Il mio nome è vendetta

Violent, brutal, bloody, not for the squeamish this Italian crime film where a former Ndrangheta goon is searched by his family for whom blood lines are more important than anything else. A revenge topic, already seen ten millions times before but that will please action movies goers. Not for intellectuals either, not a complicated story, with pretty good moments, and a very good directing, camera work, overall atmosphere. Clichés galore, if you seek surprises, watch something else. But it's better that this kind of topic is told by Italian than by Americans, the end would not have been the same at all from Hollywood. Good stuff.

As "My Name Is Vendetta" (2022 release from Italy; 90 min) opens, we are introduced.to the Romeo family, with almost 18 yo Sofia being a little brad who, contrary to her dad's wishes, takes his picture during an camping outing. And next thing we know, that picture is hacked by a Mafia family who has been looking for him... At this point we are 10 min into the movie.

Couple of comments: I can't say that I was familiar with either the director or any of the cast. Turns out this is a straight-forward Italian "Death Wish" reminding crime drama where the bottom line is" 'kill or be killed (literally). In case you didn't pick it up from the movie's title, the dad turns out to be, oh the SHOCK, a one-man killing army, helped by his almost 18 yo daughter. This movie is about as sophisticated as a bull in a china shop, if you know what I mean. All that said, the movie wastes little time and this hour and a half just flew by.

"My Name Is Vendetta" was suggested to me by Netflix and based on that I gave it a shot. This isn't a bad movie, just straight-forward without any surprises whatsoever. If you are in the mood for an Italian revenge crime drama, I'd readily suggest you check it out, and draw your own conclusion.

To enjoy this, fully suspend disbelief and be a fan of the John Wick series. Without spoiling the plot, let's just say that the script is highly inconsistent in terms of basic plot points.

For example, are you high tech (face recognition) or low tech (phone tracing)? Are you heavily guarded, or not a guard in sight?

What's good though are the action scenes and acting, given the weak material and dialogue. Ended up being invested to the end, thanks in part to the short runtime.

Overall, a decent entry into the mindless revenge category, with a more plausible motivation than "you killed my dog".

The creators of this film took every cliche' of the "revenge" genre, mixed everything in a blender and pieced them together at random.

The daughter was made to look and act like Natalie Portman in "Leon", minus the acting skills.

Completely unoriginal and uninspiring dialogs, one dimensional characters, ultra predictable storyline.

It's a pity, because Alessandro Gassmann is a great actor with a lifelong acting experience, but in this film he could have been replaced by any mediocre actor and the result would have been the same.

The only positive I could find, was the stunning shooting location in the mountains of SouthTyrol, the German speaking province in the north of Italy.

This movie borders on the edge of fantasy. The story is based around settling of vendettas using surveillance techniques that are so far-fetched. The characters are not that interesting, and the daughter borders on being the most annoying movie character ever devised. Everything she is told not to do, she does, and it doesn't help that she is dressed to look like some character from a bygone era. She faces no consequences for her dumb actions, and puts the blame for the action that is the basis of the story, on her father, never mind that she is the person who puts his picture on the internet after she is warned not to do so. The story is weak and borders on fantasy. In short, it's just a silly movie!