Apex
RLJEEternally and inevitably flailing through the twilight years of his career, Bruce Willis’ trajectory is akin to a soulless and unlikable version of Nicolas Cage. He does not hold the manic charms of a man trying to pay off the debts of buying a dinosaur bone, nor does he carry himself with the fruity charms of someone once heralded as a great actor. Willis never came close to touching the sun, and it shows in his later years of work. With Apex, the clear and uncomfortable truth is that Willis is a half-baked hack supporter, one man who can offer so little for so few in his latest features, which are more often than not some vague sci-fi snooze.
Turning The Hunger Games and The Most Dangerous Game formulas around, Apex sees Willis turn in a performance so unmoved by passion that it’s hard to tell if he’s recording a feature film or an infomercial for car insurance. His character, Thomas Malone, is a snooze. He plods around the various unconvincing sets and, without much fanfare to guide him, is lost as he takes on Neal McDonough and Corey Large. Director Edward Drake should know how to contain Willis by now. After the tragedy-inspired content found in Cosmic Sin, their repertoire with one another should at least perform a functioning, working chemistry. It does not, and for much of Apex, the perplexing reality of a director and actor butting heads on-screen is a resoundingly bad, hilariously poor pairing.
There is little difference between Apex and Cosmic Sin. Both are horribly fantasy-oriented. Both are ingrained with the idea that they must provide the usual throes of the science fiction genre. Flashy colours, shootouts, and a name that people know. It is the late-night entertainment style that saw Steven Seagal survive his darkest periods. Somehow, somewhere, audiences are consuming the lowbrow qualities of Apex. Understanding that is an impossibility. There is nothing within Apex, other than Willis, that would warrant a watch. Even then, the most ardent fans of Willis would admit he has passed his prime. But his prime was twenty years ago, and he troops on through like the soldier of quality he is. Batting away any opportunity to feature in something that resembles quality, Willis’ experience as a performer is wasted, and the opportunities are fewer and fewer for a man of his calibre.
For those faithful few Willis fans, Apex should surely disappoint. The remnants of a career gone stale feature so broadly in this. It is hard to think that Willis was once a trailblazing marker of quality, churning out Die Hard, Pulp Fiction, and Twelve Monkeys. Those days are beyond him, never to return as he powers through seven films in one calendar year. A feat of endurance like no other. Quantity surely beats quality for the man looking to cash in his own name. Good on him. Willis deserves it. But audiences do not deserve the lack of quality his name now carries. He has sullied his reputation by appearing in drivel, and the only way out of that is to disengage with his name and his brand of filmmaking.