El río de la ira

Not any good? Some terrific actors are starring in this flop. Those actors are the only positive I can think of. I mean who can resist watching a movie with Robert de Niro and John Malkovich? They both only have got small supporting roles though for just some 15 minutes. Bummer.

The bad: this Randal Emmett guy, who has been a producer of LOTS OF pretty lousy B-movies in the past, now turned to directing a movie for only the second time and what a disaster of a movie he has made!

Everything is wrong with this movie, technically speaking. The photography is bland, the music score is incredibly annoying and totally not suited, the editing is all wrong.

But the biggest fail is the direction by Randall Emmett, who just doesnt know the first thing about how to dose and mix the right amount of ingredients.

Completely disjointed. Overly sentimental. Lots of chewed out cliches. Tedious from start till finish. What a mess of a movie...

First of all you see the names of De Niro and Malkovich top lining the one sheet and you think to yourself, 'How bad can this be?' Unfortunately I didn't see that Randall Emmett was directing. Just like his deal with Bruce Willis' last few films, it's just another form of exploitation. Jack Huston really deserves better (see Boardwalk Empire), Bob and John probably needed the paycheck, but after reading the script, they should've known better. The script spent the first half of the film portraying the challenges of addicts in love before turning itself into the righteous revenge killing trope of every 80's action hero film. I almost gave up after the first 40 minutes because nothing happened, I stuck around out of morbid curiosity. Throw in few God missives (because we are in the south after all), the usual dispatching of greasy baddies without the panache of John Wick, and end with speech of God meeting capitalism face to face. I met Randy at Cannes back in 2001, he was asleep in his limo with his mouth open as I walked up to a mid day meeting. Unfortunately, I think he's still sleeping. On the good side was the cinematography but the edit was over long and repetitive. So for those who have lasted this long in the review, it's definitely a slog and not worth the bother. Wendy.

Robert DeNiro & John Malkovich (and Dale Dickey) are in support, and it has a long drawn-out first-half set-up... but despite these wrappings of supposed class "Savage Salvation" is still nothing but a dumb, forgettable actioner. In a small, depressed mid-west US town young & in-love Jack Huston & Willa Fitzgerald are recovering addicts, til she slips, ODs & dies... sparking his bloody, vengeful, muderous rampage up the local heroin supply chain - and that is ALL Adam Taylor Barker & Chris Siverston's screenplay offers. Director Randall Emmett adds nothing of note, making DeNiro & Malkovich's involvement bizarre & disappointing. It's a total turd. Flush!

As I sat down to watch the 2022 action thriller "Savage Salvation", I must admit that I was harboring some expectations from it, as it had the likes of Robert De Niro and John Malkovich on the cast list. However, I had never actually heard about the movie prior to watching it, so I didn't really know what to expect here.

Writers Adam Taylor Barker and Chris Sivertson did put together an enjoyable script and storyline for the movie. Sure, this wasn't exactly a movie that revolutionized the action thriller genre, but I will say that I enjoyed the story, because it was nicely written and proved entertaining. Sure, it was somewhat generic, even for an action thriller, but it still played out nicely enough to entertain me.

It was initially the cast ensemble that lured into watching "Savage Salvation", and they did indeed have a good cast ensemble. Leading actor Jack Huston carried the movie quite well, though I have to say that I am not really familiar with him prior to watching him in this movie, but he definitely performed well and was nicely cast for the role. The movie also had a good performance from Willa Fitzgerald, along with Robert De Niro and John Malkovich, of course.

I did enjoy the storyline, as I mentioned earlier, and the twist to the plot was actually quite nice. That was a nice touch from the writers, and I didn't see that coming. So thumbs up on that accomplishment.

While "Savage Salvation" proved enjoyable and entertaining, then it is hardly a movie that warrants more than a single viewing, simply because the storyline is a bit too generic and doesn't really have the contents to support more than just a single viewing. However, if you enjoy action thrillers, then "Savage Salvation" is well-worth checking out.

My rating of director Randall Emmett's 2022 movie "Savage Salvation" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Ruby Red (Willa Fitzgerald) and Shelby John (Jack Huston) get engaged and want to get clean of the drugs they were taking. Ruby Red wants to be baptized, too, and start life clean and free. But a drug dealer gets to Ruby Red. Shelby is beside himself and goes to kill all the drug dealers. Sheriff Church (Robert DeNiro and his deputy need to stop this killing spree.

Probably Bruce Willis should have played the Sheriff as DeNiro's performance looked a lot like a Wills slow walking gig in this low budget story. DeNiro had very little to do except near the end when he confronts Shelby with a gun.

No, most of the story is all Ruby Red and Shelby and later mostly Shelby as he goes gunning for drug dealers. A kind of surprising tidbit is when the movie is all Ruby Red and Shelby, we really didn't care for either of them. Whose fault is that? Yes, we wanted them to get clean of drugs, but when they were going through the withdrawals we just wanted those scenes to be over with and they went on for too long a time.

Directors these days are finding more brutal ways of killing and torturing people and this promotes unease in my wanting to watch an entertaining story. Cringe-worthy is a good word watching this movie.

Notables: John Malkovich as Peter, a supporter of the Church, but there is more to Peter as you will see; Clay Wilcox as Darius, a drug dealer; Quavo as Coyote as a drug runner.

This is watchable especially if you FF thru the killing and torturer scenes. Maybe this would have been better if the Sheriff didn't know that Shelby was the one killing drug dealers, but then again everyone knows everyone in a small town such as this was. (4/10)

Violence: Yes Sex: No.

Nudity: No.

Humor: No.

Language: Yes.

Rating: C.