Pretty Good

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

good back-story, and good acting

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Decorated vet Frank Vega (Danny Trejo) returns from the Vietnam War to find his world has left him behind. His girlfriend has a new baby daddy. Nobody is willing to give him a job. The cops reject him. Even his hot dog cart becomes obsolete over the years. Years go by and he becomes a shell of a man. One day, he defends an old man on the bus which goes viral and he becomes famous as the Bad Ass. His friend is murdered but the police pays only lip service to the case. He decides to investigate on his own.The premise is campy and Danny is a good guy to camp it up. While it has some camp value, the movie insists on being serious. Director Craig Moss is making a living from broad spoof comedies. Having never seen his work before, it's hard to know whether he's any good. This is not going to help. As a parody idea, there is good potential. As anything else, this has no chance. For example, there is an obvious miniature during the train crash. The entire bus chase could be hilarious if it's all done with toy miniatures. It's hard to explain it any better. This is too cheap and too ridiculous to be Lethal Weapon. It is too straight to be entirely funny. It doesn't work either way.

Bad Ass reminded me a lot of one of those 70s era Blaxplotation films like Coffy where the good guy (or girl) is out to right a wrong because the police seem unable or unwilling to help. Frank Vega (Danny Trejo) is a Vietnam vet getting by 40 years later selling hotdogs from a cart. One day on a public bus, he comes to the aid of an old man being harassed by a couple of punks. A video shot by another passenger is put on the internet, leading to some local fame for Vega and a new nickname, "Bad Ass". But after his best friend is shot down just blocks from Vega's home, he'll have to put his new name to the test to bring the guilty to justice.I sincerely doubt that anyone involved with this movie thought they were making high art. Instead, they probably set out to earn a little money by making a reasonably entertaining film. And that's just what they did. Bad Ass is a solid movie and a lot of fun. Trejo is always a pleasure to watch. I really enjoyed the Everyman characteristics Trejo and the filmmakers brought to Vega. From watching Vega earn an honest dollar selling hotdogs to watching him brush his teeth, it's a character more grounded in reality than the type Trejo usually plays. The supporting cast is, for the most part, as good as you could hope for. Charles Dutton is a standout in the role of head baddie, Panther. Special effects, fight scenes, technical aspects, and the rest were serviceable enough. Overall, I enjoyed the movie and am looking forward to catching Part 2.There were, however, a couple of points that I didn't care for. Vega's beard and the forced love story were both unnecessary and hard to watch. Still, I'll give this one a 6/10.

I've always had a soft spot for Danny Trejo because his old age, rugged looks and lack of acting training makes him such an unlikely movie star, but even his performance can't save this project. "Bad Ass" is one of those irritating movies that never seem to take off. You expect the movie to go for broke and turn into a 1970s grindhouse movie anytime, but throughout it remains middle of the road and inoffensive. Even the one ultra-violent scene where Trejo puts a thug's hand in a garbage disposal tries to go for laughs rather than for gritty realism. Trejo's acting is far more subtle than usual and he has his character down to a tee, but he's stuck in a plot that just won't move and he gets surrounded by underwritten and uninteresting characters. The search for the villain is also incredibly long. It's just Trejo asking people where he is, finding out the villain is not there, asking a new person, villain's not there either, rinse and repeat: it's just boring filler the makers try to pass of as suspense. "Bad Ass" looks like "Death Wish" without all the interesting parts: that's hardly a recommendation.

With the title of "Bad Ass", you know this is not going to be a masterpiece. The story is a parody of sorts of action films (ie: Chuck Norris, Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Van Damme, etc. vs. the bad guys alone) but this time the protagonist is a frumpy old man.There are movies that are so bad they become entertaining; this is one of them. The dialog is bad, the fight scenes are bad, the special effects are bad, there is nothing noteworthy or redeeming at all. I might as well kick 'em while they're down and note that the entire vehicle chase scene is cut and pasted from a 1988 Schwarzenegger film.If you turn off your left brain (the supposedly analytical side) while watching this, you'll find some chuckles here and there. A frumpy old hero? While not believable that an older person can take out all the baddies hand-to-hand, it is not inconceivable that he can win some of the fights.If you are looking for mindless entertainment and don't mind extreme profanity and violence, you may enjoy this movie. For the same reasons, I recommend keeping kids away it.