When I looked at the cast list for “Vigilante Diaries”, I couldn’t help but look at the cast list. It stars Jason Mewes from “Clerks” and “Jay & Silent Bob Strikes Back”, Former UFC light heavyweight campion and current Bellator star Quentin “Rampage” Jackson, former WWE and current Lucha Underground star Sal “Chavo Guerrero JR, Michael Jai White from “Spawn” and “Black Dynamite” and Michael Madsen from “Reservoir Dogs” and “Kill Bill”. This definitely attracted me even thought this look like a B action film.
The film is about an intense filmmaker (Mewes) who follows a vigilante killer (Paul Sloan) around to post on the web. But his filming of the vigilante killing someone who has connections to many places spark a bloodbath of epic proportions as the Armenian mob, Mexican cartel, a rouge special forces team fight to gain control and take out each other. Can the filmmaker and the vigilante make it out alive this chaotic situation that they’ve gotten himself into. Going into this film, I was hoping this would be one of those action films, where the action had intensity and the story and its characters would keep you interested to the point you’re having a good time. “Vigilante Diaries” had none of that, as this is easily one of the worst action films that I’ve seen in a very long time.
One of the reasons that this film fails on all fronts was the direction. Co-writer/director Christian Sesma’s direction was horrible. The way that he approaches the action was bad as it felt very cartoonish at times. There was no intensity to those scenes, as never did I get a sense that the good guys were any extreme danger. It made what I was watching very bland and boring. That’s not something you want in an action film when the screenplay is even worse. The acting wasn’t that great neither but that’s to be expected with a film like. Sesma doesn’t do anything in the performances aspect to make the characters standout. Everyone in this film felt one dimensional and virtually had no charisma. When that happens, it makes it a very hard time sitting through a film like this one. And one more thing, how do bring Danny Trejo into your film and have him onscreen for two minutes. It’s a crime, I’m sorry. If I’m wrong about that but it felt like two minutes.
The screenplay from Sesma and star Paul Solan is one of the worse screenplays that i’ve endured this year. What makes this bad was the fact there is no attempt to have a coherent story. I’ve seen some action films that been badly at this but at least they tried to have a story. This does not, as this is one of the most confusing films to follow that I’ve ever since. The main reason for that is it has too many characters. By having so much characters, I lost track easily with the story. Another thing that makes this screenplay bad was the fact it doesn’t develop the characters. Like in Sesma’s direction, the characters had a one dimensional feel. It felt like there was never any tension with any of the situations because I was bored with them. When that happens, everything else in the process fails.
I’ve seen some bad ones this year but this is up there as the worst film of 2016. With its cartoonish action sequences and lack of a coherent short, “Vigilante Diaries” is one diary that should stay closed.
Review Rating: One Star
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