Danny Trejo is bad ass. That's a little redundant. You don't
really need a movie to tell you Trejo is a bad ass, but that's what we have. Bad Ass is loosely based on the internet
video entitled, Epic Beard Man, in which an elderly gentleman pummeled an
African-American man harassing him on the bus. Any racial context has been
stripped away for this simplistic picture about a senior citizen dispensing his
own brand of vigilante justice.
Frank Vega (Trejo) is a Vietnam vet, who returned from war
to find his high school sweetheart has moved on with her life. There are no
jobs either and he's forced to eke out a living selling hot dogs on the street
corner. After beating up two skinheads on the bus, Frank becomes a viral
sensation and nicknamed Bad Ass. Folks ask for his autograph and he even gets
ride-alongs with a friendly police officer (Patrick Fabian). Life seems to be
on the upswing until Frank's best friend, Klondike (Harrison Page), is gunned
down in an alleyway. The cops aren't in any hurry to solve the case so Frank
takes it upon himself to investigate. His amateur sleuthing uncovers a wider
conspiracy involving a local crime lord named Panther (Charles S. Dutton) and
the Mayor of L.A. (Ron Perlman).
Bad Ass comes to
us from director Craig Moss, who co-wrote the screenplay with newcomer Elliot
Tishman. Moss is mostly known for the Twilight
spoof, Breaking Wind, and a Judd
Apatow parody, The 41-Year Old Virgin Who
Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It, a title more clever
than anything in the actual film. Two low-budget comedies don't exactly inspire
confidence for Moss's abilities as an action director. What we wind up with is
a movie that deserves a more stylish bent than it receives. Moss doesn't handle
the action scenes very well. The climactic fisticuffs between Trejo and Charles
S. Dutton is laughable in an intentional way and appealing to anyone who has always
fantasized of seeing Machete fight Roc. There's also a chase sequence between
them aboard hijacked buses that references Red
Heat. So much so that Moss lifted an entire sequence from the movie. Bad Ass is meant to invoke vigilante
classics like Death Wish, but it's
lacking in grittiness. The pacing of the film is so casual that there's no
sense of suspense or stakes.
What saves Bad Ass
is Danny Trejo himself. He cuts an imposing figure even when he's wearing a
fanny back and cargo shorts. As a protagonist with a limited amount of income, Frank
frequently rides the bus, which makes him the first action hero to rely on
public transportation. The middle section of Bad Ass is devoted to Frank's romance with his neighbor, Amber
Lamps (Joyful Drake). He rescues Amber from her abusive husband and befriends
their son, who sets Frank up with a Bad Ass Facebook page. These scenes would
normally be a drag, but Trejo makes them work with a corny sense of charm.
Bad Ass isn't a
balls-out insane, exploitation film the way Machete
or Hobo with a Shotgun were. It's
a revenge movie that could have used a pulpier tone. Trejo alone is enough to make
it a worthwhile viewing if you have 90 minutes to kill. Bad Ass is currently streaming on Netflix Instant.
Rating: ** (*****)
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