The Vigilante

I had never actually heard about this 2023 thriller titled "The Vigilante" prior to sitting down and watching it here in 2024. However, I must say that the movie's synopsis sounded interesting enough. Plus, the fact that it was a movie that I had never heard about, much less actually watched, of course I opted to give the movie a fair chance.

The storyline in "The Vigilante" was fair. It wasn't, however, an outstanding foray into a thriller with a human trafficking theme. Sure, it was watchable and entertaining enough, but at the same time writers Kara Myers and Lee Whittaker only managed to muster a somewhat generic script and storyline.

The movie is not without flaws, of course. And I have to say that the fact that Dan (played by Eric Pierce) could just sit down and effortlessly code a program to locate houses used for human trafficking was just ludicrous. Especially since with such an ability he would have been working for a high end government branch. It was just laughably stupid, not to mention lazy writing. And wouldn't police and law enforcement benefit tremendously from having such software?

The only familiar face on the cast list in this movie, for me, was actor Julien Cesario. The acting performances in "The Vigilante" were fair, I will say that much.

Watchable for what it was, "The Vigilante" just didn't stand out as being particularly impressive, inventive or memorable. It is hardly a movie that will grace my screen a second time. However, it should be said that there are far more compelling and entertaining movies out there with a human trafficking theme.

My rating of director Lee Whittaker's 2023 movie "The Vigilante" lands on a bland five out of ten stars.

This movie could've been a blockbuster like an eight or nine but instead, it's a three because of a couple things. Number one the whole haven't heard keep going back into the Middle East. It would be understandable if it was just storing her sleeping, having nightmares it going to be the least, but having her do that, wow in the middle of really important things going on in our life at the moment you don't want to Cellarmaker hallucination back to the Middle East that's not how PTSD works. It also didn't make sense on why she kept morning. This little kid who had an explosive vest on him and was running at them to kill them , the other problem was the ending the end of the hall and scene where they find a muse house so they have her a soldier having problems with a someone I need to know how to word it but just a regular girl who is ski and only did they make the flight close for the most part the villain girl in the room winning most of the time

Like having him go back in the middle of them having a standoff to make evil like, but having her in her head, go back to the middle east while they're in the middle of a standoff doesn't make sense 00.

Wanted to like this film, as it seems by the ratings a lot of people did, but it's so amateurish beyond belief.

Our hero, a lady with so many teeth she cannot actually close her mouth, is the usual war hero, expert at everything to do with warfare, of course.

Somehow her friend finds out where young girls are being housed (if it was that easy the cops would have already done it?), so they start breaking into these houses. No mask, no hood, no voice disguiser, nothing.

Amazingly, the cops talk to her about it. Wonder how they realised?

Everyone talks in a bizarre, muffled way, and I inevitably missed some of the dialogue.

In short, this has all been done before, only SO much better, so I really wouldn't bother if I were you.

While the movie attempts to weave an intriguing narrative, it falls short in several areas. The plot holds promise, but it seems to be the sole focus, lacking depth in character development and other narrative elements.

The casting choices are puzzling; for instance, a character who is meant to be a young teenager is portrayed by an actor who appears significantly older. This discrepancy is jarring and detracts from the authenticity of the story.

Cinematography is another area where the movie struggles. The camera work is erratic, seemingly in an attempt to compensate for the actors' performances, which unfortunately, are riddled with errors.

The action sequences are over-the-top, with the protagonist defeating adversaries with ease, reminiscent of falling dominoes. However, a particular scene involving a female antagonist almost defeating the hero stands out as an exception, though it feels like a forced narrative twist.

Continuity errors are also present, particularly concerning a photograph that plays a pivotal role in the plot. The inconsistencies in how the photograph is handled by the characters are confusing and disrupt the flow of the story.

In conclusion, while the movie has its moments, it's marred by numerous flaws that make it difficult to watch without a critical eye. It's a plea to Hollywood to retain its unique storytelling charm and not drift into the melodramatic territory often associated with Bollywood productions.

It's clearly a B film, so as such, it's a middle of the road viewing experience. There are much more bottom of the bargain bin B films, and much better ones, and this one had a good theme, but was riddled with many rookie filmmaking mistakes.

There were many holes in the writing as well as plot and technical issues. The PTSD flashbacks started to become annoying, then ended up being cringe and worthy of eyerolls. Even the sister's whole "dancing" scenes were pointless and just added annoying filler that detracted from the urgency and seriousness of her situation. Had those scenes and the PTSD ones been cut out, and the pacing picked up by at least 1.2x, I may have enjoyed this more and been more forgiving to the many other filmmaking errors.

But as it was, the 101 min runtime felt way longer and I caught myself losing interest many times. There were also too many sappy and poorly thought out writing issues, some I could even call lazy. For example, everyone knows from Vigilante Class 101, you wear a mask to hide your identity. I also found most of the action scenes poorly filmed and choreographed.

Casting and performances where adequate for a B film, although Jandreau's character was the least convincing. Partial blame I'm sure goes to poor cast direction and also to poor writing, especially when in some scenes she easily takes down big guys with her military training, and then can't handle taking down the women she fought. It really made those scenes feel like amateur-hour filmmaking you'd expect from a high school drama class. Nevertheless, it's better than watching paint dry, and that's a hard find with most of the poor quality B films out lately.