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Movie Review: 'Vanquish'

Ruby Rose can't overcome dimwitted action in Vanquish.

By Sean PatrickPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
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Vanquish is a dimwitted, ugly and joyless entry into the action genre. The film stars Ruby Rose in the role of Victoria, a former assassin and thief turned personal care assistant to Morgan Freeman’s Damon. Damon is America’s Top Cop, a beloved law enforcement figure who was paralyzed when attacked in his home by unknown thugs. Secretly, however, Damon is also a leading underworld baddie with scores to settle.

In one night, Damon plans to close all of his accounts with fellow baddies, collect all his money and call it a career. To make that happen however, he will need Victoria’s old skills. Victoria is not up for this idea. Now a mother to a sick, possibly dying, young daughter, Victoria wants to spend all her time making legitimate money that she can spend trying to find doctors who can save her daughter from some unknown, unexplained illness.

Damon offers to pay for all of Victoria’s daughters medical bills in exchange for Victoria working for him but she declines. So, Damon takes Victoria’s daughter hostage and forces the issue. On this night, Victoria will make five stops. At each stop, one of Damon’s corrupt, criminal partners will hand her a bag full of money and then they will try to kill her. Victoria must escape each encounter with her life and the money in order to rescue her daughter.

Complicating matters is the fact that each of Damon’s partners knows Victoria. In her past as a criminal, alongside her late brother, she encountered these criminals and made an impression. Regardless of Damon, each wants her dead and will go to any length to try to make that happen. Among them are members of the Irish mob, the German mob, a Priest, and various corrupt members of law enforcement including the legendary Nick Vallalonga, famed for his Green Book screenplay Oscar.

Contract negotiations to get Ruby Rose in Vanquish

Ruby Rose deserves so much better than what she gets in Vanquish. Rose is a charismatic and compelling actress and she is left floundering in Vanquish by a dimwitted, rudimentary screenplay. Scenes repeat over and over again as Rose rides a motorcycle, interacts with a criminal, survives being attacked by killing all the bad guys, and engages in a vehicle chase. Lather, rinse, repeat. Same scenes, different characters, same results.

Morgan Freeman is completely checked out of Vanquish. The beloved legend, now in a wheelchair, plays the voice in Rose’s ear as she endures the same scene over and over again. In another movie, Morgan seemingly narrating Rose’s action scenes might be a clever notion, playing on Freeman’s legendary voiceover work. In Vanquish however, the fact that Freeman is mostly just a voice is coincidental to his history in voiceover. The screenplay has no knowing nod to Freeman’s legend. It really could be any other actor in Freeman’s role.

The movie also tips its hand very early as to what the ‘twist’ ending is going to be. Writer-Director George Gallo appears to think the twist is very clever but the reality is that the only people who won’t see this ending coming are those who’ve never watched a movie before. The opening scene gives away the direction the movie is going and while Freeman makes a slight effort toward misdirection, his performance is so sleepy and disengaged in most scenes that he ends up revealing the ending by inertia.

As I mentioned before, Ruby Rose deserves better. Rose has effortless charisma and she even manages to make some of the dull-witted interactions with paper villains in Vanquish kind of charming. But no actress, no matter how interesting they are, could overcome the stultifying style of writer-director George Gallo whose predictable choices and repetitive direction sink the whole movie to sub-B movie levels. Vanquish isn’t a complete embarrassment but it comes close.

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About the Creator

Sean Patrick

Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.

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