Detective Knight: Redemption

It's shocking how a writer and director gets worse instead of better with every film they make. Every time I see BondIt Media Capital having funded a film (all of Edward Drake's flops), I question if BondIt is simply a money laundering front, because there's no way they're making money on all these failed films, and they seem to keep funding every flop film ever made - usually nothing better than a 3/10 rating. Once again, Drake's writing was atrocious, with convoluted and incoherent scenes and dialogue. Literally, there are scenes when various characters blab on and on about nothing. Then there's Drake's directing 90's slow-mo scenes, with faded and blurred flashbacks, that although I saw the first film, still made no sense why those scenes were needed, as they were just meaningless, random events from the first film. As usual, he also failed to direct his cast effectively, as Willis looked barely awake, and Paul Johansson was just too overbearing like he was on speed the entire runtime. I can't believe there's a third and thankfully final film of this trilogy.

I can only assume that before his announcement that he was retiring from the film industry, (Bruce) Willis must have worked overtime to churn out a lot of films before hanging up his guns etc. I didn't immediately notice the following (but it dropped everything into place with the styling of the films unfurling) that the script parts for Bruce were kept very limited -and short- which, would assist greatly in his ability to remember his lines etc; his debilitating sickness makes it hard for him in this subject matter.. As a prequel to the first film its a no go in that it is boringly tame and nothing of value to make it an unforgettable film.

If you saw part 1 then watch this part2 to complete your interest!

James Knight (Bruce Willis) is no longer a cop after the events of the first movie. He is in jail with Casey Rhodes (Beau Mirchoff) as they wait for their trial. A Christmas-themed bank robbery gang led by evil Santa Ricky Conlan (Paul Johansson) is hounding the city.

The first movie is almost passable. I really like Beau Mirchoff in that one. He is able to do the heavy lifting in place of Bruce. Bruce is not doing well. I am surprised to see that he did so many movies in his last year. I am shocked that he did a trilogy of these movies. This one struggles mightily as he becomes more the lead character again. He cannot lead anything at this point in his illness. For some reason, this one turns into a comic book story. They're trying to make evil Santa into a Joker-like figure. It's really bad.

By now we all know the situation. Bruce Willis is in bad health and struggling with early onset dementia. These direct to streaming films are built around him. Rarely has it been more obvious than here. Entire scenes go without him saying a word and the other actors exposition dumping what should have been his dialogue.

While the first Detective Knight film built up a semi interesting villain and a decent motivation for Willis, this one is almost incoherent. The criminal from the first movie is back, and we're supposed to root for him, but his character makes one dumb decision after the next, and for a protagonist, he's not proactive enough.

Willis is barely in it. His former partner is in a wheel chair and all of his scenes should have been Willis's, but they needed someone who can remember their lines.

One major flaw is the film's villain. After a very strong opening scene which actually had me hyped, the villain turns into a cliché crazy preacher guy who wants to topple the system. Seen and heard it all before. As the film goes on, he becomes more and more ridiculous, and so does the motivation of others to follow him. The actor does his best with the role, but it's very badly written. He's the only actor who really puts in an effort. Everyone else sleepwalks through their roles.

The ambient score is effective at first but gets on your nerves after a while, as does the terrible color grading. The movie is way too dark and saturated. The shot blocking isn't bad, but for some reason they decide to shine red and green lights on the actors nonstop. The finale then gets AvP Requiem bad in terms of color grading. It's so dark you can barely make out what's what.

I will say that the opening scene and some of the bank robberies are quite intense, and the chanting is quite effective at building tension.

A pity. If you're looking for one of Bruce's last films, watch Paradise City, which was actually pretty decent.

I don't regret watching the movie but it was okay I can't give it all thumbs up but it was good acting I have seen better Bruce Willis movies in the past but I can't complain too much for a guy who is up in age dealing with health issues, I will say this much it's not one of them movies that I will watch more than one time I do consider myself a somewhat of a Bruce Willis fan he made great movies he is one hell of an actor but this movie could have been better in so many ways i honestly don't know where to I didn't understand a few things about the movie I'm trying not to say too much without spoiling it for someone else.