Bruce Willis & Hayden Christensen team up for generically-titled First Kill

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Man, I want a Bruce Willis who gives a shit back. It's not like he can't still give a great performance (just look at the recent MOONRISE KINGDOM). It's just that he seems content to do basically two-day walk-ons in Rebox action movies while half-comatose. Even during action scenes he seems bored.

This brings us to FIRST KILL, which also stars Hayden Christensen. The plot, according The Hollywood Reporter

centers on a police chief (Willis) who tries to solve a case that involves a bank robber holding a young boy hostage. Christensen will play the man whose son is taken hostage after he accidentally witness [sic] a thug shooting a bank thief while on a hunting trip. He's racing against a ticking clock to rescue his son, while at the same time the police chief begins to wonder whether or not he played a role in the bank heist.

Yawn. 

I mean, it could be great. Many action films have boring loglines if you strip everything else away. LETHAL WEAPON: "two cops stop heroin ring", DIE HARD: "guy stuck in building", COBRA: "lone cop goes after serial killer gang". Okay, maybe it doesn't work for COBRA, but you get my point. It's all in the characters and execution.

Which is what has me worried. I think Christensen gets a lot of undue hate (he's great in SHATTERED GLASS), but he can't elevate material. And Bruce Willis always looks like he's addicted to Ambien in these types of films.  

 But we'll have to wait and see. Maybe Christensen and Willis will be the new Murtaugh/Riggs?