“There’s a new twist that has entered the imagination of the public. Hope doesn’t rest in the hands of the government officials or law enforcement. Instead, it lies with an enigmatic figure, the Vigilante Citizen, who is delivering a brand of justice that some believe the authorities have failed to provide, targeting both criminals and those in power accused of allowing crime to flourish unchecked. We take to the streets to hear what people think of the shadowy figure. Here’s what they had to say.”
Now here’s what I have to say. We have two figures here looking for redemption. Uwe Boll hasn’t made a good movie in years. He’s always dabbled in schlock, but I haven’t heard about any of his stuff for twenty years, The Bloodrayne years. It appears he’s still making films, but is anybody still watching? He’s seemed to decide on acceptance in the world of the MAGA base. Citizen Vigilante is a one-note rant about the migrant problem in Europe. It’s a bit uncanny. It’s almost like he timed it perfectly for the riots currently going on in Paris and other parts of France. If he’s looking for redemption there, I suspect it will be short-lived.
Ever since it came out that Armie Hammer might like a little cannibal taste with his lovemaking, Hollywood has dropped him cold. He lost his agent, and most of his former friends have forgotten his phone number. I can see that he’s looking for some redemption much the way Jodie Foster offered it to Mel Gibson in her film The Beaver. But Mel’s character, while crazy, was a bit of a lovable character that he hoped might help to balance the racist rant he gave to cops while drunk and unfortunately on video. But Armie’s character here is anything but lovable, and it’s an incredibly one-note performance that I was tired of after just 10 minutes.
“The Individual continues his vigilante form of justice, claiming the police and the judicial systems are failing to protect the public. Last week the leader of a prominent Middle Eastern crime syndicate, along with his associates, were discovered in a dumpster.”
Too bad those guys are dead. I would love to ask them if the original script, storyboards, or footage were in that dumpster with them. If so, please don’t disturb it while you take the dead bad guys out. It’s doing fine right where it is.
So here’s the plot. Hammer plays Sanders, a relatively nondescript character. From his looks he appears to be your average Joe. Sanders is an American living in an unmentioned European country. It was filmed in Bulgaria, and the accents kind of fit that part of the world. He delivers a brand of justice on folks who appear to escape consequences for their actions. But this is no Death Wish or a thousand other films just like it. Sanders is targeting Muslims, and he’s interrupting television news with a kind of manifesto you might find from a serial killer or the Unabomber. His rhetoric isn’t anti-crime. It’s anti-foreigners, which is kind of crazy, because Sanders is a foreigner himself and only in Europe to settle his estranged father’s estate. He now owns a lot of property, and it plays an unintentional amount of humor here. Sanders is making out with a prostitute who happens to do business in one of his businesses. He stops midway to remark on the mold on the ceilings and gives a landlord lecture about opening the windows after taking a shower. It’s that kind of really crazy. Sanders isn’t really anti-crime. To prove a point he plays chicken with an oncoming car, causing it to roll into a ditch and catch fire while casually telling us that guy’s probably dead. This vigilante needs a vigilante of his own.
Enter Costas (Mandylor), who is an INTERPOL agent trying to track the guy down. It really shouldn’t be very hard. Sanders doesn’t worry about fingerprints, DNA, or any other crime scene leavings. So yeah, these cops are indeed that bad. But again, he’s after a certain kind of criminal. Another crazy scene has him driving a judge around before finally killing him. The judge’s name is Judge Reinhold, but not played by the actor with the same name.
The issue is there’s no real back story here. It’s just hate. These guys only become sympathetic when we deeply understand and can relate to a particularly brutal loss. None of that exists here at all. I don’t think this will do anything to bring Armie Hammer back into the fold. It might hurt, and I think he grew to understand that. In an interview he claims he wasn’t given the script that was shot and was very unhappy with the way the film came out. That makes two of us, bud. So go have some finger sandwiches, because I don’t thing you’re going to be fielding a lot of offers here. Look; it’s not the worst film I ever saw. I did see Event Horizon, so there’s that. If you were considering catching this one, hopefully I got to you in time. If so? “This is your lucky day.”
