It is not that this is a great movie, but its time is now. Violent crime is
way up and progressive DA’s increasingly refuse to prosecute criminals. Inevitably,
we are going to see a bounty of vigilante films to supply the need cathartic justice.
William Duncan represents a lot of frustrated fathers and family members, when
the cops and the system fail him in screenwriter-director Jared Cohn’s Vendetta,
which releases tomorrow through Redbox.
Danny
Fetter is about to be initiated into his father’s crime syndicate, based in
small town Eatonton, Georgia, by gunning down the daughter of William Duncan. She
was actually a bad random selection, because her father picked up a lot of
skills in Iraq and Afghanistan. The DA is willing to let Fetter plead to a weapons
charge and a parole violation, since Duncan did not actually see him pull the
trigger. He just tackled Fetter trying to escape.
Instead,
Duncan bludgeons the killer to death with a baseball bat. Old man Donnie Fetter
and his junkie son Rory think they should be the only ones getting away with
murder, so they come after Duncan and his wife. Meanwhile, the super-helpful
Detective Chen keeps lecturing Duncan on the need to keep the peace.
There
is a reason why the original Dirty Harry became a sensation when it
first released and the sociopolitical circumstances are similar today. However,
Dirty Harry was also an excellent film, which Vendetta is not. Yet, it
is zeitgeisty, probably more than Cohn intended or realized, because it taps
into deep, widely-held anxieties and frustrations.
In
light of recent news, it is sad to see Bruce Willis portraying Donnie Fetter. Honestly,
this isn’t the role his fans would probably choose for him go out on. (Again, American Siege was not a great film either, but there is a poignancy to Willis’s
performance that arguably redeems it.)
Peace must be breaking out if Jordan is okay with the presence of a Mossad
agent assigned to a Five Eyes black site hidden in the kingdom’s desert. Of
course, it is not like Jordan has a lot of civil liberties to hinder its
operations (Freedom House gives it a 34 out of 100, ranking it “Not Free”), but
of course, we’re the bad guys in Sophia Banks’ Black Site, which
releases tomorrow via Redbox.
When
terrorists blew up a hospital in Ankara, they also killed the husband and
daughter of Abby Trent, a CIA analyst. Why would a high-level analyst be doing
in-country station work you might wonder? Well, don’t, because one year later
she will be attached to the black site responsible for interrogating persons-of-interest,
with respects to the bombing. Okay, some think it is a bad idea to have her on
the case, but there she is.
Unfortunately,
Trent is due to be shipped out soon, but right before she leaves, “The Hatchet”
arrives. Supposedly, he was the terrorist mastermind behind the bombing that
Trent now suspects was a drone strike. He also inconveniently let himself get
captured, so he could wipe out Trent’s team and their incarcerated assets. The
Hatchet seems to have inside help, but at least Trent can rely on Uli Wasserman
from the Mossad (whereas not so much cocky American contractor Raymond Miller).
Jinder
Ho and John Collee’s screenplay explicitly argues the CIA is more dangerous
than international terrorists. Yet, it is produced to serve as an old school,
bullets-flying VOD action movie, that even emblazons Old Glory across its
on-sheet. The question remains, who is the intended audience expected to be
entertained this film?
By
far, the most interesting thing about the film is the character of Wasserman
and Phoenix Raei’s portrayal of him. In this murky world, the Mossad guy is the
moderate pragmatist (which could very well be true in the real world as well).
On the flip side, Jason Clarke looks visibly bored going through the motions as
The Hatchet, who must be the world’s most sullen and depressed terrorist ever.
Similarly,
Jai Courtenay spewing anti-authority attitude as Miller makes no sense in this
context. Anyone in a sensitive post like this would get bounced real fast for
challenging the chain of command.
