Credit: Netflix

Almost four years ago, Paradise City barely made a peep at the box office. Despite having Bruce Willis as the lead with John Travolta, this action thriller took in less than $100,000 worldwide during its limited cinema run before it disappeared onto premium video on demand.

Fast-forward to now, though, it has got a second wind on Netflix, climbing platform’s global charts and cracking the Top 10. It just goes to show streaming audiences don’t always fancy the same movies cinema crowds do.

The funny thing is, it looked like a safe bet on paper. Bruce Willis and John Travolta were finally sharing the screen again for the first time since Pulp Fiction, which is enough to get plenty of action fans interested straight away. Then you’ve got Chuck Russell behind the camera, the man who directed The Mask, Eraser, and The Scorpion King.

The story follows Ryan Swan, who heads over to Hawaii after hearing his bounty hunter dad, Ian, was supposedly killed on a mission. Ryan reckons there is more to it than meets the eye, so he teams up with Ian’s former partner to start digging around. Before long, their search points them towards Buckley, a wealthy crime boss whose influence stretches right across the island. It’s got all the ingredients for a proper cat-and-mouse thriller.

So why didn’t it click first time round? Well, the biggest problem is that it never really makes the most of its strongest cards. The marketing made a massive fuss about Willis and Travolta reuniting, but when you actually watch the film, they spend far less time together than you’d expect. Travolta’s still got the charisma to play a dope villain, but the script doesn’t give him much to get his teeth into. Willis, meanwhile, spends most of the film in the background, leaving Blake Jenner to carry the emotional side of the story.

Watching it now, however, brings a bit more emotion with it. Paradise City ended up being one of Bruce Willis’ final films before retiring from acting after his aphasia diagnosis, which was later updated to frontotemporal dementia.

Knowing that makes his appearance hit a bit differently, even if his role isn’t a major one. It also reunited John Travolta with Chuck Russell more than twenty years after The General’s Daughter, with the whole production wrapped up in Hawaii in just a matter of weeks.

Back in the day, critics weren’t impressed, pointing to the predictable script and lack of real tension. Netflix viewers, though, seem to be watching it with completely different expectations. They are not after the next John Wick. They are after an easy action film with two familiar faces and a straightforward revenge story. Of course, a bit of nostalgia thrown in for good measure doesn’t hurt. And that’s exactly what Paradise City might be trending now.

And no, it’s not some hidden masterpiece everyone somehow overlooked. But its comeback on Netflix proves that not every film needs to smash it at the cinema to find its audience.