User Reviews

Now I could get my panties all in a bunch about how certain characters have switched races from their real life counterparts, but the truth is I just don't care. It's Hollywood those things happen all the time. The much more surprising thing is that Craig Moss actually made a film that wasn't complete and utter ass (those unfortunate enough to have seen his two previous films can surely attest to his crimes against celluloid)

Danny Trejo is entertaining as EBM in this mexiploitation film, and I enjoyed it for what it was. Not going to win any awards any time soon, but as a vigilante film, I've seen worse. However I did take major issue over reusing a certain scene almost completely from a (much better) film

First off, the trailers for this film are *extremely* misleading - BadAss is way more serious of a film then you're led to believe; this is not a Tarantino-inspired slaughterfest in the spirit of Hobo With Shotgun or Sucker Punch, and although it revolves on Danny Treyo's "BadAss-ness", there is a lot of content beyond fistfights and generic violence.

Danny Treyo(Frank Vega, "Bad Ass")is a ex-Vietnam vet living a quiet and slightly unhappy life in the suburbs; there is an incident of him beating up some skinheads and becoming a YouTube sensation(thereby acquiring the BadAss moniker), but it's a minor plot device and not as central as they make it out to be.

The main plot revolves around the murder of one of BadAss's friends, the police's incompetence, a corrupt major, and BadAss's stone-fisted investigation; if anything, this film has more in common with Marlowe's film noire dramas than with Death Wish - you will be pleasantly surprised at the amount of content this film has.

Now, let's run through the good and bad.

Good everything. Direction, acting, great supporting characters, many, many scenes that are so real you can smell the sweat. Real writing, great pace, and zero unrealistic plot twists.

Bad: almost nothing. BadAss is a low-flying film, it's not trying too hard and sticks to a well-rehearsed script, but does everything properly. Production isn't up there with the best, but i guess when you wish for Hollywood polish, you also get a lot of Hollywood crap along with it. So all good here.

Now, it's hard to vote this film properly. For some, it will be a nine. For some others a five. What i see in it is a lesson on how to write a film without falling into the commercial pits of easy amusement. This film has a lot going for it; if you can handle it, if you don't have prejudices against this kind of film you should see it because it's great. If you are into more sensational films, like MI3, then give it a miss because you wouldn't understand a minute of it.

A great little film that has many lessons to teach.

My final vote - a politically correct 7/10

Lots of action as was to be expected with the star and the title. It is nice to see Trejo getting some relatively good guy roles after all the (no pun intended) bad ass roles he played plus the really bad life he turned around. In this movie it is a good thing he is playing his age because he is starting to move like I do, an older man. Poor old Charles S. Dutton has not had a good guy role since "Roc", except for the Die Hard movie. Everything I have seen him in since he is a rotten cop, gang banger, or drug pusher. This movie is really just a platform for Trejo to make bank on after "Machete" and the sequel but it is entertaining. I really like the revenge factor of this movie when the best friend is murdered and that starts everything moving. They never say or I missed it, where the he got the flash drive but it is the catalyst for the rest of the movie. I like how they let the old guy still be forceful and powerful enough to beat up the bad guys. The one really interesting thing about the whole movie was Trejo never used a gun. This is a really decent B movie.

When a trailer for Bad Ass hit the web last year, many questioned whether or not it was a hoax – one loosely based on a real altercation between a 67-year-old white man and a 50-year-old black man on an Oakland public bus. The fight was videoed and went viral after being posted to YouTube in February 2010 ("Old Man Beats Up Young Black Guy on Metro Bus"). The film changes the principals' races and adds characters possibly for the sake of political correctness. The hero is now a Hispanic man who comes to the aid of an African-American man verbally accosted by two white guys of the skinhead variety. Sadly, this film should have been a hoax because there is nothing worth watching here.

Danny Trejo of Machete fame plays Frank Vega, a senior citizen who becomes known as "Bad Ass" after he beat up two skinheads on a public bus and makes the news and YouTube. We see from flashbacks that he served in Vietnam, that his girlfriend got married and had kids while he was oversees, and that he has spent the last 40 years or so serving hotdogs at a corner stand. After his mother dies, he moves into her house next door to a couple and their young son; the wife is abused by the husband and Vega comes to her aide. Note: If the film had a plot, this would be its subplot. Vega's best friend, Klondike, gives him a flash drive for safe keeping. Then, Klondike is killed by two thugs who are looking for said drive. Vega aims to avenge his best friend's death and goes on a vigilante spree of sorts.

We find out the flash drive has compromising material on the major (played by Ron Perlman). The major's underhanded right-hand man is played by Charles Dutton who we know serves the major in an unofficial capacity as his personal enforcer. Panther (Dutton) is a more than a few cards short of a full deck. The last big duel sequence between Vega and Panther involve them both driving buses at one another in a wild game of public transit chicken. Ultimately, Vega prevails with beating Panther's ass on the side of the street and the major gets arrested for unnamed corruption.

Director Craig Moss has previously made spoofs – one of Apatow-like films and one of the Twilight films. Is Bad Ass a spoof? Is it a revenge exploitation film? At times, it seems to simultaneously be both. It would certainly be easier to critique it if it clearly fell into one camp or the other. Instead, it is just an incredulous piece of nonsensical film-making. It is a shame, because maybe there really is a story to be told about an altercation on a public bus and the men involved. By all means, someone feel free to tell that story and bypass this ridiculous film in the process.

Todd FilmPulse.net

Wow, is this terrible. Many others have pointed out the numerous inaccuracies of the plot, but even as a movie it's boring and lifeless. The main song used throughout the movie just repeats "I'm badass." Danny Trejo is a likable guy, but there's no reason he needs to have a love interest. This is another film which (I think) doesn't pass the Bechdel test, and I'm not surprised at all. He would definitely not be awarded a position of honor after going on a violent bus chase through the city. That's easily $3 million in damages, and somebody's gotta pay for it. Aside from that, I honestly grew tired of watching him assault anyone who got in his way. This movie was 5% 'inspired by true events' and 95% standard Hollywood bull-ish. Protip: when you run out of movie ideas, stop making movies.

OK here is what i don't like about this movie, it takes a great you tube video where black men were being racist and picking on old people of every color on a bus.they change is for some odd reason to white (skin heads) being racist on a bus why the heck do the white guys gotta be the racists in every movie? cant you make a true movie and show how the black men on the bus were calling him cracker? i thinks its very insulting you try to push these stereo types that whites are so racist when clearly in the real you tube video no white person was being racist at all! you took a real moment and ruined it in my opinion and the real situation that happened should have been left to the way it was.not changed to suit the black racists to make whites look bad yet again.

Decorated Vietnam hero Frank Vega returns home only to get shunned by society leaving him without a job or his high school sweetheart.

It's not until forty years later when an incident on a commuter bus (where he protects an elderly black man from a pair of skin heads) makes him a local hero where he's suddenly celebrated once again.

But his good fortune suddenly turns for the worse when his best friend Klondike is murdered and the police aren't doing anything about it....

Take and epic you tube video filmed by people who were against the man in question, and add a little plot,and a bit of Red Heat and you have this.

It's a B-movie of the highest order, something that Charles Bronson would have made in the late eighties, so it needs to be seen with a large pinch of salt.

It's fun though while it lasts, the one liners come thick and fast, and Trejo as you would expect is very good in the title role and gives a great performance.

The rest of the cast are just pure filler and people like Perlman, and Dutton, didn't really have to be in this movie, as they don't really add anything to the proceedings.

If you like late eighties action movies, then this is for you...

If you are familiar with B movie actor Danny Trejo, you'll know that any movie where he makes an appearance automatically gets some points in its favor. In "Bad Ass", Danny Trejo is front and center in a rare leading role, so we get ninety or so minutes of his awesomeness. No surprise that Trejo is great in this movie. Naturally, he is great in his scenes of kicking ass, but he also gets to show in several sequences emotions like tenderness and humor, and does those things also very well. There isn't much of a plot here, I'll admit - much of the movie is Trejo just going from one location to another and picking up a clue in each location. But the movie manages to deliver a lot of action along the way, making the journey a lot of fun. The only real objection I have is the way they movie uses Ron Perlman - despite his billing, I don't think his scenes add up to more than a minute of the movie's running time.