John Doe: el vigilante

Movies with a message are by their nature problematic.

David Schwimmer for example did a film about teenage girls and the internet. It was more message than movie and for that reason it may well be already lost to time.

On the other hand Paddy Chayefsky's NETWORK was both a message and a film opus. Fantastic movie and it will live forever on the "top 10" lists of viewers all over the globe.

This Aussie effort, featuring a FANTASTIC performance by Bamber, who, to dig out the old cliché, does silent dialog using only his eyes, gives you a nice slow start and then builds and builds and builds.

The best thing about it is that it keeps the viewer off-balance right to the end, achieved by some of the best editing of "flashbacks" I have seen since the days of Sergio Leone.

There is a particular scene at the 1:19 mark involving a small child who "thanks" Bamber that is likely the highlight. True to form, not even this scene ends the way we might expect.

Recommended.

I liked this movie, read the other positive reviews, which is most of them.

They also have the highest helpful ratios, as in of the people who voted whether a review was helpful or not, my experience with IMDb indicates that one of them would be on the main page.

Yet this is not the case. When I first came to this movie's page, the main review was one of only 2 negative ones out of 7, and 2 of 6 people voted that they found it helpful. So I voted it as not helpful with the other negative review.

Now minutes later (like 2) that review is not on the main page, but the other even more negative review is with a 12 out of 45 helpful rating... (all my numbers are off by 1 as my votes are not counted yet - even though they've already effected change)

There is a 10/10 review with 25 of 38 finding it helpful, there's a 13 of 16 positive review, and a 1 of 1, a 3 of 4...

Clearly something fishy is going on here, are they afraid of a vigilante uprising? Or maybe Bamber punched some Hollywood fatcat(s) in the face instead of granting the sexual favour(s) requested. Maybe both, as Bamber's work get's a disproportionate amount of flak. He's no Hopkins, but he is without a doubt a capable actor at the VERY least.

I wonder if anyone will even see this review... in preview the only spelling mistake highlighted is "fatcat" yet in typing this I show Bamber's name and the Canadian spelling of "favour" underlined squiggly red as well...

First of all , I must say that at first look this movie looks like some low budget Australian garbage , The big surprise is that it has some descent actors that delivered the messege very nicely and a very good story . I started watching the movie with low expectations and got hooked up with the story-line .I can gladly say that the storyline is packed with some nice twists . I would gladly give this movie a solid 10 if it wasn't for the Directing job and some flucks that i found while watching it ,i guess there is no perfect movie anyway.. In conclusion i would strongly recommend this movie to every grown up out there, And i hope it will get a little bigger recognition in the future.

-John Doe: Vigilante (2015) movie review: -John Doe is a masked vigilante who does out on the streets and hunts down serial killers so he can somewhat brutally murder them. Lovely. One of the unique things about this indie film is that you get to hear both sides of the story, one of them from John Doe who has already been caught and arrested, and another from the media and police, which many films dealing with vigilantes focus less on.

-So is this a sort-of superhero film or a crime flick? The film brings the moral issues of taking the law into your own hands and give it to you right out of the gate, leaving it to the audience to decide what side to choose. I like that the film is impartial about it, I really do. And I really liked the film for the most part.

-The character backstory is set up like a superhero film, minus the powers and rule against killing. However the non-linear story helped lay the moral point out in a way that they build on each other from multiple perspectives, which is really good! -The pace was too quick I think. It could have taken longer to wait before just jumping us into it, but it never really got slow.

-The acting was good. Jamie Bamber, Apollo from BSG, stars as John Doe and offers a very deep, compelling performance to a character like this. It has some other actors I didn't know and they did a good job but nobody else really stood out.

-The character of John Doe is a really compelling character because of haw many questions he brings up. The caution he takes is admirable and you can't feel bad for the horrible people he ills, but does it justify killing them? He offers more depth than just that, but I can't say too much. The media characters are pretty interesting, as well as the detectives in charge of the case. There is also a following John Doe develops that take his vigilante thing the wrong way, which is interesting to look at. A certain Batman film did that too if I recall.

-Some of the music seemed low budget, but some other parts sounded really good. So mixed bag here.

-There are some CGI effects in the film that are not great, but to make up for that, the practical effects in the film are impressive. There are a few scenes where I just do not know how they made something look so realistic. I will get back to that in my content section.

-John Doe: Vigilante offers some new elements to an inflated hero/crime genre through unique storytelling elements and some really good moral questions and effects. It did not seem like a super high-budget film at times, but that has cult-classic written all over it. Being a limited release film, I cannot say it is worth seeing in theaters. However John Doe: Vigilante is totally worth checking out! -John Doe: Vigilante holds an R rating, naturally, for some language throughout and some rather violent images and themes. Thus the rally good practical effects. Violence on par with Daredevil and language with the first Punisher. Seems fitting.

-So have you seen John Doe? It probably means you are a serial killer and have not long to live. I would run. Like now.

This was, really surprising, I just wanted to pass some time and relax, didn't have big expectations for this movie but it really got me thinking.

*** I get sidetracked a bit here, reflecting over the movie ***

Besides the whole vigilante question, we as john and Jane does should do more than just give a like on face book. We should get off our arses and help each other as people, we know the neighbor is beating the sh*t out of the kid, go do something, if you're afraid to go on your own get some of your buddies with you. If you see a group of people harassing others do something, stop and call upon the others to help you. You should of course be reasonable, I've seen brawls where I didn't do anything because it was 4 people fighting each other and I didn't know who to help, the bouncers were already breaking it up, so I let the bouncers break up the fight and let the police handle the rest. I have seen a fight between just two, I helped break them up. I've seen people collapse and followed them home. It's our duty as citizens, as people, as human f****g beings to help one another and contribute to this world without going all "the f*** should I care" if you see injustice.

** side tracking done **

Besides that it was an interesting movie, it had some really interesting points. I was really surprised by the movie, and it managed to fill me up with strong feelings because these are topics that really concern me. This was an inspiring movie and I hope it will inspire other people as well. Now with this review you could probably figure things out about me, if you feel the same way you'll like this movie.