Shortly before retiring due to his aphasia diagnosis in 2022, Bruce Willis appeared in dozens of direct-to-video releases. Among them was the 2021 crime thriller Midnight in the Switchgrass, in which Bruce Willis stars as FBI Agent Karl Helter, alongside Megan Fox as his partner, Rebecca Lombardo. Like most of the Die Hard star’s late-era films, it was critically panned, but somehow, someway, it’s finding an audience on Netflix.
Despite hits like Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Friday, and Sicario all recently joining the Netflix library, Midnight in the Switchgrass has topped all of them on Netflix’s Top 10 Movies chart. The movie follows two FBI agents who cross paths with a notorious serial killer. Although it’s set in Florida, the movie is based on the true story of Robert Ben Rhoades, aka the Truck Stop Killer, who is suspected of having killed more than 50 people between 1975 and 1990.
In addition to Willis and Fox, the movie also stars Emile Hirsch as Florida Department of Law Enforcement Agent Byron Crawford, Lukas Haas as serial killer Peter Hillborough, and Megan Fox’s partner, Colson Baker (Machine Gun Kelly) as a pimp named Calvin.
As evidenced by the movie’s 8% score on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s clear that a decent cast wasn’t nearly enough to save this crime thriller from the bottom of the bargain bin.
Here are some of the highlights from the reviews of Midnight in the Switchgrass:
- “Midnight in the Switchgrass is the type of crime thriller that’s so full of cliches that it becomes one big cliche itself.” – RogerEbert.com
- “Randall Emmett’s directorial debut is virtually indistinguishable from the scores of cheap VOD action thrillers that he’s produced to date.” – Slant Magazine
- “The movie, which bills itself as a crime-thriller-mystery, doesn’t come close to fulfilling even the lowest of expectations.” – The Hollywood Reporter
Of course, not everyone scrolling through Netflix looking for something new to watch is looking up the review scores for every movie they pick. Sometimes, it’s more fun to play Netflix roulette and see if the movie you picked is a winner or a stinker.
That said, it’s worth pointing out that Bruce Willis has about five minutes of screen time. In fact, director Randall Ives Emmett is known for pioneering an entire genre of films known as “geezer teasers,” in which a notable movie star of yesteryear appears prominently on the poster and in the trailer, but only shows up for a few minutes in the actual movie.
That strategy appears to be paying dividends on Netflix.
