vanquish movie review rotten tomatoes

You know how watching a bad action movie can sometimes feel like watching somebody else playing a video game? Watching George Gallo's "Vanquish," on the other hand, is more like watching someone beta testing an exceptionally buggy game for a system that's soon to be phased out. This is a rehash of genre cliches that is so dull, threadbare, and bereft of thrills that the one time that its one moment of genuine excitement comes when our heroine enters a bar where danger is allegedly afoot, and the television in the background is showing curling. This, I hasten to add, is not a cheap shot at that beloved sport in the slightest—by the time our heroine is leaving the place with guns drawn, my guess is many viewers will be thinking "You go ahead—I'm good."

The aforementioned heroine is Victoria ( Ruby Rose ) and as she enters the picture, she's arriving at her job providing evening care for Damon ( Morgan Freeman —yes, Morgan Freeman), a retired and wheelchair-bound cop in his palatial estate with her adorable moppet daughter Lily ( Juju Journey Brener ) in tow. Lily, it turns out, is ill and Victoria confesses to Damon that she cannot possibly afford the necessary treatment. Damon magnanimously offers to pay for the treatment but he will require a service. As his digs probably suggest, Damon was a corrupt cop engaged in all sorts of illicit deals around town. And in the wake of a recent double cross, he decides to pull his money from five associates around town and asks Victoria to put her own former skill set—she once worked with her late brother as a drug courier for the Russian mob—to use by making the pickups over the course of that night. At first, Victoria refuses—she has left that life behind and such—but when it turns out that Lily has vanished, and Damon won't return her until the job is done, she reluctantly agrees.

Any hopes that this will just be a quiet and nondescript series of pickups and drop-offs pretty much goes out the window when Victoria arrives at the first destination, recognizes the criminal she is collecting from as being the guy who killed her brother, and slaughters him and a roomful of his minions. (She also helps a sex worker escape, so I guess the karmic scales are even.) From there, things go downhill as each new trip brings an encounter with allegedly colorful criminals (including one who clearly thinks he's playing Alfred Molina in " Boogie Nights " and greets Victoria with the deathless line "I hear you killed more people than Quentin Tarantino . Mint julep?") that ends in either a fight scene, gunplay, or a chase before heading back to Damon's place for yet another enigmatic conversation (while never just going from room to room in search of her daughter). Meanwhile, Victoria's activities capture the attention of an array of crooked cops, feds, and government agents—at least one of whom actually gets to say that a piece of information is "above your pay grade"—who all try to stop her in equally ineffectual ways.

As you may have surmised by this point, "Vanquish" is a very bad movie. But more than that, it's a supremely lazy one—the kind that almost makes the DTV drivel that Steven Seagal has been churning out for the last couple of decades seem focused and committed by comparison. To describe the characters and the narrative as being "paper-thin" would be an insult to your average ream of copier feed and at least that is guaranteed to have a higher brightness rating than the murky cinematography on display throughout. Of course, one does not watch a film like "Vanquish" for those particular qualities, but they actually come off better when compared to the dreadful action beats that are listless as can be throughout. The only thing that's interesting about them—and the whole movie, by extension—is that the film is oddly bereft of extras throughout. Strip clubs, freeways—you name a location and it is weirdly devoid of anybody other than the specific characters necessary to move that particular scene along. Hell, " Swimming to Cambodia " had more extras than can be found here—not to mention better fight choreography.

Although "Vanquish" is otherwise as forgettable as can be—that may be the closest thing that it has to a virtue—there's still one thing about it that I cannot immediately shake, and that is the presence of Morgan Freeman in a role that requires so little effort it's a wonder that Bruce Willis didn't take it. Throughout his career, Freeman has, to put it charitably, made his share of bad movies—some perhaps even worse than this one (as those who made it through the likes of "Dreamcatcher" and " The Bucket List " can attest)—but I cannot for the life of me understand what could have compelled him to sign on for this one. Aside from a couple of face-to-face scenes with Rose and one bit where he tucks little Lily in for the night, his role consists almost entirely of sitting in his wheelchair and watching the action unfold on his computer screen via the body cameras that Victoria is wearing. In what is either the high or low point of the film, he observes her dropping a hand grenade in order to get away from the bad guys surrounding her, and as everyone scatters, he starts imploring to her to "Get out of there!" I have no idea if Freeman ever plans to publish his memoirs but if he does, I dearly hope that he shares exactly what was going through his mind when he shot that particular moment because I, for one, am desperately curious to find out. Who knows—maybe he was focusing on the curling as well.

Now playing in theaters, and available on Apple TV+ on April 20.

Peter Sobczynski

A moderately insightful critic, full-on Swiftie and all-around bon vivant , Peter Sobczynski, in addition to his work at this site, is also a contributor to The Spool and can be heard weekly discussing new Blu-Ray releases on the Movie Madness podcast on the Now Playing network.

Morgan Freeman as Damon
Ruby Rose as Victoria
Patrick Muldoon as Agent Monroe
Julie Lott as Governor Ann Driscoll
Ekaterina Baker as Galyna
Nick Vallelonga as Detective Stevens
Joel Michaely as Rayo
Miles Doleac as Erik
Aldo Shllaku

Cinematographer

Anastas N. Michos
George Gallo
Samuel Bartlett

Writer (story by)

Yvan Gauthier

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‘Vanquish’ Review: She Shoots to Conquer

Morgan Freeman makes Ruby Rose blow away a lot of bad guys in George Gallo’s perfunctory action opus.

By Dennis Harvey

Dennis Harvey

Film Critic

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Early on in “Vanquish,” Ruby Rose as Morgan Freeman ’s improbable housekeeper is very awkwardly chopping some vegetable — the awkwardness providing a rare plausible moment, as Rose seems an even less likely maker-of-dinner than she does slayer-of-many-criminal-goons. If she’d kept slicing that carrot or whatever for the remaining 90 minutes here, the results would have been approximately as exciting as the high-body-count action occupying most of veteran writer-director George Gallo ’s feature.

“Vanquish” isn’t bad so much as inert — nothing here is convincing, tense, kinetic, outrageous, or silly enough to give the movie even fleeting life. The script is so by-the-numbers, the performers can hardly hide their disinterest, a feeling soon to be shared by viewers lured by the promise of these stars in a violent revenge tale. Lionsgate opens it in select theaters April 16, followed by on demand and digital release four days later.

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Newspaper headlines under the opening credits inform that “hero cop” Damon (Freeman) had a long career until wounds in the course of duty reduced him to wheelchair-bound retirement. That he was also a crooked cop is evidenced by the absurdly expansive, all-white manse he lives in, apparently tended solely by Victoria (Rose), whose wee daughter Lily (Juju Journey Brener) he dotes on. Their presence is evidence of Damon’s better side, as he rescued Vicky from a life of crime and certain prison sentence to keep her with her child.

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But that’s all the backstory we get, apart from learning Vicky’s brother was killed by crooks they were once entangled with. Now, just as she’s discovered Lily requires expensive medical treatments, her employer announces he’ll pay for them — if she uses “some of your old skills” to collect and/or steal money back from various local ne’er-do-wells tonight. Should she refuse, he says she’ll never see her daughter again. This immediately sets “Vanquish” on a psychologically fraudulent base, since we know Damon would never hurt Lily — yet Vicky is now motivated by the far-fetched fear her longtime benefactor would do just that.

In any case, after getting armed to the teeth, Victoria speeds off on her Harley to the first of five “stops” in which she’ll walk into some den of iniquity, then walk out with a sackful of extracted moolah. Almost invariably, myriad goons are left dead in her wake, often for little discernible reason. Though a white leather jacket makes her a great nocturnal target, umpteen shots fired miraculously miss Vicky, while she takes out every hardened tough. Much of this is absurd in a particularly oblivious, lazy way, as when several such thugs holding her at gunpoint nonetheless let her grope around inside her jacket … where she happens to have a handy grenade.

A movie with this slim a pretext for near-incessant action can work if it provides sufficient humor, style, a unique atmosphere, memorable action and/or the kind of star charisma that somehow punches it all across. But “Vanquish” is lacking on nearly every front, to an almost bewildering degree. Gallo evinces no flair for bullet ballets, so Vicky simply blams people in the forehead again and again. Stunts like a sideways motorcycle pass beneath a semi feel too familiar to thrill. There’s no depth to characters we’re still expected to take seriously. One exception is Joel Michaely as a flaming Southern queen, whose “I hear you killed more people than Quentin Tarantino. Fancy a mint julep?” reps the height of quips here, and he’s too offensive to be funny.

There are attempts at lending the proceedings vigor via handheld shots and frenetic editing, yet the film just lays there. Even a somewhat stimulating visual palette is miscalculated: Why are the bad guys’ scenes drenched in a sort of Day-Glo sea-green hue, while the all-white surfaces of Damon’s domain are lit aquamarine-to-purple? These are the colors of lollipops, not neo-noir. Aldo Shllaku’s synthy score affords a thumping propulsion the movie stubbornly refuses to be enlivened by.

Perhaps ex-model Rose (“Orange Is the New Black,” “Batwoman,” “The Meg”) could have pulled off this “La Femme Nikita”-esque part under different circumstances. But the script gives her nothing to work with, and she is not yet a commanding enough screen presence to make the flimsy enterprise either credible or an enjoyable fantasy all by herself. The androgynous features (abetted by wardrobe and buzzcut here) that make her an interesting camera subject aren’t at all integrated into the character conception — Victoria is a supposedly-badass blank slate. Scenes with her daughter are so forced we don’t believe in that aspect of the heroine, either; she seems nervous and arm’s-length, as if stuck babysitting a stranger’s child.

Freeman’s entire role appears designed for him to exert as little effort as possible, staying on one location in his chair, barely reacting long-distance to the paces he puts Vicky through. (He can see and talk to her via remote-control devices.) He’s an actor seldom prone toward overstatement, but here reserve verges on somnambulism.

Shot in Mississippi (though the story’s setting is left unspecified), “Vanquish” is one of those films whose very professional polish in all departments further drains the whole of any fun — far worse, cheaper joints in the same general wheelhouse often have a crass energy or some unintentional laughs to generate guilty pleasure. A movie with this little nutritional value ought to provide at least a little bang for your buck. But “Vanquish” feels like a firecracker submerged in water before it’s even lit.

Reviewed online, San Francisco, April 13, 2021. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 94 MIN.

Production: A Lionsgate release of a Lionsgate, Grindstone Entertainment Group, Capstone Pictures presentation, in association with Southland Equities. Producers: David E. Ornston, Nate Adams, Richard Salvatore. Executive producers: Gary Leff, Christian Mercuri, Roman Viarus, George Gallo, Julie Lott-Gallo, Barry Brooker, Stan Wertlieb. Co-producers: Yvan Gauthier, Joe Lemmon.
Crew: Director: George Gallo. Screenplay: Gallo, Sam Bartlett; story: Bartlett. Camera: Anastas Michos. Editor: Yvan Gauthier. Music: Aldo Shllalku.
With: Morgan Freeman, Ruby Rose, Patrick Muldoon, Nick Vallelonga, Chris Mullinax, Dylan Flashner, Paul Sampson, Julie Lott, Bill Luckett, Joel Michaely, Miles Doleac, Juju Journey Brener. (English, French, German dialogue)
Music By: Aldo Shllalku

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Cast & crew
User reviews

Morgan Freeman and Ruby Rose in Vanquish (2021)

A mother, Victoria, is trying to put her dark past as a Russian drug courier behind her, but retired cop Damon forces Victoria to do his bidding by holding her daughter hostage. A mother, Victoria, is trying to put her dark past as a Russian drug courier behind her, but retired cop Damon forces Victoria to do his bidding by holding her daughter hostage. A mother, Victoria, is trying to put her dark past as a Russian drug courier behind her, but retired cop Damon forces Victoria to do his bidding by holding her daughter hostage.

George Gallo
Samuel Bartlett
Morgan Freeman
Patrick Muldoon
225 User reviews
46 Critic reviews
22 Metascore
2 nominations

Top cast 22

Agent Monroe

Detective Stevens

Governor Ann Driscoll

Father Thomas

Detective Kehoe

(as Reginald Robinson)

Detective Childs

Michael Weathers
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Trivia Victoria's motorcycle is a Harley-Davidson Livewire.
Goofs The first generation Axon body camera Victoria is wearing is not capable of live view.
Connections Referenced in Amanda the Jedi Show: Movies that Destroyed and Restored my Faith in Humanity | Sundance 2022 (2022)
Soundtracks I'm Unstoppable Performed by Zae Brown Lyrics by Zae Brown Music by Aldo Shllaku Produced by Aldo Shllaku and Kai Rosenkranz (as Kairo) Recorded at Offstream Studios Mixed by Tom Russbueldt