Brace
yourself, because from here on out, Bruce Willis will serve as the voice of
reason. He is an honest Cleveland police detective specializing in human
trafficking crimes. When Roman MacGregors’ fiancée is kidnapped by a gang of traffickers,
Willis’s Det. James Avery cautions them not to take the law into their own
hands, but they’re not really listening and he doesn’t really mean it anyway.
The gang picked the wrong heavily-armed, military-trained family to mess with
in Brett Donowho’s Acts of Violence (trailer here), which releases today on DVD and BluRay.
Mia
practically grew up as part of the MacGregor family and now she is engaged to
the youngest brother, Roman the paramedic. Middle brother Brandon is already
married to Jessica, whereas eldest brother Deklan struggles with post-traumatic
stress. Mia is the last sort of woman scummy Vince and Frank should consider grabbing
(from her bachelorette party), because she will clearly be missed. In this
case, the MacGregors are a particular dangerous pack of amateurs to rile up. In
addition to their service revolvers, it seems the Army also let them keep flak
jackets, assault rifles, and a bucket full of Semtex.
Basically,
this is an eighties throwback vigilante action film. Of course, they have to
take matters into their own hands—although it should be admitted old world-weary
Avery and his partner, Det. Brooke Baker get pretty good results, no thanks to
their sleazy and most likely corrupt captain. Still, screenwriter Nicolas Aaron
Mezzanatto makes more concessions to reality than you might expect, as things
get awfully messy and bloody for all concerned.
Cole
Hauser is sufficiently rugged and hardnosed as Deklan, but frankly, it is hard
to believe his two brothers, played by the considerably smaller and more
nebbish Shawn Ashmore and Ashton Holmes have the wherewithal to keep up with
him. Melissa Bolona shows more grit as the abducted Mia.
When
it comes to carrying a picture, the Brothers MacGregor are somewhat charisma-challenged.
However, Willis and Sophia Bush play off each other decently and each gives the
film more grit and presence than it probably deserves. Perhaps they should have
been more of the focus. As a saving grace, Mike Epps makes a reasonably flamboyant
villain as the ruthless trafficking ring-leader, Max Livingston.
