Vice

When it comes to lower budget film releases, the movie genre to probably have the most trouble looking anywhere near authentic is in the realm of science fiction. Most science fiction films today require a lot of heavy CGI and high tech gadgetry in order to look somewhat presentable for its genre and the audience viewing it. However, people tend to forget how ambitious their plans may be and the error of their ways ends up showing up in the end product. For this particular feature though, this is only one of a number of issues that is noticeable. Directed by Brian A. Miller, this would-be sci-fi thriller has a tough time throwing out any original ideas to the table that haven't already been used. Writers Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore (both San Andreas (2015)) don't seem to have a full grasp on what exactly they wanted the movie get across.

The story takes place in some undated future where a new society arises called Vice. Established by a man named Julian (Bruce Willis), Vice was created as an outlet for the public, so that for any fantasy they wanted to make for themselves was possible. That meant no laws, no government, no responsibilities and no consequences. Making sure that any acts of violence were performed humanely, the company made A.I. units who looked, acted and lived like normal human beings but underneath there was software and electronics. After one A.I. unit named Kelly (Ambyr Childers) begins having repeated flashbacks of past events, she flees with Vice security on her tail hoping that Kelly won't reveal to the public a unit became self aware. Also following closely behind is Roy Tadeski (Thomas Jane), a lone cop who's not too fond of Vice for generic reasons pertaining to the attitudes people end up adopting after leaving the facility.

Writing wise, it isn't the absolute worst but it isn't well thought out either. The screenplay tries to tackle a number of social and idealistic issues by borrowing ideas from older films like Westworld (1973), RoboCop (1987) and even The Purge (2013), but much of it is just underdeveloped and underplayed. The actors themselves are okay at best but you would figure, both Thomas Jane and Bruce Willis, who both have enough experience to act would make some kind of an impression. Thomas Jane has a couple of humorous moments in the film but much of it is just him mumbling through a toothpick. Willis is even more disappointing because his role really just feels like a call in. It would actually be more appropriate to say that Ambyr Childers as the rogue unit and Bryan Greenberg, who plays an important character in the plot, are far more interesting to watch than the two veterans previously mentioned. The story itself is not new but it can be tolerated. What isn't tolerated is how it was executed like a standard cat and mouse chase.

Because the majority of characters are quite predictable, there isn't much tension to be found among the scenes that have time constraining ordeals. Another aspect to this movie that isn't exploited properly are the sci-fi elements. Of everything described previously involving A.I. units and software, there is only one scene that looks remotely scientific. This involves rewiring a fuse inside a unit. The rest of the would-be science fiction like A.I. scenes are all done indirectly. An example of this is when Kelly receives an upgrade, which is done off screen. How disappointing - that's really trying to stretch the audiences' gullibility. The other major component that is sorely lacking any exploration is the paradise of Vice itself. The only thing audiences get to see in Vice are acts of murder, drinking and sex. Yeah these are pretty much the kinds of things most people would want to get away with, but with no laws wouldn't there be more to that? Surely someone would be more creative do something crazier than that, of which isn't it kind of the whole point?

Also how does a visitor to Vice know the difference between a human and a unit? There really wasn't any explanation given. The only science fiction like credit that can be given is the set production to the film. At least that looked somewhat apocalyptic in some respects and they didn't look cheap either. The shootouts are alright but nothing inventive. The part that worked against that however was the cinematography shot by Yaron Levy. There were two things Levy kept doing that will probably annoy the viewers. First, there are two many shots with dutch and other cockeyed angles. The second is that when Levy's camera is lateral, the camera keeps doing rotating 360 circumference shots. This is better than shaky camera by far but still frustrating at times. The film score however was better than expected. Composed by a trio of artists who call themselves Hybrid did an okay job. There was no main theme but they did have a number of tracks that worked, especially the ones involving Ambyr Childers and Bryan Greenberg. The thing I can't believe is that the filmmakers actually thought that this movie would get a sequel with an extremely obvious cliffhanger.

Its set production and music display decent quality with okay acting by the main cast but it's more of a time waster than it is worth a watch. The writing is below average, the camera-work is frustrating at best, the action is too standard and the science fiction elements are barely used for a story based on it.

Wow, it is still on Pause I cant take it any more !! Bruce is good , but wow - My kid can fire guns and not miss too - Yikes ! Simply bad stereo typed detective role for what's his name ?? Wow I can say much maybe I spent to much money on this at Target - yikes - REFUND , to the 1.00 bin -- Wow - I honestly think Bruce did this to help someone .... I don't think he would take on this film ... unless he was trying to help a student and or an up coming actor .... Maybe he can shed light on why he took this role .... anyone know ?? -- Some scenes just do not make sense , the weapons hit NOTHING and that tracker ?? He should have known they were coming like duh .... Many Many Duh moments and , what ? Moments and or Wow they are bad shooters .... Yikes -- Bruce can I have my 10 bucks back please.....

I'm learning something. Anytime DirecTv says this movie is available same day as it comes out in theaters...it's going to suck royally. Watched Vice on PPV on demand and found myself rolling my eyes a lot. This movie could have been one of those quiet noir flicks that says very little in the way of dialogue, just let the shots tell the story. Instead some two bit writer tried to be way too clever. Bad attempts at humor and in one case an insensitive punch line inserted at one of the possibly heart tugging points in the movie. It's west world it's bladerunner its i robot all thrown in a blender and submitted as a script to the film school professor. It got a F- and a 10 million dollar budget. Welcome to Hollywood. Everyone in the movie except the cop seemed like an "artificial".

When I watched this movie it had a 4.7 rating. I thought it couldn't be that bad - it starred Bruce Willis after all. Turns out Willis must have owed someone a big favor, because this movie is really terrible. Poor acting, poor script and poor directing.

And what's up with the artificial smoke? It's everywhere. This movie is everything Blade Runner wasn't and I mean that in the worst possible way.

I rate it 2 because Willis doesn't act quite as bad as the rest of the lead cast.

In short, this movie was a major disappointment and I wonder what it was that made Willis say yes to play a part in it.

This film could have been so much more but fell flat. Sorry brucie baby I love ya but this film had such good bones and could have expanded it so it was more high octane. The lighting was terrible. Also when she FINALLY -asked for her special skill set it was feeble. Expected her to turn into a killing machine but no.