Idiotic ‘Trail of Vengeance’ is pocked with peril
After seeing “Trail of Vengeance,” don’t be surprised if you suddenly feel the urge to unleash a little payback, too – on the lackadaisical cast and crew responsible for one of the more woeful Westerns in recent years.
Directed and co-written by Johnny Remo and starring Rumer Willis as an aggrieved wife on the hunt for the varmints who murdered her husband, “Vengeance” brims with subpar writing, hammy acting and a convoluted plot. The opening title card claims the movie is based on a true story involving Pinkerton agents infiltrating the Confederate Army. OK! Then why not tell us that story? It sounds fascinating and rife for intense action and suspense.
Instead, we get stuck with this turkey, which takes place a decade after the Civil War, with a deranged Tennessee colonel (Jeff Fahey, so over the top he needs oxygen) determined to wipe out all the Pinkertons capable of crushing his political pursuits. It involves a My Lai-style massacre of women and children in the closing days of the War Between the States. True to his word, Fahey’s Davis and his henchmen have disposed of all but one of these “traders.” Yup, that holdout would be the doomed hubby of Willis’ preggers homesteader, Katherine Atherton.
If she’d gone all “Die-Hard” on these killers like her Papa Bruce Willis, “Vengeance” might have been a stirring proto-feminist saga in which a tough woman proves she can exact an eye for an eye all by herself. But that’s not what’s happening. Remo and his co-writer, Daniel Backman, instead go for a more traditional bent by requiring Katherine to seek out an old acquaintance of her spouse to help “the little lady” do what she must. That would be John Scobell (Gbenga Akinnagbe, who also co-produced), a drunken recluse who isn’t so sure he wants to get mixed up in his former pal’s mess. But, is there any doubt he’ll eventually join the fight?
Everything about “Trail of Vengeance” is dull, predictable and laughably inept, from the clunky dialogue to the pedestrian gun battles in which the bad guys can’t hit the broadside of a barn – point-blank! And when the rifles aren’t firing, Fahey’s pompous Colonel Davis is blasting his chief underling, Frank Cooper (Eric Nelson), for failing to thoroughly wipe out all who are privy to his heinous crimes.
Directing like he’s never seen a Western before, Remo fails to create a single authentic moment amid all the bloviating and gunfire. Nor does he attempt to rein in Fahey, who portrays Davis as a parody rather than a truly frightening villain. Might a Razzie nod be in Fahey’s future? And didn’t he once rate better material than this? Ditto for Graham Greene, a past Oscar nominee, completely wasted as Hoko, the elderly storekeeper with a giant bullseye on his back, just begging to be fired upon.
At least he’s better than Willis, who has inherited little of the acting chops possessed by her legendary parents. She has minimal presence and looks uncomfortable wielding a shotgun. She largely sleepwalks, displaying only hints of the rage you’d expect from a woman who just witnessed the cold-blooded murder of the man she allegedly loves more than anything. As played by Willis, Katherine is less a snarling tiger and more a discombobulated pussycat, who – like the movie – can’t find her way home.
Movie review
Trail of Vengeance
Rated: Not rated
Cast: Rumer Willis, Jeff Fahey, Gbenga Akinnagbe and Eric Nelson
Director: Johnny Remo
Writers: Johnny Remo and Daniel Backman
Runtime: 97 minutes
Where: In theaters and On Demand starting May 23
Grade: D
