Vanquish parents guide

Vanquish Parent Guide

This movie's vapid story and mindless violence render it unsuitable for teens or, for that matter, any sentient adult.

Overall D-

Digital on Demand: Determined to care for her young daughter, Victoria has abandoned her life of crime. That is until former police chief Damon forces her to become involved in his criminal enterprises.

Release date April 23, 2021

Violence D
Sexual Content C+
Profanity D
Substance Use D

Why is Vanquish rated R? The MPAA rated Vanquish R for bloody violence, language, some sexual material and drug use.

Run Time: 96 minutes

Parent Movie Review

Victoria (Ruby Rose) has a dark past of international criminal activity but the center of her life now is her daughter. Young Lily (Juju Journey Brener) is seriously ill, and in order to support her and pay for her expensive medical treatment, Victoria has taken work as ex-cop Damon’s (Morgan Freeman) personal aide. Damon has been using a wheelchair since a shooting several years ago, but that hasn’t slowed him down. From the comfort of his palatial home, he orchestrates a massive web of corruption and crime but he can’t do everything remotely. He needs Victoria to go out and tie up some loose ends for him, and to ensure she cooperates, he has Lily seized. It seems Victoria doesn’t have a choice… but you have to pity anyone who comes between this mother and her daughter.

Vanquish starts with an agonizingly dull six-and-a-half minutes of credits and pointless exposition, and somehow finds a way to deteriorate further. By the time the opening credits are done, the film has thoroughly worn out its welcome, and viewers will be praying for blissful unconsciousness…with 90 minutes left to go. It’s perhaps the least promising start I can recall seeing in recent memory. Say what you will about last week’s Virus Shark, at least it cut to the chase.

Either an infant or a fiend edited this film, and I’m still not sure which. It looks like they just dumped all of the footage into a blender, hit “Liquefy” and then stitched it together with the same weird fade transition. The result includes such highlights as the “rats-eye” view, flashback montages to scenes that happened five minutes previously, and a complete absence of any coherent storytelling. It’s so boring I spent the middle of the film testing myself to see if I could remember every James Bond film in order. The problem with that strategy is that I’m watching this for work, and so I had to force myself to rewind about ten minutes to catch up: I’ve never exercised more self-control in my life than I did to go back.

Ruby Rose has taken on some strange projects in her career (see SAS: Red Notice), but I cannot for the life of me figure out how an actor of Morgan Freeman’s stature got suckered into appearing in this tire fire. Surely it wasn’t the script, which is execrable, or the premise, which is out of a stale-dated can labelled “Action Thriller #4”.

While this isn’t suitable for children due to the bloody violence, cocaine use, profanity, and crude sexual comments, this is also completely unsuitable for adults, or any vaguely sentient being. This movie will make you dumber if you watch it, and you won’t even be entertained in return. I had to take a walk for a good ten minutes before I remembered how to speak English after watching this cinematic disaster. So if you’re tempted to watch this and see just how bad it really is…don’t. Brain cells die quickly enough on their own, you don’t need to accelerate the process.

Directed by George Gallo. Starring Ruby Rose, Morgan Freeman, and Patrick Muldoon. Running time: 96 minutes. Theatrical release April 23, 2021. Updated

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Vanquish
Rating & Content Info

Why is Vanquish rated R? Vanquish is rated R by the MPAA for bloody violence, language, some sexual material and drug use.

Violence: Many people are beaten, shot, and killed. Several people are blown up in a large explosion. An individual is stabbed in the head off screen.
Sexual Content: There are several sexually graphic jokes. One scene includes a depiction of prostitution without explicit sex or nudity.
Profanity: There are 21 sexual expletives in several languages, 10 scatological terms, and occasional mild profanities and terms of deity.
Alcohol / Drug Use: People are shown drinking socially. A person is involuntarily drugged and is shown using cocaine to counteract the effects.

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Compared to most action movies, John Wick(and sequels Chapter 2 and Chapter 3: Parabellum) are excellent alternatives. A more recently released option is Nobody, starring Bob Odenkirk. Another choice might be Collateral, starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. If you’re more interested in the corruption and intrigue angle, City of Lies, The Departed or The Irishman are good options.