BRUCE WILLIS RETIRES. SORTA?
He MIGHT have to retire. He has not died yet. Write no obituaries. YET. Points to note:
1:
Yes, Willis has a degenerative brain condition. It will impair his cognitive functions, notably, the processing of thoughts to speech and back again. But no. He does not have dementia and for all the talk of mortality and a loss to the screen? There will be many moments of clarity and indeed, speech, in the months and years hence.
Bruce has a blended family. They adore him. Money is not a problem, at least not yet. And an adoring army of fans will will him to WIN this. Nobody knows what medical breakthroughs can be made. If he does retreat, entirely? It is into love, safety and a well earned rest, leaving a legacy of great work.
2:
Good actor. Great actor. And yet not greatly good? I will not rank Willis as one of the pantheon in the greatest actors of all time list. No way. But to say he was merely a movie star is to neglect many of his finest hours on screen. Vanity was not a feature of the back catalogue.
DEATH BECOMES HER: he plays a wally. MORTAL THOUGHTS: Pure evil! IN COUNTRY: The pain of the veteran, personified, perfectly so. I could go on and on. The man had some range and experimented across genres, notably via the likes of PULP FICTION and all those M Night movies.
3:
DIE HARD gave us a macho, cocky, hilarious, competent everyman hero, who could be vulnerable without ever being weak. Mostly thanks to Bruce Willis.
There are two lessons here. First: one never knows what goes on behind the scenes. Second: no self flagellation because one did not know. Willis would hate that and yes, he DID have ‘form’ for being a bit moody on occasion and we all loved him for that, anyway.
On that note..
..WILL SMITH?
He did the honourable thing and quit the Academy. Let’s just leave it at that, shall we? Seriously. He slapped someone. Bad. But he was left in a tough position, has severe childhood trauma from watching a man beat his mother and is riddled with self doubt and inadequacy in consequence; triggered by all sorts of inane question marks over his marriage. Chris Rock would understand, as should we all. The end? I do hope so.
STAR WARS!
They moved the premiere date for OBI WAN KENOBI. But never fret. Instead, that two day hiatus is compensated for, via a TWO episode release. Meantime? Enjoy the wonderful art of MIKE JARVIS. I love his work.
MEMORY?!
It sounded like a spoof. LIAM NEESON plays a hitman with dementia? ffs. And yet? MIGHT boost awareness of that condition and show us Liam can actually ACT as well as beat people up. It is directed by MARTIN CAMPBELL, which bodes well as he did two great Bond films. Neeson of course was mooted for 007. Suspect he would be a far better baddie. Imagine him shouting ‘NO MR BOND I EXPECT YOU TO DIE!’. Go on. Make it happen?!
