One ofBruce Willis’ final movies before heretired from acting in 2022has shot up the streaming charts and is a number one hit on Prime Video. As the iconic star of theDie Hardseries, Willis is one ofthe most recognizable action heroes of all time, having shot, kicked, and punched his way through countless blockbusters.
With an impressive career,Willis’ workstands for itself, and there are plenty of hidden gems that showcase his range beyond the action genre, ashe’s taken on everything from horror classics likeThe Sixth Senseto quirky whimsy inMoonrise Kingdom. With so many roles to his name, audiences are now revisiting one of his final films on streaming.
Gasoline Alley Is Number 1 On Prime Video
Bruce Willis Starred As Detective Bill Freeman
The action thrillerGasoline Alleyhas found belated success as a top hit on Prime Video in the United States this week. WithBruce Willis as Detective Bill Freeman, this fast-paced, straight-to-video release received poor reviews at the time as critics dismissed this story of detectives uncovering a vast conspiracy following a triple homicide as cliché-ridden and predictable.
The action thrillerGasoline Alleyhas found belated success as a top hit on Prime Video in the United States this week.
However, this dark thriller featured an enjoyable late-career performance from Willis, alongside Luke Wilson as his fellow detective and Devon Sawa as the man implicated in the murders. Coming from writer-director Edward John Drake, Willis frequently worked with this filmmaker in the final years of his career in movies likeCosmic Sin,Apex,American Siege, andDetective Knight: Rogue.
Why Bruce Willis Stopped Making Movies
Willis Retired From Acting For Health Reasons In 2022
The final years of Bruce Willis’ career were a period of unfortunate decline, as he appeared in many low-budget sci-fi and action movies. With a string of widely panned direct-to-video releases coming out in rapid succession in the early 2020s, concerns around Willis’s cognitive state were raised (viaLA Times) as he often appeared confused on set.
In 2022, the same year thatGasoline Alleywas released on VOD,it was confirmed that Willis was suffering from aphasia, a disorder typically caused by damage to the area of the brain that controls language expression and comprehension (viaVariety.) In 2023, Willis’s family announced that he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (viaCNN.)
Gasoline Alleyhas an 84% audience score onRotten Tomatoes.
WhileGasoline Alleymay not be one of Willis’ most acclaimed movies, it was made during a particularly challenging time for the former action star, and its success on streaming highlights his enduring appeal. Whether revisiting classics likeDie Hardor checking out lesser-known direct-to-video titles, it’s clear Willis’s impact on cinema has been significant.
