Nicolas Cage has, unfortunately, become a joke in recent years. For every great performance he gives (JOE) there are a dozen more that are painfully bad (LEFT BEHIND, for example). It has also become apparent that former DIE HARD superstar Bruce Willis is nearing that same level of bad. In the past decade, while Willis has starred in big studio fare like A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD, RED 2, and G.I. JOE: RETALIATION, he has had a half dozen films go direct to Redbox/On Demand. Willis’ latest, VICE, premiered on demand the same day as in theaters, and we weren’t kind in our review either.
That pattern appears to be continuing with the news that Willis will take the lead in director Steven C. Miller’s EXTRACTION. Here’s the plot.
Willis plays a former CIA operative who hasn’t been the same since his wife was murdered. His son is a fresh young CIA operative following in his footsteps and with his father they are working on the development of a super-weapon called the Condor, when dad is kidnapped by a terrorist group. Learning that there is no plan for his father to be saved, Harry launches his own rescue operation. It leads to a conspiracy that will change his life forever.
While that description sounds like any number of recent Nicolas Cage movies, there could still be hope for the film, but I wouldn’t count on it. The director’s last film was the 2012 remake of SILENT NIGHT with Malcolm McDowell. EXTRACTION will also be distributed by Lionsgate who still has a large number of these types of films released each year without much of a theatrical showcase.
While Bruce Willis is still a bankable actor, he is starting to take jobs that look like he is simply doing it for the money and doesn’t care about the quality. Hopefully this is just a hiccup and not a portent of things to come.