Flechas da Vingança

John V. Soto is an Australian indie auteur who likes to genre hop. That is, his productions to date tend to change category from release to release. What they all tend to have in common however are the tell-tales of a low-budget indie namely: the excessive use of strange background music to fill gaps; excessive use of garish lighting (greens, blues) to add excitement to unexciting scenes; wooden scripts; and wooden acting. What makes AVARICE stand out is the very smart idea of a professional archer caught in a DIE HARD situation, and then using her mad skills to overcome the predicament. It's a clever idea, but the cleverness lasts for about 10 minutes, tops, and then we are right back where we started.((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

The premise was simple enough. A dysfunctional family needs some help to work it all out. A home invasion might be just the trick. Expert archer Mom coming to the rescue could be very cool if not for her forgetting things all along the way. Especially the one thing her Dad tried to instill in her. What was that for if not to set-up her actions in the ensuing situations?? These lack of foresights are awkward ways of stalling the evitable. Shadow of a Doubt could have been Hitch's best if not for a graceless ending that insulted ones intelligence. Some cool kills, slick production values, a bad screenplay, lackluster direction, a boring score, bland villains and a Jessica Chastain wannabe in the lead adds up to only 5 stars. A moderate timewaster. In full agreement with IMDb consensus and completely befuddled by Rotten Tomatoes' 80 rating.

Not bad overall, as a low budget action thriller, Australian flavor at that. I'll let other reviewers give you the plot details. I'll focus on impressions.

Nice locales. Some menacing home invader bad guys. Acting is decent, not great. Story is but simplistic and done before in various flavors. But the movie will hold your interest.

And offers a real twist with archery action angle. Now can arrows really outfly bullets?? Of course not, but who wants to spoil the fun. Just enjoy.

The lead Gillian Alexa playing the archer Kate Matthews does a creditable job, but is slow at first to win you over in her character until the bad guys show up.

But I think she's kinda cute, so I give her a strong pass. Lol Heck, by the end of the movie, even the bad guys seem to have been impressed with her.

Check the movie score at the end, "Brave" by singer Candice Callaghan. Almost has a Christian rock type melody to it. Very nice.

Avarice 2? Who knows. But this one is not too bad as a fun action entertainment for 90 minutes.

Avarice has a solid story with something quite new, bows and arrows. So the heroine is like a cornered animal and she uses her skills to take out lots of bad guys with her arrows in order to save her family. The film has heart and thrilling moments, which I think outweigh the action. Similar to other movies where kidnappers break in to a home and tie everyone up, but instead of the father rescuing the family this has the mother doing that which again is new and I really liked it. It does start off a bit slow but when it gets going it doesnt stop, the chase in the forest is the best bit and I'm thinking they could do a sequel. This was good.

Dumb and predictable but I've seen worse. Definitely a low budget project with less than stellar acting, but something if you're looking for a mindless movie that you can passively watch and know the ending before it starts, then this is the one.

This movie of course only works because people make bad decisions along the way (ie. Give the hero the plot and not kill them when they have the chance to etc)...and also because apparently military grade zip ties do not work on regular civilians as they escape their ties at least 4 to 5 times. Overall it's bad but strangely watchable. PS. Did I already say how bad the acting is, especially from the supporting cast?