VIGILANTE (2008)

The one redeeming factor about director and writer Aash Aaron's Vigilante is this: ACTION. The film has non-stop action in it, along with some epic choreographed fight scenes throughout the whole film. If one is looking for a mindless revenge flick that focuses solely on watching muscle-heads beat the living crap out of each other, then they have found the right flick. There is not much to the plot of this film. It goes as follows:

Luke (Robert Diaz) and Cassandra (Margot Robbie) are all lovey-dovey as they are out for dinner at a very posh restaurant. During the course of the meal, Luke busts out a present for his girlfriend, as it is her birthday, and presents her with some very expensive looking jewelry. She is ecstatic and immediately after she puts it on he asks her to be his wife in marriage. She accepts and the two of them decide to go out on the beach in the middle of the night, running into some no-good, street thugs who are bodyguards for a real low-life criminals' mess-up son.

The scumbags see the hot chick that is now Alex's fiancee and decide they want to get a piece of her ass. They mess with the couple by shining their headlights on them, to which Cassandra turns into some bitchy tough chick, yelling at the three thugs as if she was Wonderwoman and could take them out single-handedly, which in turns provokes them to come back and rape her, kill her, and beat the crap out of Alex. Waking up in the hospital next to, what I believe is to be his brother Matt (James Dean), who tells him that he must seek revenge on the scum that did this, giving him some comic books whose stories revolve around vigilantes (I am guessing Batman, The Punisher, etc...).

The rest of the movie revolves around Luke getting back to health, befriending his physical therapist, getting referred to Leigh (Glenn McLaren) who is a bad-ass fighter and trainer in self-defense, and going around beating up (never killing) criminals and thugs all around town. Scene after scene of ass kickings are what most of this film is comprised of and the scenes that are not full of fighting are dull and void of any really believable acting.

The lead in this film, Diaz, had some great fight sequences (if it was only him fighting since much of the fight sequences involve our vigilante wearing a ski-mask), but that is really it. There is no nudity. There is no gore and very little blood. There is not even any scenes of gun play or shoot-outs. This film is purely set in a world where the criminals rely on steroids, testosterone, and their fists to pummel each other in fights, rather than guns which most of the criminal underworld is using (Hell, it beats going to the gym for five hours a day!).

As for our main man, Luke (Diaz)-he had just a bit more screen presence than my least favorite actor, Keanu Reeves. Luke's character was shallow, mostly because we are not told much about him. Oh, we find out he is rich when what I think is his brother mentions it. We never see him going to work or know what he really does, besides let his g/f get raped and murdered and take out his pain by going on vigilante missions and ridding the world of crime, but not actually stopping it because he only kicks their ass, never killing them. I imagine the thugs just get right back out there committing more crimes with even more intensity after shamefully getting whooped by another dude.

When Luke falls for the female detective, Pauline (Lexie Symon) who worked on his case, it has to be one of the most ridiculously awkward scenes to watch, just for the sole reason that I can't imagine anyone having anything remotely like that conversation and having it end with a date being set up. Of course the thugs that attacked him and killed his fiancee happen to work out at the same gym that Luke is, although neither of them know it. The thugs that commit this atrocity are working for Milo (Mirko Grillini), the big boss around town who everyone is afraid of and has most of the cops on his bankroll. His son, Alex (Kazuya Wright) is a major waste of space and air and lucky for him has two tough babysitters, Jack (Ozzie Devrish) and Mako (Christian Radford) to keep him out of as much trouble as they can. Of course, Alex is the type that tries to do what he thinks is the right thing and it never turns out right. Also, he has a tough-guy complex and is forever in the shadow of his father.

I thought that Ozzie Dervish was cast well as a thug with a little bit of brains in him, as too was Glenn McLaren, the defensive combat trainer. Both had a certain bit of charisma and character surrounding them, but too bad that no one else really did, not that there was too much time for verbal drama in this ass-kicking bonanza!

One point I have to touch upon is the terrible nu-metal/club shit they played during the workout and fighting scenes. It just cheapened every scene in the film and made it near impossible to hear any lines of dialogue during the movie. The film had the music amped up way too high. Whether the sound was mixed improperly in this screener, or if its this way in the final product I do not know but for the sake of the film, I hope the dialogue gets some higher levels of volume so viewers can know what is being said during the times there actually are people speaking.

My final thoughts on Vigilante are this: Watch this film for mindless fighting and great choreographed fight sequences. Do not watch this film if you like deep characters, strong plots, and dramatic lines of dialogue delivered. As an action film, it isn't half bad if all one is looking for is tons of fighting. If one wants more to their action film, take a pass on this direct to video indie flick. 

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