Hoo boy. You're not going to like this review if you're the kind of person who uses the word "woke" unironically to insult someone. Or if you've ever headed out, armed with a facemask and an England flag to spend some of your spare time shouting at a hotel you suspect may be housing some people with different skin colour from your own. Then again, I doubt many of those people will bother to seek out, and read, this review. Unless they want to try and push back against the mass of negative reviews from those not already aligned to the central agenda presented here.
I've said it before, but rarely has it been a point that I have so wanted to highlight and underline. Creating art often comes with a great degree of responsibility. If you're movie has a message then it has to be a clear one, and you should be very careful about how people can take away that message. Writer-director Uwe Boll has, I fear, decided to throw his lot in with the growing cacophony of tiresome xenophobic bigots who prey on the insecurities and fears of others to stir up trouble and keep avoiding the real solutions to some of their problems (solutions that would require some proper effort and consideration). Not only is Citizen Vigilante unengaging and lazy, it's arguably the most morally repugnant film I have seen in my life. Other films have wandered through similar territory, but few have done so with such little attempt to hide the dangerous messaging. Never mind that this springboards from a premise that simply isn't backed up by actual facts and proper statistics. I wouldn't be surprised if Boll was already prepping a sequel to this, something in which Armie Hammer becomes a white knight for all of womanhood by assaulting and murdering members of the trans community. Because once you've gone out of your way to further demonise immigrants then surely you move on to the 1% of the population who continue to be disproportionally targeted for abuse.
Oh, did I forget to mention the actual plot? Sorry, how remiss of me. Armie Hammer plays Sanders, a man who spends his time tracking down people who haven't been given the punishment they deserve for crimes they have committed. All of the people he tracks down are immigrants, of course, because this is a film that aligns itself with the (often misleading or outright false) sensational headlines and toxic rhetoric delivered by the likes of GB News, the current sexual-abuser-POTUS, Fox, Elon "Artful DOGE-er" Musk, Nigel Farage, and other grifters. A lot of people are showing lending their support to the vigilante "hero", and many comment on how they're doing the job that the courts and police are failing to do. And let's not forget the interminably long scene in which Hammer has sex with a prostitute, is distracted by mould on her ceiling, advises her about how to avoid the issue and informs her that he is the owner of the building, and then gets back to his sexy time while staring at the patch of mould (yes, that really happens).
Is this a review or a rant? A bit of both. But if it feels to you as if it fails to be a proper review, and you would prefer me to keep politics out of my writing, then I would argue that a) this fails to be a proper movie, and b) dehumanising people and trying to blame entire races for the actions of a relatively small percentage of the population is something I will always push firmly back on. It's also not political, it's simple humanity.
I've also indulged myself slightly here because there's genuinely very little onscreen that's worth proper criticism. Hammer isn't good, and we know that he's picked this project because it's the easiest way he can see himself making a comeback to an audience that will accept him without questioning his problematic past few years. Maybe he's not very good because his heart isn't in it, to be optimistic. Maybe he's simply all at sea without a good enough screenplay and director, and Boll does poorly in both departments here. The only other cast member of note is Costas Mandylor, who feels as if he's just repeating some of his lines and expressions from the earlier Saw movie instalments that had him in a very similar role.
"Freedom of speech, freedom of speech" is what many will cry when they hear from others who dislike this as much as I did. I've already seen the standard "oh, did it offend your woke lefty sensibilities" comments and "so many lefty tears" jabs. Freedom of speech and freedom of artistic expression allowed for this piece of crap to get made. It equally allows for me to express my disgust and hatred of it. There's NO redeeming value to this, especially when you consider how far removed from reality it is. There are so many better movies you could choose to watch, many featuring vigilante vengeance without being so fully biased in favour of dangerous far-right fervour. And the end card stating "this film is dedicated to the thousands of rape and murder victims in Europe who were betrayed by our legal system" is one of the most disingenuous and sickening final frames I can think of.
1/10
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