Bruce Willis' Forgotten Crime Comedy Has Resurrected Itself on Free Streaming

2 days ago 11

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On paper, The Whole Nine Yards had all the right ingredients to be a hit back in 2000: Bruce Willis, still riding high as one of Hollywood’s most reliable action stars; Matthew Perry, at peak Friends fame and clearly eyeing a bigger movie career; and a slick studio hook about a notorious hitman moving in next door to a painfully neurotic dentist. The movie did just fine financially during a brutally competitive box office weekend — but critics were far less convinced.

Now streaming for free on Tubi, The Whole Nine Yards plays like a time capsule from a very specific era of Hollywood comedy. It's kind of a hodgepodge of various genres, none of which it apes particularly convincingly. For example, it’s a gangster comedy that rarely lands big laughs, a buddy movie where the chemistry is more curious than combustible, and, in retrospect, a bittersweet footnote in Perry’s film career following his passing in 2024.

What Is 'The Whole Nine Yards' About?

Perry parachutes in Chandler Bing, because it works, but this is a crime-comedy so it's a little bit daft. He twitches, panics, overthinks, and spirals, as you'd expect. And to be honest, Perry is a solid straight man, delivering exactly what you’d want from him: sharp timing, nervous charm, and a likable sense of vulnerability. The movie never quite proves he was meant to be a full-fledged rom-com movie star, but he’s doing the job he was hired to do.

Willis, meanwhile, is very much in autopilot here. He’s cool, understated, and effortlessly charming, coasting on the same low-effort charisma that carried him through much of the ’90s. The contrast between Willis’ calm assassin and Perry’s frantic dentist is the movie’s main selling point, even if their chemistry never really sparks. It’s less fireworks, more mild curiosity — but that odd imbalance is part of the appeal.

Where The Whole Nine Yards struggles is execution. For a movie built around absurd criminal hijinks, the comedy is surprisingly muted. It's not an overly complicated film, and whatever twists it has feel more mechanical than clever, and the script often seems more invested in keeping its story straight than actually being funny. Still, there’s something weirdly endearing about how hard it tries. Fun fact: When it hit theaters in February 2000, Perry was competing against Friends co-stars Lisa Kudrow (Hanging Up) and Courteney Cox (Scream 3) — and The Whole Nine Yards ended up winning that box office showdown.

The Whole Nine Yards is streaming now on Tubi.