Acts of Violence

Acts of Violence

Acts of Violence is the bad news. It is a gross, creepy junk written by an unholy alliance of ‘The Boondock Saints,” a sweeps week report from a less than reputable news station more interested in prurience than edification and one of those lousy bits of Cannon fodder that Charles Bronson churned out during the waning days of his career. The good news, however, with VOD becoming more prevalent, is that audiences can completely avoid this film without having to leave their home; they can snub it right from their couch. While it may be artistically worthless, it’s certainly not inconvenient.

Set in Cleveland’s mean streets, Roman McGregor (Ashton Holmes) is about marry the girl he grew up with Mia (Melissa Bolona). Unfortunately for them disaster strikes when she gets into a fight with two sleazes (Sean Brosnan and Rotimi) who happen to work for local crime lord Max Livingston (Mike Epps), they kidnap her as part his business venture into human trafficking.

On the plus side Roman has got two older brothers both military veterans Deklan (Cole Hauser) and Brandon (Shawn Ashmore) who seem to have come back from the front with plenty left over hardware but also some unchecked rage issues in Deklan’s case but anyway all three being convinced police can’t do anything decide team up together find mia and kill every bad guy that gets away oh wait no scratch that last part I already said “find mia” so never mind just find kill them all only NO!

Also sympathetic towards their cause having already dropped another trafficker off building during opening action sequence Detective James Avery Bruce Willis does everything by book tries counsel against vigilantism while building proper case against against Max but after awhile starts realizing his good intentions are meaningless.

I’ve never shied away from trashier parts movies have offer so much don’t care if Acts Of Violence wants nothing less than exploitational filmmaking but what really pisses me off is how cheaply made it is.

This story so pathetically thin and simplistic that even action junkies with low standards pretty much this film’s target audience will find themselves thinking that maybe writer Nicolas Aaron Mezzanatto director Brett Donowho could’ve tried little harder when comes pacing and characters, on other hand, are just so downright forgettable names will go one ear out other most people do not be able remember any of them by time credits roll let alone their performances which seem have been given same level attention as everything else about movie

Nevertheless, what moves “Acts of Violence” from being only stupid to unquestionably unpleasant is its utilization of significant issues as mere window dressing for the garbage it presents. At the start of the movie, for example, Deklan yells at an inept VA stooge because he can’t offer anything more than medication as help for his emotional and rage problems. This is a real concern for many people but it turns out that all this film does with this issue is give us a sloppy reason why Deklan can kill 50 guys by himself.

(In even worse taste, after all those people are dead, he seems to feel much better so apparently slaughter is good therapy for PTSD.) Human trafficking is another important and troubling issue, but here it’s little more than a gimmick to justify the violence rather than something that’s ever really looked into. Also: It’s hard to take seriously a story about the horrors of women being exploited when said story takes time out for an extended three-woman lap dance in a strip club.

When I began this review, I compared “Acts of Violence” to the kind of garbage that Charles Bronson was making in the waning days of his career stuff like “The Evil That Men Do,” “Murphy’s Law” and the later “Death Wish” sequels.

In retrospect, perhaps that comparison isn’t fair because as bad as those movies were (and they were), Bronson always seemed to be trying. Bruce Willis most definitely does not try here; this may well be his least effortful performance ever. He has been making anonymous direct to video action movies lately you know, the kind that show up in two theaters and on VOD at the same time with no advance word and this one feels like it must have taken four or five days to shoot entirely on one office set.

Why he would want to waste his still-enormous talent and screen presence on something as low rent as this is beyond me; it can’t be for the money, so I can only assume he wanted to squeeze in a few quick rounds before doing the “Death Wish” remake. At one point, in what turns out to be the movie’s only remotely realistic moment, his character says, “I’m tired of this.” By the time “Acts of Violence” reaches its conclusion, anyone still watching will feel the same way.

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