Review Pans Boll's 'Citizen Vigilante' as Morally
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- Uwe Boll wrote, directed, and produced 'Citizen Vigilante,' originally titled 'The Dark Knight' before being legally prohibited from using that DC-inspired name, and the review situates it alongside his earlier 'House of the Dead,' 'Alone in the Dark,' and 'BloodRayne' as low-grade exploitation
- Armie Hammer stars as Sanders, an American vigilante abroad who funds his vengeance with rent extracted from a property empire inherited from his late father — a role the review frames as an intended comeback vehicle that instead 'can only be harmed' by the project
- Costas Mandylor plays Interpol chief Henry pursuing Sanders, though the review notes the killer leaves behind fingerprints, recorded videos, and a thinly disguised face, making capture seem implausible despite Henry's 'world-weariness'
- The film portrays Sanders as xenophobic, railing against 'criminal migrants,' with a scene of a hooded Black man killing a mother and another in which a rapist's parents cite the Quran — portrayals the reviewer calls 'prejudiced screeds' delivered by Hammer without his former charisma
- The film concludes with a dedication to 'rape victims in Europe who were betrayed by our legal system,' which the review calls a shameless use of advocacy framing to launder exploitation
- The review calls the film 'pointlessly nonlinear' and padded with repeated footage, arguing Boll 'seems to use every second of footage he recorded' to reach feature length
Why it matters: The pan crystallizes the stakes for Armie Hammer's attempted career resurrection: rather than rehabilitating his image, attaching to a Uwe Boll project — already a critical liability — produces a film the reviewer calls so xenophobic and incoherent it deepens the reputational damage from his past controversies. The stated dedication to rape victims in Europe, paired with portrayals the reviewer calls prejudiced, also illustrates how social-justice framing can mask gratuitous exploitation.
