20140502: Action Review--Bad Ass

Bad Ass

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2012, rated R, 90 minutes, action, comedy.
2. IMDB: 5.4/10.0 from 12,450 audience ratings.  Spoken language is English.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No score yet' and 40% liked it from 6,511 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.6/5.0 from 885,072 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Craig Moss.  Written by Elliot Tishman and Craig Moss.
6. Starring: Danny Trejo as Frank Vega, Charles S. Dutton as Panther, Patrick Fabian as Officer Malark, Joyful Drake as Amber Lamps, John Duffy as Martin, Harrison Page as Klondike Washington, Ron Perlman as Mayor Williams.


2. Setup and Plot
1. 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.


2. 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.


3. Mayor Williams announces a program to clean up Los Angeles, or at least parts of it.


4. 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.


5. 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.


6. 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.


7. 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?


8. Will Frank catch to Klondike's killer?  Perhaps more to the point, will he deal with Panther?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary:  Corruption, beatings, and felonious assaults abound.
2. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Reasonably good.


2. Sound: 6/10 Between OK and uninspired.


3. 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.


4. 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.