Mein Name Ist Vendetta

As "My Name Is Vendetta" (2022 release from Italy; 90 min) opens, we are introduced.to the Romeo family, with almost 18 yo Sofia being a little brad who, contrary to her dad's wishes, takes his picture during an camping outing. And next thing we know, that picture is hacked by a Mafia family who has been looking for him... At this point we are 10 min into the movie.

Couple of comments: I can't say that I was familiar with either the director or any of the cast. Turns out this is a straight-forward Italian "Death Wish" reminding crime drama where the bottom line is" 'kill or be killed (literally). In case you didn't pick it up from the movie's title, the dad turns out to be, oh the SHOCK, a one-man killing army, helped by his almost 18 yo daughter. This movie is about as sophisticated as a bull in a china shop, if you know what I mean. All that said, the movie wastes little time and this hour and a half just flew by.

"My Name Is Vendetta" was suggested to me by Netflix and based on that I gave it a shot. This isn't a bad movie, just straight-forward without any surprises whatsoever. If you are in the mood for an Italian revenge crime drama, I'd readily suggest you check it out, and draw your own conclusion.

"To kill or be killed. This is the law. Showing mercy is just a sign of weakness. It's a lesson I wish I could forget." Santo (Alessandro Gassmann)

In My Name is Vendetta, you can transport the manic spirit of Taken to Milan by way of Sicily, and you have your father, daughter fix mixed with the Sicilian Mafia. Violent action does not get better than this with Santo and young daughter Sofia (Ginevra Francesconi) on the run and running to revenge on a Sicilian Mafia that slaughtered his brother and wife.

It's not as stylized as Kill Bill or John Wick, but it has a familial charm with good camera and lighting work.

While you can see immediately this is not one of my usual art films; it is rather a thriller with the popular American motif of family reconciliation prevalent today in our super-hero films and family dramas. Netflix gives you a holiday retreat from goody-goody to exercise your natural instinct at self-preservation with naughty on the side.

It's a smart, bloody business emphasizing the central role now occupied by smart-phone technology. Facial recognition propels the action as bad guys can find good guys by connecting photos from your phone to your current location if you should be foolish enough to snap one when your dad warned you against taking it.

So the tech goes as everybody tracks everybody to lead to a final confrontation between Santo and Mafia boss, Angelo (Remo Girone). Sofia, with better-than-middlin' action skills, participates to bring home the sweetness between father and daughter and exciting action tropes.

My name is Vendetta (a descriptive title if there ever was one) is simply good old-fashioned revenge thrills set in a Euro-trash world whose menace is better because we watch from the safety of our homes.

Just remember, your phone is ever the willing partner in crime.

Netflix knows.

To enjoy this, fully suspend disbelief and be a fan of the John Wick series. Without spoiling the plot, let's just say that the script is highly inconsistent in terms of basic plot points.

For example, are you high tech (face recognition) or low tech (phone tracing)? Are you heavily guarded, or not a guard in sight?

What's good though are the action scenes and acting, given the weak material and dialogue. Ended up being invested to the end, thanks in part to the short runtime.

Overall, a decent entry into the mindless revenge category, with a more plausible motivation than "you killed my dog".

I think this film is an excellent exercise in action-focused filmmaking. It has very good shots accompanied by good editing that transmit to the audience a dizzying development of the most moving sequences.

Unfortunately the film has a very basic script. It lacks depth. The performances are good, but they are not overly demanded by the story.

The rest of the technical aspects are decent. Nothing stands out too much. Good locations, but perhaps a little poorly used.

In short, My Name is Vendetta is a entertaining movie for those who like the genre. For other audiences, it's a skippable movie.

Violent, brutal, bloody, not for the squeamish this Italian crime film where a former Ndrangheta goon is searched by his family for whom blood lines are more important than anything else. A revenge topic, already seen ten millions times before but that will please action movies goers. Not for intellectuals either, not a complicated story, with pretty good moments, and a very good directing, camera work, overall atmosphere. Clichés galore, if you seek surprises, watch something else. But it's better that this kind of topic is told by Italian than by Americans, the end would not have been the same at all from Hollywood. Good stuff.