10 Good Bruce Willis Movies

These 10 good Bruce Willis movies are being submitted in honor of the upcoming release of Cop Out, a comedy co-starring Tracy Morgan and directed by Kevin Smith. Since his first uncredited film role as “Man Entering Diner” in 1980’s The First Deadly Sin, Willis has grown to become one of the most iconic actors working today. He’s impregnated Demi Moore (three times), released semi-awful albums that fuse pop and blues, and showed off his comic timing as David Addison Jr. on the innovative television series Moonlighting. Willis has seemingly done it all, and here are 10 of his finest works ever committed to film.

• Blind Date (1987) – While still starring on Moonlighting, Willis made this madcap comedy featuring plenty of physical comedy. He plays Walter Davis, an average guy who gets set up on a blind date with his sister-in-law’s cousin, a blonde hottie named Nadia (Kim Basinger). Things are going well at first, but then Nadia begins to drink, something which Walter had been warned about beforehand. To complicate matters, Walter finds that they’re being stalked by Nadia’s jealous boyfriend, David (John Larroquette). Directed by Blake Edwards.
• Die Hard (1988) – John McClane is a New York cop who visits L.A. during the holidays to spend time with his estranged wife. But as luck would have it, his arrival at Nakatomi Plaza coincides with that of a group of international thieves (led by the wonderful Alan Rickman). While everyone else is held hostage, McClane sneaks through the corridors and vents in his bare feet, slowly whittling down the number of bad guys. In my opinion, the single greatest action movie ever made.
• Hudson Hawk (1991) – Critics and audiences hated it, but I still maintain that this absurdist comedy is worth a look. Willis plays Eddie “Hudson Hawk” Hawkins, a noted burglar who’s just been released from prison. But before he can kick back and enjoy a cappuccino, he’s forced into pulling a series of art heists. He also has to contend with the C.I.A., the mob, a lovely Vatican agent (Andie MacDowell), and a pair of deranged American industrialists (Richard E. Grant and Sandra Bernhard). Willis sings, Willis dances, and Willis gets hit on the head accompanied by sound effects.
• Pulp Fiction (1994) – Broken into several non-sequential tales, Quentin Tarantino’s violent crime film set the movie world on its ear in 1994. Willis stars as Butch, an over-the-hill boxer who screws over the mob and tries to get out of L.A. unscathed. But in order to do so, he’ll have to dodge hitmen, an angry crime boss played by Ving Rhames, a pair of hillbilly rapists, and a leather-clad gimp.
• Twelve Monkeys (1995) – In the year 2035, a convict named James Cole (Willis) volunteers to be sent back in time in order to prevent a virus that forced mankind to live underground. Arriving in the wrong year, he gets thrown in an asylum and meets Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt), an environmentalist believed to be responsible for the initial outbreak. Has Cole got the right man? And what about those recurring dreams he’s been having involving a shootout in an airport?
• The Fifth Element (1997) – Korben Dallas (Willis) is a former military specialist who’s now retired to the life of a cab driver. When a beautiful alien named Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) falls into his life (literally), he gets involved in a race to save Earth from the approaching force known only as the Great Evil. Gary Oldman plays a villainous weapons dealer, and Chris Tucker is annoying intergalactic DJ Ruby Rhod. Directed by Luc Besson, The Fifth Element is part action movie, part romance, part comedy, part science fiction, and all fun.
• The Sixth Sense (1999) – This monster hit paired Willis with gloomy-faced Haley Joel Osment, a kid who sees dead people. Willis plays a child psychologist who tries to help him deal with his unusual ability, all the while coping with the disintegration of his marriage and the feeling that something isn’t quite right. There’s a major twist at the end, which was largely responsible for the film’s positive word of mouth.
• Unbreakable (2000) – Once again teaming up with director M. Night Shyamalan, Willis stars as David Dunn, a security guard who’s the lone survivor of a train wreck. Walking away without a scratch, he’s soon approached by the mysterious Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson), a fragile mastermind who’s convinced that Dunn is a real-life superhero. The ending is a bit of a letdown, but the rest of the film is all kinds of fascinating.
• The Whole Nine Yards (2000) – Bruce plays a notorious hitman, Jimmy “The Tulip” Tudeski, who moves to Canada to hide out after testifying against a Chicago crime family. He befriends a neurotic dentist named Oz (Matthew Perry), and romance soon blooms between the Tulip and Oz’s receptionist (Amanda Peet). But that mob family hasn’t stopped looking for Jimmy, and soon plenty of comical intrigues are taking place.
• Sin City (2005) – Divided into a number of overlapping stories, this Robert Rodriguez film is adapted straight from the works of comic writer/artist Frank Miller. Willis stars in the section titled That Yellow Bastard, portraying an aging cop who tries to save a young woman (Jessica Alba) from a murderous yellow-skinned child molester (Nick Stahl).

If you’d like to buy one of these 10 good Bruce Willis movies from Amazon, just click on the links provided in this article. They’ll take you right to the Internet’s leading retailer, and we’ll even get a small amount of change for sending you there. In the meantime, check out the following posts from Only Good Movies:

• 21 Most Anticipated Films of 2010
• 100 Sci Fi Movies to See Before You Die
• 25 Movies to Watch with Dad on Father’s Day

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