Sadly Over-hyped

Highly Overrated But Still Good

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Going ballistic might never have felt better for some, but it also might have never felt worse. Putting on an angry face and venting is not "acting" enough to convey emotions of an extreme caliber like that. If you're willing to cut the movie some slack on that, you might have more to be entertained with, but the overall notion of low quality acting, will not help its cause.Especially when trying to be complex, while keeping it simple. The stunts are pretty decent for a low budget movie, but it seems to go nowhere. The ending will just enhance that dreadful feeling you already had. And not in a good way either. Maybe the filmmakers can come up with something good in the future, this right here, will not cut it for most people

I wanted to like this. In fact, I wanted to love this. An homage to John Carpenter and the action revenge films of the 1970s and 80s? Sign me up! Unfortunately, director Gabriel Carrer is not nearly skilled enough to helm this kind of project. In fact, this is the most amateur film I've ever seen screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival. I understand what Carrer was going for with this take on the vigilante justice gone too far, and the idea had potential. But every scene was so heavy- handed, there's not a single moment where a character acts in a natural manner. Every line of dialogue is horrendously written, it's hard to know if the actors are terrible, or its just the script. I'd like to give the actors the benefit of the doubt. But despite the amateur script and direction, I was OK with The Demolisher being a "too ambitious for its own good" disaster. That would have been fine. But then came the 40 minute chase scene, which had our heroine running frantically through the streets of downtown Toronto at night. Instead of going directly to the police or even, say, a car with people in it, the girl runs past police cars, past groups of people, and past open businesses. She opts for the safer route, an abandoned shopping mall, the upper level no less, then an underground parking lot, a gang of murderous thugs who can "smell that she's a virgin", and finally a desolate rooftop. This was the most unintentionally hilarious chase scene I've ever witnessed. Audience members were cackling with every insane decision she made. And it would have made for great comedy were it not so deadly serious about its intentions as a serious film. And that's really the fatal flaw with The Demolisher. It should be a grindhouse exploitation classic, tongue-in-cheek and self aware, something akin to Hobo With A Shotgun. Instead, the director tries to give us realism and gritty raw emotion, which he proves hilariously inept at doing. Clocking in at just under 85 minutes, this somehow manages to be the longest and most aggravating excuse for a movie I've seen all year. 1/10

Just the thought that they compared the director to John Carpenter, Michael Mann and Walter Hill is almost criminal. The dialogue and slow motion scenes are laughable at best. I would not recommend this film at all!!!! The people who gave this movie great reviews shod have their heads examined. I am one of the biggest supporters of indie film and this movie does nothing but make me mad. I wish I could "Demolish" the film negative so nobody has to sit through the longest 85 minutes of my life. I can't believe how many times they used slow motion for all their fighting scenes!!! The shots of Downtown Toronto were just so amateurish and I have never questioned so many scenes in a movie like "Why is he doing this?" or "Why the hell did that happen?". The funniest part is the acting in this movie and I'm pretty sure this was never intended to be comedic in any way. You know a movie is headed for trouble when the audience openly laughs at a physically challenged character crawling to their loved one who just tried to kill an innocent woman...

Done as a B-movie. Presented as a series of vignettes, sometimes with art movie overtones. Extremely violent towards the end.The direction of the film felt a little amateurish. Did not splice the two story lines in a convincing way. The violence was over the top. The dialogue was disappointing. That said, the cinematography was good.A policewoman is crippled after she intervenes in a ritual sacrifice. Her husband is deeply disturbed by her anguish and frequent nightmares. He dresses up in riot police armour, stalks and brutally beats the gang members.In the end, he is so traumatized by the violence that he goes berserk. Does not end well.It was unfortunate that the editor put in an up-beat ending. Quite unnecessary. Cannot recommend the film.