Detective Knight: Rogue

This movie is the first part of a trilogy of action movies featuring Bruce Willis, who has unfortunately retired from show business due to some kind of dementia.

From the very first second, this movie wants to be an action thriller from the "good old days" and really doesn't leave out any clichés. Cool sayings, an ageing cop who loves working alone and nasty villains. Edward Drake tries to give the latter in particular a little more depth in his film, but doesn't get past the usual clichés. A pity, really. And unfortunately, these words can also be used to describe the entire movie.

The actors really try to make the best of the thin script, but it's so badly written that most of the dialog sounds like it was written by an AI.

Having seen American Siege and now this movie both with Bruce Willis, it is clear that he just mails it in. He used to be entertaining but now is a complete waste of time.

The script is predictable and the acting wooden. Even the action scenes are poorly executed. Maybe they revived great tax breaks to film on location and show off the city

It is like Bruce just wants to have a few old friends around from movies he has made in the past. For example Trevor Gretzky is in his last two movies; is he a friend of Wayne?

If this is a trilogy I will simply avoid any more of Detective Knight and Mr Willis.

Whoever gave the green light to make this film, should be ashamed. Bruce Willis clearly for the past few years, even before his condition was made public, no longer had the competency to act. Yet studios still sign him to make these cheap DTV films to capitalize on his fame and make a few dollars.

Detective Knight's plot was entirely incoherent and uninteresting with no help from the bland characters. It was difficult watching any scene with Willis, as he can only mutter a few words and nod when spoken to. Unfortunately, due to his illness, his personality and charisma are gone. As a consequence, his supporting cast have to frequently say lines most likely meant for his character or respond in ways that hardly come across as an authentic conversation.

I cannot give any reasons as to why anyone should watch this film, even if you are a die-hard Bruce fan. His name is just being exploited here. Go rewatch him in his old glory, and avoid this at all costs.

Detective Knight: Rouge is directed by Edward Drake and stars Bruce Willis, Beau Mirchoff, Jimmy Jean Louis and Michael Eklund. The story follows veteran detective James Knight (Willis) who pursues a group of thieves from LA to New York after they shoot his partner but soon finds his past conflicting with his current case.

So by now we all know the unfortunate state Bruce Willis has been in which led him to make a bunch of DTV dreck the last few years. Since we're nearing the end of his career I decided to review his last few DTV flicks. I'm pretty sure he has three more in the can (with this being the first in an already filmed trilogy) and Paradise City with John Travolta set to release within a month.

I was a bit surprised to see that this was actually a little more polished and competently helmed than some of Bruce Willis' recent DTV movies. However, as part one of an already planned trilogy, Detective Knight: Rogue suffers from a convoluted plot and a lack of screen time for its main protagonist. Sadly, we don't see Bruce for long stretches of time as the movie focuses on the thieves, as well as a few other side characters that are intertwined with the plot. It's a shame because Bruce is actually giving an okay performance in this. He's in a lot of shots and only on occasion is it noticeable that he had his body double fill in for him. This movie really felt a little more cinematic and you can tell Edward Drake and co. Put more time and effort into this one.

I do also have to give a shoutout to the fact that Bruce does get a cheer-worthy John McClane-like one-liner at the very end that made the entire movie worth sitting through. It's a brief moment that makes me wish more of this movie were like that.

It almost feels like some sort of abuse allowing this to happen and be pushed out. He's visibly not fully cognizant and only has about one line of dialogue, or partial line per scene. The movie despite being low budget or straight to video quality isnt even the issue. Bruce cannot or does not have any actual conversations outside of what feels like broken recorded and put together lines. He even looks aloof in the scenes shot, as if he wandered onto set while filming happened, they saw him and added his name to credits. Its sad. Movie/Story aren't awful but it feels broken to say the least, it hurts to see this happen. Especially onscreen.