★ 6 / 10
***Big city sci-fi thriller with Bruce Willis and
Wuchak
***Big city sci-fi thriller with Bruce Willis and Thomas Jane about artificial humans*** In the near future, a big city resort called Vice utilizes artificial…
***Big city sci-fi thriller with Bruce Willis and Thomas Jane about artificial humans***
In the near future, a big city resort called Vice utilizes artificial humans wherein clients can fulfill their debased fantasies, including rape, robbery and murder. An artificial female (Ambyr Childers) escapes and seeks sanctuary at a city church. Bruce Willis plays the entrepreneur of the resort, Thomas Jane a disheveled cop who wants to put him out of business and Bryan Greenberg the man who resides in the church, but he ain’t no pastor.
"Vice" (2015) mixes the concept of “Westworld” (1973) and “Futureworld” (1976) with elements of “Blade Runner” (1982), “Groundhog Day” (1993), “Universal Soldier” (1992) and “The Island” (2005). While it only cost $10 million and you can’t expect blockbuster production values, it’s more polished than the average SyFy flick, which usually only cost $3 million or less.
Practically the entire movie takes place at nighttime in the big city and I like the reverent tone. Jane is great as the city cop and Willis is his reliable self in a role he could do in his sleep. Childers comes across as a low rent meshing of Malin Akerman and Alicia Silverstone, but in her mid-20s. She’s a’right, but it would’ve been better with someone of the caliber of Scarlett Johannson or Silverstone when she was younger.
What turned me off is the eye-rolling way the security guards at the resort couldn’t hit the side of a barn; meanwhile the cop rarely misses. Sure, this is done in a lot in movies, but there’s a way to do it that looks relatively realistic and doesn’t insult the intelligence of the viewer. Not so here.
“Vice” thankfully shoots for some depth amidst its action thrills. For instance, there’s the question of robotic self-awareness, which was explored with Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Then there’s the debate over media violence & sex, whether in movies or video games. Does it provide an outlet for people to purge their debased desires or does it encourage that behavior in the real world? Lastly, there’s a halfhearted commentary on religious fundamentalism and spirituality.
While lackluster in some ways (due to its low-budget), I liked the reverent tone and the profundities amid the thrills, not to mention Jane’s entertaining performance. It’s marginally better than “Westworld” (1973), which, let’s face it, wasn’t exactly a masterpiece.
The film runs 1 hour, 36 minutes and was shot in Mobile, Alabama, and Miami, Florida.
GRADE: C+/B- (5.5/10)
Read full review
★ 4 / 10
Vice: Put your head in it.
TheReviewMaster
The premise is fresh and exciting, but what exactly happened to this movie is beyond me. Every time I watch a movie that has potential, star power, and a great…
The premise is fresh and exciting, but what exactly happened to this movie is beyond me. Every time I watch a movie that has potential, star power, and a great central idea which then sinks slowly into a bog of stench, I immediately point fingers at the unimaginative types of Hollywood, namely the executives who think their ideas are cool, hip, fresh, exciting, and deserve to be in what was possibly a great script that got passed around the executives toilets on a rainy day when their lunch with Ray Liotta got cancelled.
One name I call these executives is, "The Scriptinators".
Whether or not they were responsible here, I do not know, all I know is the central idea of this movie needs to be lifted and planted into another movie that could utilise its full potential, because Vice had something going for it, and then stuck its head In the title.
Read full review
•••
completely SHITTY movie profesional gaurds with machine guns cant even shoot straight