Night Shyamalan Written by M. Night Shyalmalan Cast: Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette, Olivia Williams, Donnie Wahlberg Before M. Night Shyamalan was ridiculed and called a poor filmmaker by the unwashed masses, he was considered for a short time to be the next coming of Steven Spielberg. Much of this praise was based on his breakout second film, The Sixth Sense. The movie marked the start of a career that helped the man maybe get a little too much power over his next projects. The twist ending of this movie is brilliantly setup, something that everyone claimed they saw coming but in reality were probably as surprised as I was. When I left the theater after this movie, I was sold on Shyamalan as a filmmaker, a feeling that has never completely gone away. Bruce Willis had spent the two years following The Fifth Element back in his comfortable realm of action star, rising to the top of the heap (or bottom of the barrel for some) when he appeared in Michael Bay's Armageddon. Armageddon could have made this list based on its sci-fi premise but Bay shoots action movies, the science fiction is only a device to lead to more explosions. It is interesting that Armageddon is the second retelling of a classic Kurosawa film that Willis was involved in, based loosely on The Seven Samurai (the other movie was Last Man Standing, a retelling of Yojimbo). Thanks to Shyamalan, Willis began to slightly reign himself back in again. His character, Dr. Malcolm Crowe, is a man drifting through his life after being shot by a patient (Donnie Wahlberg) late one night. He finds himself drifting away from his wife and devotes his work to helping a confused young boy named Cole (Haley Joel Osment) who "sees dead people". This is a two man horror show as Crowe follows Cole to that dramatic final twist. Shyamalan proves in this movie why he is a great filmmaker and while his later output may never have reached the success of his early works, he brings out a wonderful performance and a fantastic story that holds up as well today as it did when it hit theaters ten years ago.

3. PLANET TERROR Directed by Robert Rodriguez Written by Robert Rodriguez Cast: Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez, Josh Brolin, Marley Shelton, Jeff Fahey, Michael Biehn, Bruce Willis, Naveen Andrews, Nicky Katt, Quentin Tarantino, Michael Parks, Danny Trejo, Cheech Marin The most fun I had at the movies in 2007 was sitting in a theater and watching Grindhouse. I sat in awe and complete joy through both Planet Terror and Death Proof as well as the wonderful trailers in between the two features. It was a perfect night out at the movies and, thanks to low box office receipts, is probably one I will never get again. I am still waiting for the day the entire experience is made available to see at home, on one Blu-Ray, trailers included. While I went in as a huge fan of both Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, I have to admit I was more curious about Tarantino's film. I should have known better than to doubt Rodriguez because when I left the theater I liked Death Proof but was completely in love with Planet Terror. Rodriguez chose to go the horror route for his exploitation flick and made not only a good exploitation picture but a great movie in general. From Rose McGowan's stripper with a heart of gold and leg of a machine gun to Bruce Willis' evil general responsible for the chemical outbreak that turns everyone into zombies, this movie is a slam dunk of horrific violence from beginning to end. Josh Brolin is an abusive doctor, Quentin Tarantino as a rapist who gets what's coming to him, Michael Biehn (Terminator) is the sheriff, Abby is a scientist who carries testicals in a bag and Freddy Rodriguez gives one of his best performances as the mysterious loner El Wray. From top to bottom this movie is nothing but the best kind of fun. I also want to give credit to the "missing reels" gag that each director attempted to pull off. Rodriguez' presented the best missing reel thanks to the hilarity of the situation, hands down. It was laugh out loud funny in a film full of great moments. Robert Rodriguez has made great guy flicks, from Desperado to Sin City and he proves here that if you give him a challenge, he will meet it head on every time. Grindhouse was the best theatrical experience of 2007 and Planet Terror is the best part of the entire film.

2. UNBREAKABLE Directed by M. Night Shyamalan Written by M. Night Shyamalan Cast: Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Robin Wright Penn, Spencer Treat Clark While The Sixth Sense may have been M. Night Shyamalan's most critically acclaimed movie, his best movie is the underrated Unbreakable. Sold as a superhero movie, Unbreakable failed to capture the interest of mainstream audiences although the success of his prior film pushed his third movie over the $200 million mark. It is not often that a smart, misunderstood movie can make a killing at the box office and events were set in motion for this movie to fail. It did not fail, and I could not be happier. Unbreakable is more of an anti-superhero movie. Bruce Willis is David Dunn, a normal guy and only survivor of a horrific train accident. He learns that he is invincible and shares the wonder and joy of this new discovery with his son. However, a mysterious man named Elijah becomes very interested in David. Elijah is also known as Mr. Glass, a man born with a rare disease which allows his bones to break during the smallest incidents. The two men are polar opposites. There is a situation where David must use his superhuman powers to save someone, but that is never an important part of this story. Unbreakable is a story showing an ordinary man faced with an overwhelming situation. Samuel L. Jackson is amazing in his portrayal of Mr. Glass and Willis is solid in his everyman persona. The movie came with the spoiler that there was a twist, much like The Sixth Sense. It earned Shyamalan the dubious distinction of being a director who relies on twists to tell his stories. This is unfair, especially in this circumstance. I watched the movie in the theater and awaited the big twist but left with a great appreciation of the filmmaker Shyamalan is. The end was not a "twist" in the manner that The Sixth Sense was a twist. Unbreakable is a movie that always asked why what happened to David happened and the end of the movie answers that question. It is a great end to an amazing movie. Shyamalan may have gotten a bad reputation after movies like The Village (his biggest twist of all) but his first two mainstream movies prove he is an amazing director when working with great material. Unbreakable remains his masterpiece.

1. TWELVE MONKEYS Directed by Terry Gilliam Written by David and Janet Peoples Cast: Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, Madeleine Stowe, Jon Seda, Frank Gorshin, David Morse, Christopher Plummer, Christopher Meloni Bruce Willis became huge by the mid nineties. While he started as a comedy star, he soon morphed into an action hero, the everyman version of Stallone or Schwarzenegger. He made his name as Office John McClain, the put upon cop from the Die Hard movies. He steadied the course for a number of action flicks, some misunderstood (Hudson Hawk), some great (The Last Boy Scout) and others derivative (Striking Distance). By the end of 1993, Willis had worked himself into a dangerous trap, stereotyped as an action hero. In 1995, he was given something totally different, a movie more brilliant than anything he had yet encountered. Visionary mastermind Terry Gilliam directed Willis as the lead in his latest movie, 12 Monkeys. Willis is James Cole, a prisoner from the future sent back to the past to stop whatever catastrophic event destroyed the planet and made life almost uninhabitable. The problem is no one knows exactly what happened but believes it was caused by a group of individuals known as the 12 Monkeys. The movie was not Gilliam's original idea, much like Fisher King, and he was placed in a package with a prewritten script (by David Peoples) and a cast of big name actors (Willis, Brad Pitt, Madeleine Stowe). What resulted is the most original film of Bruce Willis' career and one of Gilliam's best. While Willis is upstaged by an amazing Brad Pitt, everyone in this movie turns in top notch performances. The movie involves a time travel paradox. Can a man change the future by making changes in the past? It also contains a number of interesting elements as Cole is doubted at every step of the way and placed in a mental institution, deemed insane. The best part of the movie involves fate, questioning whether the future can be changed or does everything Cole goes through lead to his predestined fate, a circle that he may live through forever. The movie also ends with a glimmer of hope. While Cole is predestined, is there still hope for the world? It was Bruce Willis' first foray into science fiction and remains his best.

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