A Forgotten Action Comedy With Bruce Willis Is Hitting Netflix's Top Charts 14 Years Later

If you're not up for contributing to "Deadpool & Wolverine" absolutely obliterating the box office, you can always turn to streaming for your entertainment fix. Of course, as we all know by now, doing so is somewhat akin to wading into a dangerous and stagnant swamp from which you might never escape. Everyone has experienced the despair that comes with endlessly scrolling streaming catalogs wondering how, when everything is at our fingertips, there's nothing to watch. Well, now a real hero has arrived in the form of Bruce Willis.

Yes, the man himself may have retired from acting following his 2023 diagnosis of frontotemporal degeneration, but he remains a hero to us all, and is proving his remarkably enduring appeal once again. This time, he's doing just that by cutting through the murk of the Netflix swamp with 2010's "Red," an adaptation of Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner's comic book series of the same name that fared pretty decently when it first debuted in theaters and which is now climbing the Netflix most-watched charts 14 years later.

Directed by Robert Schwentke, "Red" saw Willis play retired black-ops agent Frank Moses, who after being targeted by corrupt CIA agents, assembles his old squad to defend himself. That squad is made up of equally beloved stars such as Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren, who are all having a grand time playing their action roles for comedy. But Willis himself is by far the best of the bunch, keeping the comedy understated and coming off all the better for it.

However that sounds to you, it seems Netflixers are lapping up "Red," which has quietly crept onto the streamer's charts with the intent to carry out a stealth kill on none other than Tom Cruise, who currently occupies the top spot.

"Red" and "Red 2" hit Netflix August 1, 2024, and according to streaming viewership tracker FlixPatrol, the original movie landed on the most-watched charts in the U.S. as of August 5, hitting number eight. The site also shows "Red" remained in the number eight spot for the following day, but a quick look at the Netflix homepage reveals the movie is now at number six. If this upward trajectory continues, Tom Cruise might want to watch out for Bruce Willis and his band of retired black-ops agents. Cruise's "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back" is currently in the number one spot on the Netflix U.S. charts, which alongside the Netflix success of "Red" suggests audiences stateside are in the mood for some pretty okay action.

In order to claim that number one spot, though, "Red" will have to contend with the might of Rotten Tomatoes flop "Tarot," which has inexplicably extended its run in the most-watched charts after arriving at number three following its August 1 debut. But "Tarot" isn't all that stands between "Red" and streaming supremacy. The original Tom-Cruise-led Jack Reacher outing is currently at number five, but the real challenge will be overcoming the formidable SpongeBob and Trolls, who currently occupy the second and third spots with "Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie" and "Trolls: Band Together."

Can "Red" do it? Well, thanks to the Netflix success of Michael Fassbender flop "The Snowman" in 2023, we know for sure that streaming audiences will watch pretty much anything. Now, "Red" is no "Snowman," so it has every chance at toppling Cruise and claiming the top spot over the next week or so.

Is "Red" actually worth your time? Well, that depends what you're looking for. We at /Film listed Frank Moses as one of Bruce Willis' best roles, so it's got that working for it. What it doesn't have working for it, however, is an outstanding critical response. If you check Rotten Tomatoes, you'll see the film is certified fresh with a 72% rating, which obviously bodes well. But peel this particular tomato and you'll see that just 57% of top critics liked this 2010 outing, and the average score they gave it was just 5.8 out of 10 — yet another reminder of how deceiving these RT scores actually are.

Still, audiences seemed to like "Red," with 72% giving the film a positive appraisal. That would somewhat account for the film's Netflix resurgence if we weren't also aware of the Netflix effect, whereby any film that looks relatively new in the "Recently Added" category has a good chance of charting. The streamer has managed to combat subscriber churn with a combination of consistent original productions and repurposing forgotten films and TV shows. "Red," much like Tom Cruise's Jack Reacher movies, is just the latest to benefit from the latter.

That said, it's a much better a proposition than "Tarot" or Kevin Hart's "Lift," which arrived on Netflix earlier this year and should have prompted a global existential crisis but instead ended up topping the streamer's charts. If you must venture into the streaming swamp, then, you can do a lot worse than watching true hero Bruce Willis poke fun at his action movie bonafides.