Vendetta (2013) Directed by Stephen Reynolds

This is one weak and rather ridicules little revenge flick from Britiain. The lack of budget is obvious but that hardly is being the biggest problem of this movie.

It's a raw and gritty movie that however never feels like an actual raw and gritty movie, due to a lack of emotions. Some absolutely terrible things happen to some of the characters but it never feels like anything realistic, due to the way how characters behave and respond to certain situations. It's therefor also real hard to ever get behind any of the characters or feel involved with anything that's happening on the screen.

But that's not just the one and only problem with the movie. A big problem is also its style. It's trying to be a brutal and realistic movie with all of its violence but the problem is that all of it is shot in a cool and hip action movie style. It includes characters who pose after an explosion or walk coolly toward the villains, in the midst of a gun fight, as if bullet can't hurt hurt them and they aren't afraid to get hit. It's all so weird and inconsistent to watch. On the one hand the movie is trying to shock and be a realistic one but on the other hand, it at the same time is also glorifying violence and is being an incredibly unrealistic one with both the story and the approach to it.

You can tell that Danny Dyer is a pretty decent actor but just not in this movie, playing this type of character. He obviously ain't no Charles Bronson. He isn't ever coming across confident and convincingly enough as an angry, smart and cunning vigilante. He neither has the looks or charisma for it and he also definitely therefor isn't being a good or likable enough main 'hero' for this movie.

It doesn't help much that the dialog is being pretty weak as well. Besides, the story involves too many different characters and plot lines, that distract from the movie its main story, which in its core is an incredibly simplistic and straightforward one and should have remained that way, since chances are that that way this movie at least would have been more of an entertaining one to watch.

I really wasn't ever entertained by anything that this movie did. And the ending....well, that was just weird. Certainly not a very good closure or finale and I honestly wasn't expecting the end credits to start rolling already. It's as if someone accidentally cut the final 15 minutes of the movie and they couldn't go back to fix things, so they decided to let the end credits roll instead.

But still, all things considering, this movie could have a whole lot worse. I didn't like it very much but it at least was being a pretty decent flick to look at, that wasn't ever cringeworthy or annoying. Most doesn't work out too well for the movie but considering it's budget and people involved (Stephen Reynolds isn't a very experienced writer and director yet), it really isn't a bad attempt. I most definitely have seen a whole lot worse! But having said all of that, that of course doesn't just make this movie a good one either. It's still a mostly ridicules and ineffective little movie, that most certainly isn't worth recommending.

5/10

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