Danny's Gonna Getcha

The low budget, bullshit action movie Bad Ass is a great opportunity to see Machete legend Danny Trejo in a leading role again. Surprisingly, given the ‘in your face’ title, Bad Ass isn’t the ultra-violent, mega-exploitation body count and explosion-fest that you’d expect which is no bad thing. It’s a more traditionally slow paced, character centric American action movie that follows the basic revenge plot of the UK’s Harry Brown as an ex-military pensioner takes the law into his own hands to obtain justice for his dead friend and to clear the streets of the gangster thugs that strike terror into the neighbourhood.

It’s refreshing to see a more passive, gentler side to Trejo while Charles S Dutton goes in the complete opposite direction in a scenery chewing bad guy role. The street carnage is pretty impressive for a low budget film…until you realise that the Bus chase footage has been lifted lock stock from Schwarzenegger’s 1988 hit Red Heat… but hey, who’s gonna check that? Simple, streamlined and dependable bullshit…just like the old days.