The Vigilante

It's clearly a B film, so as such, it's a middle of the road viewing experience. There are much more bottom of the bargain bin B films, and much better ones, and this one had a good theme, but was riddled with many rookie filmmaking mistakes.

There were many holes in the writing as well as plot and technical issues. The PTSD flashbacks started to become annoying, then ended up being cringe and worthy of eyerolls. Even the sister's whole "dancing" scenes were pointless and just added annoying filler that detracted from the urgency and seriousness of her situation. Had those scenes and the PTSD ones been cut out, and the pacing picked up by at least 1.2x, I may have enjoyed this more and been more forgiving to the many other filmmaking errors.

But as it was, the 101 min runtime felt way longer and I caught myself losing interest many times. There were also too many sappy and poorly thought out writing issues, some I could even call lazy. For example, everyone knows from Vigilante Class 101, you wear a mask to hide your identity. I also found most of the action scenes poorly filmed and choreographed.

Casting and performances where adequate for a B film, although Jandreau's character was the least convincing. Partial blame I'm sure goes to poor cast direction and also to poor writing, especially when in some scenes she easily takes down big guys with her military training, and then can't handle taking down the women she fought. It really made those scenes feel like amateur-hour filmmaking you'd expect from a high school drama class. Nevertheless, it's better than watching paint dry, and that's a hard find with most of the poor quality B films out lately.

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 film is a good action film that is driven by a strong female lead. The film is well shot and the energy and momentum is constant throughout. Jessica is a strong character who returning to the U. S.from Afghanistan finds that her sister Aimee has been abducted by traffickers- Jessica will go on the journey to attempt to save her sister and bring justice to those who abducted Aimee.

The role of Jessica is well-constructed and therefore brings a lot of reality to the film. Once one starts watching the film it is a good watch that has tension, action and suspense. A film that audiences should find highly entertaining.

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.

(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.