As a long-time fan of Bruce Willis, it grew tough watching his movies go from box office gold to straight to video garb. But when news came out of his declining health (he’s since been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia), it became clear why he had moved away from big studio productions and to smaller and easier roles. As a result of his condition, last year Willis’ family announced his retirement from acting. Suddenly movies didn’t seem all that important.

Since 2019 he has appeared in 26 straight direct-to-video movies, many of which used him heavy in their promotions. Interestingly, he only had small supporting roles in most of them. The same is true with “Assassin”, a sci-fi thriller from first-time director Jesse Atlas that turns out to be the final film appearance of Willis’ impressive 43-year career.

Unfortunately “Assassin” is yet another VOD dud but it certainly can’t all be put on Willis. There are several significantly bigger problems that end up dragging the movie down. Based on the short film “Let Them Die Like Lovers”, the movie has a premise that is ripe with potential. But it doesn’t have the budget or (more importantly) the creative know-how to pull it off. And it definitely doesn’t do enough for us to look past the uninspired performances, cringy dialogue, and painfully dull action.

The story (written for the screen by Atlas and Aaron Wolfe) follows Alexa (Nomzamo Mbatha) who is shocked when her husband and fellow U.S. Army soldier Sebastian (Mustafa Shakir) comes back from his tour in a coma. Desperate to learn more about what happened to him, Alexa begins digging and discovers that Sebastian was actually on a super-secret mission working for a man named Valmora (Willis).

Valmora and his associates Olivia (Fernanda Andrade) and Marko (Barry Jay Minoff) makeup a poorly defined black ops team who possess a technology that enables them to digitally map an agent’s consciousness into another person’s body. They can then use that body to carry out all kinds of missions, most notably assassinations. How it all works is anyone’s guess. The movie certainly doesn’t seem to care. All they need to pull it off is a bathtub, a laptop, and something that looks like an old car part (that’s what the movie tries to pass off as state-of-the-art tech).

When Alexa finds Valmora he informs her that a dangerous fixer and smuggler named Adrian (Dominic Purcell) has stolen a tiny piece of their tech that must be recovered if Sebastian is to ever wake up from his coma (don’t ask). So Valmora recruits Alexa to take over the the minds of strangers and assassinate those close to Adrain leaving him vulnerable. Then she can take him out and steal back the tech that can bring back Sebastian.

As you might expect they hit a few snags that by design usually adds tension to a story. That’s not the case here mainly because the movie shows no sense of urgency. There’s no energy or excitement. It toys with thought-provoking ideas and poses some meaty questions especially when digging into the moral queasiness of entering and controlling another’s body. “We kill the bad guys. Someone else takes the fall.” That line alone should provoke some compelling considerations. Unfortunately “Assassin” doesn’t do anything with the boxes it opens up.

And that speaks to the movie’s biggest problem. Yes, “Assassin” is plagued with bad performances throughout and the action never (and I do mean never) gets to room temperature. But it’s the script that turns out to be the biggest liability. The wafer-thin characters fumble through equally shallow (and sometimes astonishingly lame) dialogue. There’s no worthwhile hero or villain. And the story has so many holes it quickly devolves into something impossible to latch onto.

It’s truly heartbreaking to see Willis’ career end on such a sour note. But that doesn’t take away from the years of great characters, great energy, and great personality he has given us. From “Moonlighting” to “Die Hard” to “Pulp Fiction” to “The Sixth Sense” to “Moonrise Kingdom”. What a terrific filmography. And because of that, we will always be grateful. “Assassin” is streaming on Hulu”.

VERDICT – 1.5 STARS