Multiple terrible movies were produced by Bruce Willis in the last year and that was why he was honored by Razzies for having his own category. And now, please drum roll, the Worst Performance by Bruce Willis in a 2021 Movie. I can assure you all that Willis is on course to achieve this honor once again. Gasoline Alley is a disaster masquerading as a crime noir thriller. The story starts with a tattoo parlor owner who has been framed investigating the murder of four prostitutes. However, its terrible execution is slightly saved by Luke Wilson’s snarkiness-a little.
Gasoline Alley occurs within the unclean underbelly of Los Angeles. The title refers to Jimmy Jayne’s tattoo parlor (played by Devon Sawa). While drinking alone at a bar, an attractive prostitute named Star approaches him.
Although Jimmy turns down her services, he gives her Gasoline Alley lighter; at work next day LAPD detectives Vargas (Luke Wilson) and Freeman (Bruce Willis) approach him. Star was one of four women found dead in a motel.
All signs point to Jimmy: he had been seen with Star prior to her death; his fingerprints are on the lighter; Jimmy knows that someone is setting him up; thus he decides to call upon help from Kenny Wormald who happens to be very popular among stars of screen. This will lead him to drugs, corruption, and pornography.
Gasoline Alley doesn’t make sense as a film noir mystery either because there are characters during which Jayne ran into them randomly whose role it was supposed to offer support made no sense at all or because we knew where his gumshoe investigation was headed early on.“Original” script aside though there could have been much scope for improving the story especially if several scenes in act two had been edited differently or even an additional subplot concerning love interest with Kat Foster removed completely but maybe there were some more details about their relationship that had been cut and it eventually turned out to be a filler in a bad movie.
Good action scenes can sometimes save a film from being terrible. Unfortunately, that’s not the case here. The car chases and gunplay were bad. However, Devon Sawa did manage to make one good fight scene out of an otherwise total flop of an action sequence. One beatdown doesn’t make up for lackluster action. It is also amusing that Jimmy Jayne becomes an expert marksman during the end game. Something he hadn’t shown any inclination for earlier.
Bruce Willis does not seem interested in Gasoline Alley at all. He has done some bad movies with Edward John Drake but this is his worst performance yet. You can see how uninterested he is in the character he plays on screen. I must admit Devon Sawa and Luke Wilson actually earned their paychecks.
Director Edward John Drake (Cosmic Sin, Apex) puts style over substance which means that Jimmy Jayne smokes like chimney as he moves around a red and blue Los Angeles although there was also something hilarious about Vargas and Freeman police station clearly being somewhere in Georgia while they were investigating Star’s disappearance.Drake uses black and white flashbacks to show Jimmy remembering Star in quick moments.Subtle visual representation does not justify the failure of the picture itself.
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