Vigilante (2008) Reviews

• Cool Awesome Movies review of VIGILANTE

  coolmovies852010-11-14

  Original article review at: http://coolawesomemovies.blogspot.com/2010/03/vigilante.html This was the only unplanned entry in our month of Man Fest 2010, which I decided to watch on a whim. Why? Let's see… Manly title? Vigilante. Check. Manly poster? Check. Manly tagline? Revenge is his profession. Check. Manly plot? Check. … and that's pretty much all I needed to know. It must be said this is a very low budget Australian film (written and directed by Aash Aaron). Taking all into consideration, it wasn't bad at all. Unfortunately, it also wasn't as badass as I wanted it to be. "Vigilante" is about a man named Luke (Robert Diaz) whose fiancée has been brutally raped and murdered by Alex (Kazuya Wright) , the spoiled son of the most influential (and corrupt) family in the city. After the law, like always, does nothing to apprehend the perps, Luke starts training with master Leigh (Glenn McLaren) who teaches him all sorts of ass kicking techniques to become the Vigilante… who's essentially a poor man's Punisher. The thing gets complicated when Luke becomes romantically involved with the hot redhead detective Pauline (Lexie Symon) who's been assigned to crack the Vigilante case. The budgetary constraints obviously manifested themselves on screen. "Vigilante" does look pretty cheap, but I didn't view it as a problem at all when writing this review. What I hold against it is the lack of true badassery in terms of fight scenes. There weren't any shootouts, with the Vigilante not being a weapons expert like Frank Castle. The battle scenes left much to be desired and Robert Diaz was never truly convincing in this particular role as an enraged avenger. I would've very much preferred if him and Kazuya Wright (now, how cool of a name is this? Goddamn!) had switched places. Kazuya, one the other hand, was totally awesome. The whole film as a concept was great, especially to me because I'm a great Punisher fan (and there's even a nod to him in "Vigilante"), but the execution is just kind of… I don't know, not on the level. On a positive note, "Vigilante" features some great heavy metal tunes all throughout. And it also has a simple, but good philosophical debate (of sorts) on the topic of vigilantism being right or wrong, held between Luke and Pauline... in which, by the way, Pauline gets owned. Now, I can't really recommend "Vigilante". It didn't hold up to my expectations, at least not completely. But on the other hand, I love independent cinema and this was a very commendable effort. Rating: 6/10

• Keep pumping them out!

  trentmacey2010-10-29

  What I really love about Aussie films is their originality. We do our own thing with genre films and add our own flavour. Take ICU for instance, sure Rear Window is an influence, but who has done a film like this before that is about kids spying on people while being spied on. As well as it being a who done it serial killer thriller and black comedy? Vigilante was also an original twist on the revenge film. Luke played well enough by Robert Diaz is a guy punching his way through villains without a real mission because he has no idea who killed his girl friend but because he causes such a nuisance of himself attracts the attention of the bad ass Kazuya Wright who wants to track him down to please his mob boss father. That was Gold if you ask me! Cheers Aash, keep pumping these thrillers out!

• Worth a look

  henryhardox2010-06-20

  Having lived on the Gold Coast all my life, it was cool to see an action film set here at last. I know a lot of US films get made here, but rarely are they set here. Well here is a film where a guy goes nuts on the scum of the street. My streets! What a blast! Sure it was a low budget film but what these guys did with what they didn't have impressed me. It seems all it lacked was money because the action scenes were great. Especially the fight scenes. And the story was great and the acting as well. Besides the lead guy unfortunately, but everyone else was awesome. Especially Ozzie Devrish and Christian Radford. They cracked me up, oh and their boss who I didn't know. Anyway rock on Gold coast filmmakers! Keep at it!

• Independent leader!

  deeparkinson2010-10-27

  I just want to say I am proud to be a fellow Australian filmmaker! Or better still a fellow Queensland filmmaker! Or better still an Australian, Queensland, Gold Coast filmmaker! We are rising to the top guys! Aash was one of the first independent genre filmmakers to just get out there and do it, and now there are loads of us following his lead! Vigilante and ICU are great! Well done Aash! We at the Gold Coast Filmmakers group support you! Cant wait for your next film Tormented Souls and hope to be a part of it! I have only made short films so far but features like you Aash are next on my list. Deb

• We love Aash Aaron's films.

  tlong33962010-10-21

  For the last two years my husband Jeff and I (Tina) love Aash Aaron's films. Aash's films Vigilante and ICU have played the last two years in a row at the Gold Coast Film Festival which we always attend. Whether it be a thriller or an action Aash Aaron always delivers. ICU was a real murder mystery that kept you guessing right up to the last scene. Vigilante on the other hand though a kick ass action film still had a lot of twists and turns that Aash is becoming famous for. We love your films Aash. Tina and Jeff Long