White Elephant

White Elephant (2022) is a Heartfelt Send Off For Bruce Willis. After announcing earlier this year that Bruce Willis would be stepping away from acting, due to his Aphasia diagnosis, it is hard not the watch White Elephant with that in mind. However, White Elephant is much more than a swan song to this beloved action star, it is a very good action romp.

The film is the long delayed brain child of former stunt man, writer, and Director Jesse V. Johnson. The plot is simple-"When two cops witness an assassination attempt, a ruthless crime boss orders Gabriel Tancredi, an ex-Marine turned mob enforcer, to eliminate any and all threats." However, like many Johnson films the plot is just the pretext for showcasing the rich characters and launching point for great action and violence.

Johnson has a penchant for broken characters with characteristics that make it hards not to look past their awful deeds, and be romanced by them in their quasi-redemption. This is true whether he is is the writer and Director of his own material like Savage Dog, Accident Man, or the brilliant Debt Collector films; or whether he is Directing someone else's story, like Nina Bergman in the masterful, Hell Hath No Fury. Michael Rooker has the distinction of filling these shoes in White Elephant as the nearly retired, mob enforcer faced with a dramatic choice to do what he was hired to do, or do what he believes is right. This is his best performance, by far. He is very memorable in this role.

Olga Kuryenko is equally broken as the subject of the mob's pursuit, and she does a good job holding her own as the tough cop fighting to survive. While not a true buddy film, she is a good compliment to Rooker.

The supporting characters are well supported by a strong cast, many that afficionados of Johnson's films might recognize. Vadhir Derbez is very watchable as the young upstart looking to make a name for himself in the mob world. I couldn't help being reminded of Ross McCall's performance as another Gabriel Tancredi in Johnson's The Beautiful Ones, a very underrated film. John Malkovich has a small role as a mob lawyer, but not one second he is on the screen is wasted-this is Malkovich in top form.

As for Willis-you can not un-know what you know about his medical condition while making this film. I read a lot of speculation and commentary about his performance in light of it. As for me I will refer to a prior review of a "B" rated, straight to video performance by Willis; "When Bruce Willis is in the movie you almost always know what you are going to get and even when the film is bad there is still Bruce Willis." Nothing has changed my opinion in this good film about Willis's performance.

The cinematography, action, and violence is at the level you can expect from a Jesse V. Johnson film. No modern filmmaker can do more with a modest film budget (reported at $15 million) than Johnson. His films are fun to watch and White Elephant is no exception. Violence, gun play, and bloodshed abound, and is well placed.

While I have been fortunate enough to interview Johnson twice I am still amazed at how deep his appreciation and homage to good film runs. This film has homage to other great films, old and newer, classics, and even to Johnson's prior films. Derbez's character opines, late in the film, that it "is like a f@cking Western." Yes, I would agree, White Elephant (2022) is a modern western, or, at least, a tribute to Westerns.

I love Johnson films. I recommend White Elephant.

White Elephant premiered on AMC+ and is streaming on multiple PPV services.

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.

Okay, Michael Rooker is a character actor who you know and love but for love nor money do you know his name?

This is an odd film - if not for Willis and Malcovich, it would be a B movie, but it's a good one - IMHO.

LOTS of bad guys! Tons of shoot 'em ups. No car chases.

The elephant in the room is Bruce Willis. Yes, this isn't his best, but he's still Bruce freaking Willis! I'm betting John Malcovich came along for the ride to be with his buddy Bruce. That's what friends do.

This is not Emmy or Globe material, but it's a fun movie to help pass a rainy afternoon or dull evening. Enjoy it for what it is.

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.

The villains in this movie are the dumbest ones ever. They act so stupid that it's impossible for them to survive till that age in their own movie realm. I don't know how and why people give green light to such movies. It's one of those 'traps' with 'Bruce Willis' and 'John Malkovich' written with caps to lure innocent film freaks.