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The unfortunate thing about “Acts of Violence” is that it is a grotesque, disturbing, and generally dull piece of rubbish that seems to be an insane combination of ‘The Boondock Saints,’ a cannibalized reproduction of a less than reputable news station that prefers scandalous stories and some dreary piece of cartoon cannon fodder that was made during the last days of Charles Bronson’s career. The fortunate aspect is, however, that due to the emergence of VOD, viewers can completely disregard it from the coziness of their living room instead of having to go to the local multiplex cinema to avoid it. From an artistic viewpoint, the film is utterly futile, but there is no substitute for this level of convenience.
In Cleveland, during his marriage with childhood crush Mia (Melissa Bolona), Roman McGregor (Ashton Holmes) is caught in a bachelorette disaster. Famous local gangster Max Livingston (Mike Epps), along with his goons Sean Brosnan and Rotimi, kidnap Mia’s character with the intent to use her as quotas for their human trafficking. But give credit to Roman’s elder siblings Cole Hauser (Deklan) and Shawn Ashmore (Brandon), both of whom were part of the military and came with some beefed-up anger issues for Deklan. They assumed that the cops were useless and decided to join forces with Roman and do whatever it took to find Mia with the intent of wiping out every bad guy in the way.
Making him sympathetic to Ther for a moment, Detective James Avery, for the course of the case, did not let go of the idea of accompanying the undercover team. As a result, they interview Monahan and find out something that is getting closer to the case. Unfortunately, all his noble efforts come to naught. His plans to improve the kids’ situation never bear fruit. Never one to turn down the stickier cuts that the cinematic stew has to offer, I see little harm in ‘Acts of Violence’ constituting an obvious case of exploitation film. I take offense at it being a cheap one. The core narrative is so lamentably lacking in detail and depth that even the action stars, who are pretty much the target demographic of the film, will be left wondering how writer Nicolas Aaron Mezzanatto and director Brett Dono were allowed to do this without any pacing. Regarding the archetypes, they are so distinctly devoid of any qualities that the very act of recalling them by their names while trying to view the film might prove to be exceedingly challenging for a majority of its audience.
What raises “Acts of Violence” from what is just simply bad to unpalatable is how it uses serious topics as window dressing to the trash at hand. For example, early on in the film, we see Deklan completely lose control at an ineffective VA bureaucrat for being incapable of offering any other emotional support other than more pills. This is an issue that real people struggle with, yet the film had no purpose for it other than to provide an awkward justification for how Deklan has become a one-man slaughter machine. Human trafficking is another significant and difficult issue, but the film only brushes over it as a plot device to rationalize the violence instead of really interrogating it for more than a surface level.
In addition, it is a bit hard to appreciate a narrative about the agony of women being exploited if it includes a long strip club scene where three women take turns giving a lap dance.
Just a few moments ago, I put Acts of Violence level on the trash that Charles Bronson wasted the latter part of his career on, “The Evil That Men Do,” “Murphy’s Law,” and the lesser Death Wish sequels. Looking back, perhaps that set of comparisons is unfair because, as abhorrent as those movies were, Bronson at least gave some effort, which is more than can be said for Bruce Willis here. Yes, this is yet another one of those random action flicks that has become a staple of his these last few years. There are definitely a few that are released in select theaters and on DVD; very little has been said to build up to them, marking, despite the available evidence, his performances having been shot in no more than four or five days. Why he would want to waste the still-considerable skill and screen presence that he possesses on something as low-rent as this is beyond me. As this cannot have been for the money, my only guess is that he wanted to fit in a few quick rounds before doing the ‘Death Wish’ remake.
In fact, his character says at one point in the movie, “I’m tired of this,” which illustrates, at least, the single semi-realist moment the film puts its cards on the table. By the time “Acts of Violence” comes to the last scenes, I am sure anyone still left watching it will have the same impression.
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