What to Know
Years after cannibalism and abuse accusations led to Armie Hammer‘s cancellation, he’s attempting to make a comeback in Hollywood, and to put it mildly, it’s not going well. His new movie, Citizen Vigilante, is now in theaters, and not only are the reviews absolutely abysmal, but the film itself has been banned in Germany because lawmakers are concerned it will incite violence. Yes, it’s that bad.
The plot of Citizen Vigilante has been described as “morally bankrupt.”
The movie, which was released on June 19, has a very questionable premise. Armie plays Sanders, an American who moves to Croatia and begins his life as a vigilante, killing “violent criminals, rapists, and corrupt judges” and becomes an “unlikely hero” in the process, according to the movie’s synopsis.
But all of his victims also happen to be migrants, which is obviously incredibly problematic, and on top of that, according to the reviews that have come out so far, it doesn’t seem like it was a very good movie to begin with.
In fact, Citizen Vigilante is so bad that Variety called it a “violent, incoherent, morally bankrupt slice of exploitation” and movie goers aren’t impressed, either.
One person who saw the film even shared their review on Reddit, saying they were “astounded” the movie was even made at all.
“I know ‘the worst movie of all time’ gets banded around way too often, but Citizen Vigilante might genuinely be a contender,” they wrote.
The movie has already been banned in Germany.
The controversial movie’s director, Uwe Boll, is from Germany, but it’s not even screening in his home country, as he told the Telegraph last week.
“The rating system refused to give us a rating [in Germany], so now you can only watch it if you bring in a Blu-ray from Austria or Switzerland,” he said. “And I think they did that on purpose. It was a deliberate censorship decision. I hired a lawyer to complain about it, but we lost in a six-two vote as I was told that the film was inciting violence against migrants.”
He also went on a bit of a rant trying to show that he’s not a Nazi.
“Now you’re being told that if you’re a conservative about anything — social, sexual, political — that you’re a Nazi. But this is how things stand at the moment,” he said. “If you question anything — such as the hundreds of billions being pumped into Ukraine — then you’re either a friend of Putin or a Nazi or both.”
Okay then.
Armie said he “cried” when he was offered the part in the film.
It sounds like Armie was really counting on this movie to be his big comeback, so he might not be too happy after hearing how it was received.
“I’m pretty sure I cried,” he told The Hollywood Reporter of the moment he was offered the role. “It was just this moment where I was like: I’m going to get to do the thing that I love more than anything — other than my children.”
On one hand, it’s wild that anyone would agree to play this role… and on the other hand, it just seems like it’s par for the course for this dude. Either way, it doesn’t seem like this movie is going to revive Armie’s career the way he hoped it would.
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