'Vigilante'
(Robert Diaz, Lexie Symon, et al / DVD / R / (2008) 2010 / MTI Home Video)
Overview: When Luke, a highly successful businessman, is viciously attacked and his fiancée is raped and murdered, he pledges to use every last dollar he has to train himself in deadly hand to hand combat and use it against any wrong doers who dare to cross his path. But little does he know that his own attackers are highly connected to an underworld crime family who has close ties to corrupt police and, unbeknownst to him, are also looking for him!
DVD: Shot on location in Australia, something that is plainly obvious from the moment that the first actor speaks his grunted words, 'Vigilante' stars Robert Diaz ('Tempted') as Luke, a man who sees his future with the woman he just proposed to viciously taken away from him by a trio of hard-nosed, and yet dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks thugs.
Produced by Diaz also, the film basically tells the tale of one mans revenge against this unknown to him trio of killers, led by Alex (Kazuya Wright). Having also been beaten to near death in the attack, Luke commits to rehab within the hospital and along with his fitness guru there, gets himself into good shape enough to leave. But, knowing he has vengeance rushing through his body for all this bad, he simply goes out, drinks and gets into barbarian-style bar fights, losing them all - badly!
And so with the help of the hospital fitness guy, himself a martial arts expert/trainer (of course) on the side, he builds up his knowledge of all things combat, and sets about - masked - putting right were wrong once stood. Now, this is all well and good, but most of the guys he fights in his search for this trio all know forms of martial arts - high kicks here, swing kicks there. How does every thug suddenly know kung-fu in this day and age?!
Anyway, along the way he meets the pretty CSI: Miami-looking female cop named Pauline (Lexie Symon) that has taken on his case, beds her, slaps her at one stage, but still cannot let his anger subside for this trio of thugs. Lots of fight club scenes play out, an unexpected death occurs around the 75th minute, and the ending is, well, not to give it away, but bloody brutal, to say the least!
All in all, it's a good ride, an evolutionary story well told. Even the little detour towards the end that even me, an avid movie watcher didn't see coming was well done. And aside from the opening cheese of marking his first 'kills' with a gasoline-induced flaming 'V' around them, well, it's bloody good fun all round. Just be careful if the kids are in the room as the 'C-word' comes out a few times!
Oh yeah, one last thing ... keep watching till after the main credits at the end as a small vignette is played out that is, given what happened earlier in the movie, well deserved! This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs, and comes with the Special Features of:
Director's Commentary
Behind-The-Scenes Featurette
Biographies
Interactive Menus
Scene Selection
Trailers
Optional Spanish Subtitles
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