Iconic director Quentin Tarantino came to the defense of Bruce Willis’ recent films, which had been widely criticized for their poor quality. Before Bruce Willis was diagnosed with a rare form of dementia, he appeared in numerous “B-list” movies—films that were often not even shown in theaters. The film industry knew these movies were purely “cash grabs,” with Willis marketed as a star, even though he appeared in them for only a few minutes.
Since 2014, Willis starred in more than 35 such films—12 of which were released in 2022 alone. These projects received overwhelmingly negative reviews, and the *Golden Raspberry Awards* even created a special category for Willis, though it was later canceled after his diagnosis.
However, Tarantino defended these films in his *Video Archives* podcast. The director admitted that he recently watched many of these movies and was impressed by Willis’ performance.
“These films were harshly criticized, with exposé articles and negative reviews written about them,” Tarantino explained. “But I was blown away by Bruce in these films.”
Tarantino acknowledged that in many of these movies, it was clear Willis was working with an earpiece.
“You’ll never see a scene where Bruce delivers a line, someone else delivers a line, and then he responds,” Tarantino continued. “He only says one line at a time, so all the scenes are edited that way. But he somehow makes it work. He doesn’t just phone it in; he puts his heart into it.”
Tarantino went on to praise the films, saying, “I watched about six of them, and they’re really easy to watch. They’re highly entertaining. There’s no classic cinema among them, but those who turn up their noses at these films clearly don’t know what real low-budget cinema is.”
He singled out *”Welcome to Paradise”* (4% on Rotten Tomatoes), *”Hostage”* (20% on Rotten Tomatoes), and *”The Hard Way”* (10% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes) as some of the best of the ones he saw.
