Lavé par le sang

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!

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...

I really liked this film! What's not to like? Great cast, good music, excellent revenge story against drug dealing scumbags who definitely have it coming!

I thought the portrayal of the addicted couple struggling to get clean and start a new life on the straight and narrow was very moving and powerful!

Maybe all the negative reviewers are too fond of their own addictions to empathize with the main characters. I also wonder how many of them actually watched until the end. I know how hard it is for non-believers to watch a film that still holds out Christian faith as the only hope for the lost, so they probably tuned out and crossed it off before they even saw the end.

I would even go so far as to say that this film is one of the best films I've seen in the young year of 2023.

I've grown to appreciate Jack Huston's acting talents of late, just as Ive enjoyed his uncle Danny's performances. They are both a credit to the Huston heritage.

De Niro and Malkovich are their usual convincing selves. No complaints there. I liked the choice of music, all of which seemed very thoughtfully programmed to the context of each scene.

Don't listen to the negative reviews. This film is well worth watching, unless you're too cynical and secularized in your think to still believe in justice and the hope of true salvation in Jesus Christ.

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.