‘Acts of Violence’ Is a Brutal, Exploitative Mess

Aaron Berke

Every once in a while, a movie comes along that’s so barrenly devoid of morals, so atrociously steeped in brutality, that its very existence is rendered entirely worthless. “Acts of Violence” is the first such movie of 2018. Its title is self-explanatory. The film is comprised of a series of sequences that segue from one brutal act to the next, tied together by a perverse and ugly narrative that deals with human trafficking, and the three brothers who try to track down a missing fiancé. The movie’s emotional narrative tries to surface occasionally, but it’s drowned in a hail of gunfire and sadistic exploitation.

Bruce Willis leads the cast as James Avery, the detective in charge of a human trafficking case. The criminal cartel is run by Max Livingston (Mike Epps), who enforces an operation that kidnaps women and sells them into sex slavery. Deklan (Cole Hauser) is the de facto protagonist, a military vet who, along with his brothers Roman (Ashton Holmes) and Brandon (Shawn Ashmore), tries to track down Roman’s kidnapped fiancée, Mia (Melissa Bolona) who was taken in the middle of her bachelorette party at a shady LA club. Deklan teaches his brothers how to wield weapons and forms them into a three-man army, hunting for Mia with assistance from Avery, who helps them as best he can from his comfy office chair.

I’m not sure what could have possibly drawn Willis to the “Acts of Violence” script, other than the cushy comfort of being able to perform the majority of his scenes while sitting in an office chair. Willis has less than 30 minutes of screen time, which is especially bizarre because the opening scene gives him a major action role. It feels like Willis is going to play a major role throughout, but the film quickly relegates him to the back seat. I suppose that’s how Willis wanted it. He offers a range of two or three facial expressions, which include grimace, side smirk, and narrow-eye glare, and he delivers his lines with all the enthusiasm of an automated voice message.

Honestly, Willis shouldn’t have even been in the film. The narrative clearly wants to focus on the relationship between the three brothers, yet at the same time skips through their relationship. Instead, the film finds an urgent need to focus on blatantly exploitative scenes of women being tossed around and locked in cages wearing skimpy club clothes. Mia spends the majority of the film shackled to a warehouse bed-post, still wearing the mini-skirt from her bachelorette party. While the women scream and cry in sexy outfits, the men race to rescue them clad in masculine battle armor, wielding big, manly weapons. There was probably never a good time for this movie to come out. But I can’t think of a worse time than January 2018, when the cultural climate is screaming for the polar opposite of everything that “Acts of Violence” represents.

Strong characters might have anchored the film with something resembling relevance, but the three brothers are cardboard cut-outs. Deklan is tougher than the other two, but their personalities are never really defined in any meaningful capacity. They’re also fairly unlikable. Roman doesn’t pick up his phone when his kidnapped fiancé calls him because he’s too busy getting a lapdance from three strippers. Brandon doesn’t really feel like searching for the kidnapped Mia because his own wife might get worried. Deklan actually operates based on moral principals, but the film never offers a real sense of how he feels about his brothers. As a result, we don’t particularly care about any of them.

“Acts of Violence’s” mercifully short running time of 1 hour and 26 minutes blows past moments of character in order to show more violence. By the time the movie ends, a couple of main characters have died in totally unnecessary shows of brutality. Because we never really got to know the characters, their deaths mean nothing. The nihilistic nature of violence seems to be a point that director Brett Donowho was deliberately toying with, but it comes off as a farce deliberately designed to promote senseless, chaotic action sequences.

Judging by the way “Acts of Violence” jumps between plotlines, it’s painfully obvious that enormous chunks of the movie were cut out. The brothers manage to track down a couple of the kidnappers without any explanation. They literally just drive their van to the exact location of the kidnappers without any tracking equipment. Another major plot point is skipped over when it’s revealed that Max Livingston made a deal with the DEA to rat on all of his partners in order to get his charges dropped. This is a hugely important detail that’s alluded to, but never shown. Ultimately though, it doesn’t even matter. There’s about a 10% chance that the added scenes would have added dimension and character. There’s a 90% chance that the movie still would have been a senseless display of sex and violence.

Since every review should try to make one positive point, I’ll single out Mike Epps for doing a decent job portraying the vile Max Livingston. Epps actually imbues gravitas into the character’s lines, and makes him effectively chilling during a couple of intimidation scenes. “Acts of Violence’s” best scene occurs when Livingston puts his gun into Mia’s hand and makes her shoot one of his incompetent cronies. It’s not exactly female empowerment, but it’s the closest thing we get to a redemptive moment. Of course, Livingston then puts Mia back in her woman-cage, and the moment is completely ruined.

Do yourself a favor. Don’t see “Acts of Violence.” You’d be better off going to Youtube and watching scenes of random gun fights from better movies. The effect would be pretty much the same, and you’d save yourself the price of a movie ticket. Despite the movie’s perverse implications, acts of violence, in and of themselves, are a serious matter. They’re not fodder for entertainment.

“Acts of Violence” opens Jan. 12 in select cities.