Without any remorse

The true nature of these puppet and opportunistic productions has been widely documented here and elsewhere. The model popularized by crooked producer Randall Emmett (a star at the end of his career paid handsomely for a few days of filming, a pretext scenario… and that’s all) never stops laying moldy DTVs, most often starring ex-John McClane. And they are mostly published in France, to the chagrin of the author of these lines, on the verge of asking for a hardship bonus.

After Anti-Life, Cosmic Sin, Apex and others Out of Deathplace at neither more nor less than an entire trilogy, soberly titled Detective Knight. The first opus, Detective Knight : Rogue failed in our regions on January 3. The second, Detective Knight: Redemptionjust arrived, waiting for the third, Detective Knight : Independance, which shouldn’t be long either. Of course, Bruce Willis only appears there sporadically, when he is supposed to embody the hero of the story. The scenario therefore seems to focus on the secondary characters, played without conviction by Corey Large, Jenn Bird and Alice Comer.

The “originality” of this sequel consists in staging antagonists a little less forgettable than usual, namely a gang of fanatical Santa Clauses. It’s up to Detective Knight to lock them up to find his badge, confiscated at the end of Rogue. Move on, there’s nothing to see, except the usual fuss: tasteless narration, generic sets, artificial stakes and cascading shots… No need to continue the list: the authors themselves worry little about the artistic value of this new financial arrangement.

And besides, they are repeat offenders. Director Edward Drake had already botched Cosmic Sin, Apex, American Siege or Gasoline Alley. His writer-performer-producer Corey Large had written Anti-Life, Cosmic Sin, Apex, American Siege et Paradise City. More generally, the two accomplices and many of their collaborators are more or less wet, to different degrees, in a good package of schemes of the genre. An authentic scavenger mafias, who is basking in the remnants of popularity of one of the most respected action stars of his time.

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Retirement savings plan

And who are we to blame him? It’s the actor’s right to pocket huge checks for a few days of filming. Moreover, he had pushed the exploitation of his image to unprecedented extremes by playing in a Russian advertisement … without moving, thanks to deepfake technology. The Hollywood star system has enough disadvantages to take advantage of its advantages. And the facade Z-series industry will thrive well without it. Just take a look at the vein of mockbusters to be convinced.

Except that the actor’s family explained in an Instagram post last March that he suffered from aphasia, which affects his cognitive abilities. And it is doubtful that the information was unknown to the organizers of this masquerade at the time of signing the contractsespecially since an article from Los Angeles Times lets guess that his state of health was an open secret on the film sets, testimonials in support. Another article of the same Times describes his difficulty in performing certain actions or the presence of an earpiece to recite his lines to him.

Too old for this bullshit

Randall Emmet, who also worked with Willis, claimed to have no knowledge of his illness, an allegation which the journalist reporting his remarks strongly doubts, since he rehired him for many other Z mowed down afterwards. Has the cynicism of the hidden face of the Hollywood iceberg turned into filthy exploitation, in the strict sense of the term? Still, these films previously inspired at best indifference, at worst contempt. Today, they can inspire disgust, even angerparticularly from admirers of Bruce Willis, the very people they originally target.

In the aforementioned press release, it is announced that the actor is retiring. These three Detective Knight will therefore be among the last feature films of his career. And there is no doubt that they will end up in oblivion as soon as their misdeed is accomplished. Thank you for everything, Mr. Willis, and happy retirement!

Detective Knight: Redemption is available on VOD since February 2, 2023 in France