Bruce Willis has been on autopilot for a while. Push a pile of cash his way and he’ll star in anything, resulting in a string of abysmal straight-to-VOD duds like Hard Kill, Breach, Survive the Night, and Trauma Center. Despite being front and center on the posters, Willis generally plays a supporting role in these movies and expends the minimum effort needed to pick up his cheque. But now, for some reason, one of his worst is currently climbing the Netflix charts: Cosmic Sin.
The film opens with first contact being made with an alien race and Frank Grillo’s General Eron Ryle is growing impatient with politicians dragging their heels about the response. He chooses to go over their heads and assemble a team of experts, which includes Willis as war hero James Ford. They decide that Earth must strike first, with Ford picking a small group of soldiers who will take the fight to the aliens.
If you think that sounds like a fun premise then think again. Cosmic Sin sits at an eyewatering 3% on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics calling it “convoluted nonsense”, “an excruciating watch”, and “absolutely witless”. But the public clearly disagrees, as it’s got a decent 66% positive rating with more than 500 reviews. I still wouldn’t advise watching it, but there could be something to like here. Maybe.
Bruce Willis has a whole bunch of films of this ilk in various stages of production, most with super generic titles like A Day to Die, Killing Field and Out of Death. But there are also the rumors of him returning to his most iconic role in Die Hard: Year One, rumored to be both a prequel and sequel to the Die Hard franchise. Then again, given how crap A Good Day to Die Hard was, maybe it’s best that John McClane stays in retirement.