The Vigilante

Wanted to like this film, as it seems by the ratings a lot of people did, but it's so amateurish beyond belief.

Our hero, a lady with so many teeth she cannot actually close her mouth, is the usual war hero, expert at everything to do with warfare, of course.

Somehow her friend finds out where young girls are being housed (if it was that easy the cops would have already done it?), so they start breaking into these houses. No mask, no hood, no voice disguiser, nothing.

Amazingly, the cops talk to her about it. Wonder how they realised?

Everyone talks in a bizarre, muffled way, and I inevitably missed some of the dialogue.

In short, this has all been done before, only SO much better, so I really wouldn't bother if I were you.

OK, I think the majority of bad reviews don't take into account that THE VIGILANTE is a low-budget indie film. Were these the best actors, not in some cases, but they weren't awful, either. I didn't expect them to be. But I thought most, at least, were committed to their roles. Given that, I thought it stood out from a lot of indies. Were the actors the best? Not, but they weren't horrible. The lead actress was capable and believable. It would have been easy for the filmmakers to push her too far into the "bad-ass female avenger." But they pulled back just enough to make her sympathetic and accessible. The other performers were fine. The youngest performers did surprisingly well. I was moved by the story and the ending. Did it strain credibility at time, sure, but what movie of this kind doesn't. In some ways, the limited budget probably kept this movie from becoming just another movie of its kind. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the fight scenes, which seemed to improve as the movie progressed. (Although, my biggest contention is that the protagonist's 13-year-old sister was played by an actress who looks twice as old as that. I was baffled that they were able to find really young girls for the supporting roles, but they could find an actual 13-year-old actress to play the sister???) Considering the limitations, this wasn't an awful movie.

(2023) The Vigilante THRILLER ACTION

Misleading title to which if one were to look at it one might assume it is an action movie, but it is like as soon as it's watched the action does not happen until after the 40 minute mark and all it is just a few fights.

It opens with her SUV getting rear ended with the lead star, Jessica Carson (Jet Jandreau) ended up in the hospital. It is during then the movie goes on a 40 minute introduction showcasing her as a special forces employed in Afghanistan, and shooting a young girl strapped with explosives and running toward her squadron unit. And because she was a part of that explosion, it deployed her services that means more time with her actual daughter, 13 year old Aimee Carson (Jamie M Timmons). Except that apparently, because Aimee is part of social media, human trafficking goons thought it might be a good idea to kidnap her for their human trafficking ring. And by the time Jessica comes through, and after meeting with the detective, Detective Tom Mason (Paul Bond) assigned to the case, it turned out he was worthless, hinting to her her daughter may have been abducted. And instead of staying home waiting for results, Jessica then seeks help for her tech friend, Dan Benson(Eric Pierce) who she used to served with, and a prostitute on the streets.

The only thing this movie was doing was attempting to capitalize on the success of another human trafficking movie released earlier during the same year called "Sound of Freedom", with action scenes that do not make a whole lot of sense.

I had never actually heard about this 2023 thriller titled "The Vigilante" prior to sitting down and watching it here in 2024. However, I must say that the movie's synopsis sounded interesting enough. Plus, the fact that it was a movie that I had never heard about, much less actually watched, of course I opted to give the movie a fair chance.

The storyline in "The Vigilante" was fair. It wasn't, however, an outstanding foray into a thriller with a human trafficking theme. Sure, it was watchable and entertaining enough, but at the same time writers Kara Myers and Lee Whittaker only managed to muster a somewhat generic script and storyline.

The movie is not without flaws, of course. And I have to say that the fact that Dan (played by Eric Pierce) could just sit down and effortlessly code a program to locate houses used for human trafficking was just ludicrous. Especially since with such an ability he would have been working for a high end government branch. It was just laughably stupid, not to mention lazy writing. And wouldn't police and law enforcement benefit tremendously from having such software?

The only familiar face on the cast list in this movie, for me, was actor Julien Cesario. The acting performances in "The Vigilante" were fair, I will say that much.

Watchable for what it was, "The Vigilante" just didn't stand out as being particularly impressive, inventive or memorable. It is hardly a movie that will grace my screen a second time. However, it should be said that there are far more compelling and entertaining movies out there with a human trafficking theme.

My rating of director Lee Whittaker's 2023 movie "The Vigilante" lands on a bland five out of ten stars.

The Vigilante (2022) is a trainwreck of a film. The acting is terrible, the story is incoherent, and the whole thing is just not watchable.

The lead actcresses, who is supposed to be a vigilante ex-military fighter, has all the charisma of a wet sock. She delivers her lines with a monotone voice and no emotion whatsoever. The supporting cast is even worse, with everyone either overacting or delivering their lines in a cheesy, hammy way.

The story is a complete mess. It's hard to follow what's going on at any given time, and the plot twists are so ridiculous that they're unintentionally funny.

The action scenes are poorly choreographed and executed. The fight scenes are especially bad, with the actors flailing their arms and legs around like they have no idea what they're doing.

Overall, The Vigilante (2022) is a terrible film that I would not recommend to anyone. It's a waste of time and money.