The Vigilante

OK, I think the majority of bad reviews don't take into account that THE VIGILANTE is a low-budget indie film. Were these the best actors, not in some cases, but they weren't awful, either. I didn't expect them to be. But I thought most, at least, were committed to their roles. Given that, I thought it stood out from a lot of indies. Were the actors the best? Not, but they weren't horrible. The lead actress was capable and believable. It would have been easy for the filmmakers to push her too far into the "bad-ass female avenger." But they pulled back just enough to make her sympathetic and accessible. The other performers were fine. The youngest performers did surprisingly well. I was moved by the story and the ending. Did it strain credibility at time, sure, but what movie of this kind doesn't. In some ways, the limited budget probably kept this movie from becoming just another movie of its kind. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the fight scenes, which seemed to improve as the movie progressed. (Although, my biggest contention is that the protagonist's 13-year-old sister was played by an actress who looks twice as old as that. I was baffled that they were able to find really young girls for the supporting roles, but they could find an actual 13-year-old actress to play the sister???) Considering the limitations, this wasn't an awful movie.

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.

It was good it started off a bit slow but it got good in the middle of the movie i cops really didnt do anything as to what was happening they were a joke i say its better to handle this situation by yourself cuz the cops dont do anything when they should be doing more so this stuff wouldn't be happening.

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.

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.