White Elephant - Codice criminale

This is not just another B-movie. And it aint another Bruce Willis flop either. Seriously. I have been watching ALL of Bruce Willis' movies lately and this one is actually not too bad. Not great either...but enjoyable enough for the Bruce Willis fans.

Director Jesse V Johnson has proven to be able to make lots of solid, tough and enjoyable B-movies throughout the last years and this is another decent one.

Excellent acting performance by Michael Rooker, who performs a leading role (baddie AND good guy in one), sharing a leading credit with Olga Kurlyenko, who is a highly skilled soldier.

The story: Bruce Willis is a mobster boss who orders a cop (Olga Kurylenko) to be killed. All hell breaks loose after that, WITH LOTS AND LOTS OF SHOOTOUTS.

This movie stands a bit out (in a good way) from other B-movies, because of the attention for detail, with good photography, a decent soundtrack and a story about family bonds.

Any bad? It it a bit slow now and then. And there are some credibility issues in the story and direction. But I am nitpicking, because in the end this is simply a mindless action B-movie, with great actors starring in it. It'll do...

At an important end note: This is one of Bruce Willis' LAST movies he will EVER make, because Bruce is retiring from acting, due to severe bad health, because he is suffering from a neurological disease which affects his speech and facial expressions. Really tragic!

Let us not forget WHY we are watching Bruce Willis movies to begin with. We watch Bruce Willis movies because of DIE HARD (1988). THE ONE AND ONLY BIGGEST ACTION AMERICAN ACTION CLASSIC OF THE CENTURY.

This classic is still standing strong after more than 30 years. Millions of people still REwatch it during every Christmas holiday. Recently a petition was launched to rename Nakatomi Plaza into DIE HARD plaza.

A life time achievement award for Bruce Willis is in the making as well, so I have heard...

DIE HARD (1988) NEVER DIES but is still ALIVE AND KICKING in 2022.

Let's celebrate that...

This film isn't a masterpiece at all, it's not terrible, but not good either. I enjoyed John Malkovich's two scenes which both included with his Ancient Greek history lessons, but didn't really see why he was even in the film whatsoever, his scenes were pretty pointless.

The actual story is a bit of a mess, but also somewhat simplistic, and the dialogue was pretty poor throughout, its like an amature wrote half of what the cast were saying.

Few too many plot contravenes throughout. The action, although comical at times, was actually good. Good action with a decent amount of gore, and a flying head near the end.

Sadly though,Bruce Willis is just a shell of his former self, how the mighty have fallen, and it's quite sad. You could tell he just filmed his scenes in about 60 minutes, and didn't really do a good job delivering his lines, just pretty much said them.

Went into this film with really low expectations but it turned out to be a silly yet slightly amusing action film. Wouldn't exactly go out of my way to watch it or recommend it to anyone, but I wasn't exactly bored for 90 minutes.

But when you have sub-par writers and director, even the all star casting of John Malkovich and Michael Rooker couldn't save this film. It was your typical inane B film with a cliched story and nonsense constant gun fights. Stuntman turned seasoned writer and director Jesse Johnson gave us a typical bad B production with annoyingly loud and unfitting typical B film score, a lazy script (jointly written by three writers) and terrible directing. Even casting Olga Kurylenko as the tough-gal was cringe and unconvincing, and I'm sure part of that blame falls on Johnson's failure to direct his cast properly. You can tell this is the film where Willis started having health issues, but a good director could've easily hidden that. It's an ok one time watch, especially if you're a fan of the leads. It's a generous 6/10 from me, mostly for Rooker's outstanding performance and Malkovich's small but welcoming contribution.

My guess is that some of these reviewers are not very informed movie people. I dont think they have heard the news regarding Bruce Willis health.(Quite a while ago) The announcement of his stepping away from acting due to health reasons (Aphasia) . Which directly affecting his ability to perform to his highest level. A lot of actors have contracts even before a movie is made. He stuck it through and fulfilled that. Thats honorable...give him a break a already & be informed before you judge.

I suspect this was actually written by a 12-year-old and some of his buddies. It was comically bad from the start. I never saw so many people get wasted while standing around jabbering with someone with a gun while they themselves had guns hanging at their sides as if they had no idea what was about to happen. And then there were the gunfights in the middle of the night in residential areas that apparently had been evacuated.

You never really know what the motivation is for any of it, and poor Bruce Willis is so stiff it's sad to see. I guess they got him for the name recognition, but they could have used literally any older actor for his part - or merely grabbed someone off the street and fed him lines the way they likely fed them to Bruce.

Malkovich has become one of those actors whose movies you want to avoid, as I haven't seen him in anything good for some time, and he pretty much plays the same part in all of his later films. Olga K. Is also an actress who, while nice to look at, typically only plays in dogs.

But I did give this a four because I think it has some entertainment value as a comedy, as I was laughing out loud through parts, and it definitely isn't short on action. It's nothing more than a time waster, but I've wasted time watching worse.