Bad Ass (2012)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Masterful Movie

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

There is nothing like getting cozy with a warm and fuzzy Danny Trejo vigilante film with a hot cup of cocoa made with my Keurig coffee machine bought on the Amazon. Oh Wait! I'm not in the vine program. Never mind.Danny Trejo, ex-Vietnam war vet, hot dog stand entrepreneur, becomes a reluctant vigilante after his war buddy Klondike (Harrison Page) was murdered. The police are dragging their feet on the investigation. The movie compares him to Charles Bronson, but at times he is more like Harry Brown. Ron Perlman has a minor role as the crooked mayor. Very cliche filled film.It attempts to be funny, but can really only muster mild humor. Perhaps the funniest aspect is how our tough BA vigilante takes the bus everywhere he has to go to find the bad guys. This is not the grindhouse style Trejo fans are used to seeing, although it does turn bloody after a slow start. It is worth a rental.Frequent F-bomb, brief sex, brief nudity

This film is a big steaming pile of poop.I should note that I like trashy films, I like B movies and I like Danny Trejo, I did not like this film.The film starts OK and just goes downhill every minute it continues. Terrible effects,terrible one liners,terrible script. Fight scenes where groups line up one by one to fight and be beaten by an old dude rather than mob him and overwhelm him.A weird love story. It is as if it was made by a 12 year old who did not put much effort in.I wasn't expecting much, I got much less than I expected.Watch it if you want,if you like it good for you, I don't want to rain on your parade or patronise people who do like the movie but I always try and look for the positives in a movie, there were very few in this.

I've always had a soft spot for Danny Trejo because his old age, rugged looks and lack of acting training makes him such an unlikely movie star, but even his performance can't save this project. "Bad Ass" is one of those irritating movies that never seem to take off. You expect the movie to go for broke and turn into a 1970s grindhouse movie anytime, but throughout it remains middle of the road and inoffensive. Even the one ultra-violent scene where Trejo puts a thug's hand in a garbage disposal tries to go for laughs rather than for gritty realism. Trejo's acting is far more subtle than usual and he has his character down to a tee, but he's stuck in a plot that just won't move and he gets surrounded by underwritten and uninteresting characters. The search for the villain is also incredibly long. It's just Trejo asking people where he is, finding out the villain is not there, asking a new person, villain's not there either, rinse and repeat: it's just boring filler the makers try to pass of as suspense. "Bad Ass" looks like "Death Wish" without all the interesting parts: that's hardly a recommendation.

In the first arc, Frank Vega narrates his life. His early days on a farm, the time in Vietnam, returning to find his sweet heart married to someone else, no one willing to give him a job, starting a hot dog stand, but not branching away from that.Then we hit the defining event. Two neo-Nazi fools roust an older black man on a bus. Frank decides to stop them instead of letting the other old man get hurt. He becomes a local hero of sorts. Three months later, his mother passes. His friend from Vietnam, Klondike, moves in with him.Mayor Williams announces a program to clean up Los Angeles, or at least parts of it.Klondike goes to buy some Camel cigarettes. Sebastian and Terrence, two young low-lifes, are waiting for him. He beats the hell out of them, but they shoot him in return.Frank interrupts a convenience store hold up. He sees fairly quick action on a case where an Anglo is killed in a robbery. He gets angry about the lack of progress on Klondike's case. He starts investigating on his own. His methods are more than a bit brutal.The mayor and Panther have an agreement, and Frank gets on their radar. From his investigations, Panther is on Frank's radar. Amber and Frank get a bit friendly.Frank gives Officer Malark (who did many a ride-along with Frank) a copy of the thumb drive that Klondike gave him for safe keeping. Will Frank's trust prove well placed?Will Frank catch to Klondike's killer? Perhaps more to the point, will he deal with Panther? -----Scores-----Cinematography: 8/10 Reasonably good.Sound: 6/10 Between OK and uninspired.Acting: 7/10 Dutton, Perlman, Page, and Trejo were fine. Patrick Fabian and Joyful Drake were OK, and I liked John Duffy. The minor players were interchangeably useless.Screenplay: 5/10 This could have been better. I liked the actors by and large, but their lines were not all that good. I found it impossible to believe that a single thumb drive was of any importance. One of the late chase sequences made no sense at all. If Danny Trejo is to have a love interest, perhaps a lady over 50 would be more likely.