Vigilante Diaries

Acting? Bad. Writing? Bad. Directing? Bad.

This movie is so cheesy Michael Madsen and Eric Roberts were fighting over who would get a role.

First half of the movie was pretty straight forward b-action that worked pretty well, but then the second half just inexplicably decides to jump forwards in time one month, just in the middle of a crucial point for a couple of the leadcharacters.

And Michael Madsen without spoiling anything (I couldn't spoil it even if I wanted to as it's never explained) simply disappears from the movie, like literally he goes from being an important figure who just did something crucial for the plot to just never be seen again.

That's not really true he actually does show up in the last 5 minutes together with a person who died 10 minutes prior to that, so clearly that was a scene that was in actuality meant to be shown a lot earlier but I guess the editors thought that no one would notice and it somehow would make sense.

My only guess is that Madsen was problematic on set and he was fired or simply didn't show up anymore so that they had to put another character to take over where Madsen left off. And to be fair his performance suggests that he was barely trying to act.

Jason Mewes also randomly disappears in a crucial moment in the first half.

So yeah it was just all really weirdly put together, it's a shame because the movie had potential and it has a lot of entertaining standalone scenes and some entertaining characters (Rampage and Mewes most notably) but as a whole it doesn't make an iota of sense.

You know when a movie is so bad, it's good? That's not this film.

I watched the whole thing—like rubbernecking a car accident—I knew I shouldn't, but I just couldn't look away.

The script was terrible, most of the acting was terrible, the storyline was weak and disorganized, characters weren't believable or even likable, and it was just stuffed full of terrible clichés. I honestly just didn't care about what happened to anybody in the film. I mean there was a baby where I thought, "Please don't use this kid as another gratuitous and clichéd plot device," but even then, it was more of not wanting to see that on the film, and not because there was any emotional investment beyond not wanting to see the depiction of atrocities committed to infants) No spoilers here, so I won't say whether or not I got my one wish.

A little bit of production talent could have cleaned the script up and tightened up the storyline; some technical consulting in the action sequences to actually lend credibility to the idea that these guys are 'operators' who understand even basic weapons-handling, combat strategies, (and even how to use their weapons' sights for f**k's sake), could have taken this weird train wreck and upgraded it into at least a guilty pleasure.

I went into this not expecting a masterpiece. I assumed it would be a 'guilty pleasure' shoot-em up and, as such, I tried really hard to like the film.

Unfortunately, the whole thing just falls disappointingly flat.

There is no point in beating around the bush. This is a terrible movie.

It has big names in minor roles, but the main cast is actually one of the worst talent-less bunch I've ever saw. But by far the worst offender is Jason Mewes. I've never heard of the guy before but I'll be sure to avoid him in the future. He delivers all his lines in the wrong tone, evoking all the wrong emotions. Almost every second he's on screen is cringe worthy. Yes the writers wanted the character to be cringe worthy, but he's cringe worthy for all the wrong reasons, he's all over the place with his acting, or lack thereof.

The main hero / vigilante is your typical dull B action star, who fails miserably each time he supposed to show any emotion. Seems like a henchman level actor, who somehow ended up getting the title role trough some fluke.

And the story is a mess. All over the place. Out of sequence scenes, unexplained, confusing jumps in the time-line, that add nothing to the story or the drama. A prologue that does nothing to explain characters, and an epilogue scene which equally hangs in a void. Offering absolutely no explanation on not just the events in the movie, but you're left absolutely clueless even on what is happening in the epilogue. They even introduce a new character there. (Who is played by Trejo, so if you'd watch the movie because you're a fan of him, don't)

The action scenes suffer from lack of budget. Like they dump the G-Wagon because it's too expensive to do the chase scene with. But in the end they don't even smash up a single cheapo Russian transportation they switch to either. And even in this basic crash-less chase they manage to have some continuity errors. Like the bad guys vehicle changing from a different trim version of the same car from scene to scene. Gun fire is all done in post, so every car and person seems bullet proof in it.

Sound editing is terrible too. Some of the gun sounds are the worst I've heard on screen.

The only thing not messed up is cinematography which I guess could be called good, except for the shaky camera on action scenes, which some directors still can't leave behind.

All in all it's not the worst movie I saw, but I can't find any redeeming value in it. It's not as bad as the worst it could've been, but it's still very bad. Avoid it if you can.

This is a hard to rate movie.

The actors, I liked a lot of them - and not just the Asian hotties, I'll have you know. I mean the main character is a muscleman with no charisma whatsoever, but there you got Michael Jai White, Jason "Jay" Mewes, Michael "sooo annoying" Madsen, even Danny Trejo and James Russo do some cameos. Add to this serious dudes like Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson and the entire Armenian cast, who did very well, and you got some cool people there with both acting and/or physical action handled.

The story is all over the place, from a vigilante that is called The Vigilante, but doesn't seem to do anything during the movie, to the Armenian mob, terrorist nuke attacks, data hackers with weird 3D air interfaces, getting the captured wife and son back, shadow men that manipulate everything, etc. The problem is the script. It just ... sucks! Nothing is connected, no characters are developed, things go from one place to another with absolutely no emotional impact. It made the whole thing confusing and boring.

Then there is the production values. Expensive cars, weapons, some decent CGI... but the action stinks! The action scenes feel like little kids made them: no tactics, no strategy, people walking in a line without cover, ridiculous fight scenes. You feel it even stronger when Michael Jai White starts moving and you realize how pathetic everything was before that. Jax rules!

Anyway, it was a decent effort, with enough resources to make at least a good film, and with a lot more possible. Unfortunately, it isn't a decent movie: it's barely a 6.