The Demolisher (2015) User Reviews

Not a success

[jim-man · 4/10 · 5 October 2015]

Done as a B-movie. Presented as a series of vignettes, sometimes with art movie overtones. Extremely violent towards the end.

The direction of the film felt a little amateurish. Did not splice the two story lines in a convincing way. The violence was over the top. The dialogue was disappointing. That said, the cinematography was good.

A policewoman is crippled after she intervenes in a ritual sacrifice. Her husband is deeply disturbed by her anguish and frequent nightmares. He dresses up in riot police armour, stalks and brutally beats the gang members.

In the end, he is so traumatized by the violence that he goes berserk. Does not end well.

It was unfortunate that the editor put in an up-beat ending. Quite unnecessary. Cannot recommend the film.

How much of the budget went to get all those raving reviews for the poster?

[Seth_Rogue_One · 3/10 · 22 March 2016]

The poster is riddled with comments from supposedly professional reviewers raving about how amazing this movie was.

But don't be fooled by them cause they clearly were under the influence (of money most likely) when they wrote those.

Don't get me wrong, there is some talent behind the cinematography of the movie, for such a low budget movie it looks pretty good.

But the script is horrendous, it tries so hard to be artsie, abstract and distant (probably to hide the fact that the plot doesn't make any sense) that it's borderline impossible to follow at times.

And no the movie is not too complex for me or anything it has nothing to do with that, the characters and script simply does not follow any kind of logic.

There's not really all that much more to say really.

A lot of nothing

[ivarthurvi · 2/10 · 18 February 2016]

The camera work is impressive in some areas, capturing unique perspectives, but that's not the problem with this film. The problems, actually, are what follows.

Where did all these reviews plastered on the poster come from? Are you kidding me? Who needs dialogue when you have long (to the point of awkward) actors and actresses staring off into nothing? We didn't need a plot, because: REASONS Nothing really made sense in this film, outside the fact that the lead antagonist was clearly insane.

The "violence" and "brutality" of this movie was very boring and simple. No real structure to the action, so it's selling itself as a boring trip.

If you want to see what a slow burning thriller should be like, watch A History of Violence. This film seems to attempt that kind of portrayal of a vigilante, but really, it's a failure of a horror film, shot in a way to show the perspectives of both cat and mouse, and boy are they both dull.

I gave it a 2 for the camera work being impressive, like I said, but I'd rather regurgitate a full grown cat than watch this again.

One of the most amateur films ever shown at VIFF

[johnston-cole · 1/10 · 15 October 2015]

I wanted to like this. In fact, I wanted to love this. An homage to John Carpenter and the action revenge films of the 1970s and 80s? Sign me up! Unfortunately, director Gabriel Carrer is not nearly skilled enough to helm this kind of project. In fact, this is the most amateur film I've ever seen screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival. I understand what Carrer was going for with this take on the vigilante justice gone too far, and the idea had potential. But every scene was so heavy- handed, there's not a single moment where a character acts in a natural manner. Every line of dialogue is horrendously written, it's hard to know if the actors are terrible, or its just the script. I'd like to give the actors the benefit of the doubt. But despite the amateur script and direction, I was OK with The Demolisher being a "too ambitious for its own good" disaster. That would have been fine. But then came the 40 minute chase scene, which had our heroine running frantically through the streets of downtown Toronto at night. Instead of going directly to the police or even, say, a car with people in it, the girl runs past police cars, past groups of people, and past open businesses. She opts for the safer route, an abandoned shopping mall, the upper level no less, then an underground parking lot, a gang of murderous thugs who can "smell that she's a virgin", and finally a desolate rooftop. This was the most unintentionally hilarious chase scene I've ever witnessed. Audience members were cackling with every insane decision she made. And it would have made for great comedy were it not so deadly serious about its intentions as a serious film. And that's really the fatal flaw with The Demolisher. It should be a grindhouse exploitation classic, tongue-in-cheek and self aware, something akin to Hobo With A Shotgun. Instead, the director tries to give us realism and gritty raw emotion, which he proves hilariously inept at doing. Clocking in at just under 85 minutes, this somehow manages to be the longest and most aggravating excuse for a movie I've seen all year. 1/10

Terrible!

[togetherinthefuture · 1/10 · 14 October 2015]

Just the thought that they compared the director to John Carpenter, Michael Mann and Walter Hill is almost criminal. The dialogue and slow motion scenes are laughable at best. I would not recommend this film at all!!!! The people who gave this movie great reviews shod have their heads examined. I am one of the biggest supporters of indie film and this movie does nothing but make me mad. I wish I could "Demolish" the film negative so nobody has to sit through the longest 85 minutes of my life. I can't believe how many times they used slow motion for all their fighting scenes!!! The shots of Downtown Toronto were just so amateurish and I have never questioned so many scenes in a movie like "Why is he doing this?" or "Why the hell did that happen?". The funniest part is the acting in this movie and I'm pretty sure this was never intended to be comedic in any way. You know a movie is headed for trouble when the audience openly laughs at a physically challenged character crawling to their loved one who just tried to kill an innocent woman...

Your service is as useless as your WI-FI

[nogodnomasters · 3/10 · 10 December 2017]

Bruce (Ry Barrett) is a cable guy and vigilante. His wife (Tianna Nori) was a victim of violence and he spends his spare time caring for her when he is not in riot gear knocking in the heads of a gang called the "Mandrills." We see him a beat up a few of them, some victim group therapy and then we see Bruce go off a cliff as he goes after people that don't quite come up to the bad guy level.

The film was rather pointless as was Ry Barrett's character.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

Motivation and Anger Management

[kosmasp · 2/10 · 26 February 2016]

Going ballistic might never have felt better for some, but it also might have never felt worse. Putting on an angry face and venting is not "acting" enough to convey emotions of an extreme caliber like that. If you're willing to cut the movie some slack on that, you might have more to be entertained with, but the overall notion of low quality acting, will not help its cause.

Especially when trying to be complex, while keeping it simple. The stunts are pretty decent for a low budget movie, but it seems to go nowhere. The ending will just enhance that dreadful feeling you already had. And not in a good way either. Maybe the filmmakers can come up with something good in the future, this right here, will not cut it for most people

Misguided Mess

[shawnblackman · 4/10 · 23 January 2017]

A man takes care of his wife who was injured in a shooting losing the use of her legs. When he's not doing that he is The Demolisher. Dressed up in an outfit ripped out of The Exterminator and Rampage he goes around bashing heads.

This could have been an awesome grindhouse type but it just didn't know what to do. The pivotal plot point was when his necklace got found at a theater and she keeps it. He then spends the rest of the film tracking her down, killing whoever gets in the way. This is the part that rips from Terminator.

I didn't really mind that nothing was original and the story was awful. I did mind when the Demolisher was doing some acting. This guy is the poster boy for anger. He is always shown expressing anger. If he was the Hulk he would never be in human form. If you want a good laugh you should watch this but if you're after a decent flick don't look here.

The ONLY saving grace is the cinematography....

[allenandginter · 3/10 · 16 February 2016]

Where to start......

Some minor spoilers included.

Unusual story-line, as if a teenager came up with it or someone young. LOT of violence and often a tad unrealistic. Continuity issues abound with an inability to tie story A in with story B.

Ry Barrett needs some acting classes or not speak. He is the entire "B" end of this movie. The action was almost believable until you see a slip of a girl get the better of him...even though he can APPARENTLY teleport as that is the only way to explain the cut scenes from him to her, with him catching up to her.

The man can beat down a 280lb 6'4 man, but struggles with a partially crippled 24 year old.

Then you hit the cinematography. It was dead on ! Syfy should hire the camera crew for it's crap-tastic films as anything else would have made this a "yawner" regardless of the OVER THE TOP violence that was the way the "rage" was written

SO !

if you wish to view a movie, done in a world where cellphones only exist during the day, mad men can cover hundreds of yards in a blink, chasing hurt female runners who figure abandoning a baby and not calling the police is an A-OK! idea while the DEMOLISHER! clearly use an untold psychic skill to locate and chase prey for hours, THEN Add in a scene with a pervy, poorly acted, mechanic because story lines are for the peasants, then THIS is the movie for you !

I think someone discovered the term "Avant Garde" and started writing and this was what came out and it FAILED.

1 star for the movie, but a 3 because of the cinematography. I would not recommend this to someone I disliked

Painfully Bad

[nebinbc · 1/10 · 20 February 2016]

There is nothing to say than - painfully bad. It is a sorry excuse for a movie. A waste of time and possibly very bad for your nerves. There is not enough substance for 10 sentences. At times it is an immature attempt to a suspense. No substance whatsoever. Too long with not enough story. Demented and unrealistic. Stupid to the core. Awful. There is nothing to say than - painfully bad. It is a sorry excuse for a movie. A waste of time and possibly very bad for your nerves. There is not enough substance for 10 sentences. At times it is an immature attempt to a suspense. No substance whatsoever. Too long with not enough story. Demented and unrealistic. Stupid to the core. Awful. There is nothing to say than - painfully bad. It is a sorry excuse for a movie. A waste of time and possibly very bad for your nerves. There is not enough substance for 10 sentences. At times it is an immature attempt to a suspense. No substance whatsoever. Too long with not enough story. Demented and unrealistic. Stupid to the core. Awful.

Indie, but has it's moments...

[poushkine · 6/10 · 19 February 2016]

Not nearly as bad as critics say if you're not expecting much. Very cyberpunkish without any cyber to it,- the atmosphere is there. Brutality, mindfk, several epic scenes, slomo, but not that overused matrix style. With all that, does it have much to say? I'd argue not too much, like most of cyberpunk without cyber. :) Acting is OK for an indie (which is not a quality label for me). Fight scenes reasonably well done and the protagonist does look cool. Female role as such is strongly present, dilemma of which sex dominates is there, though not central and not in a way of a conflict. Absurdity of modern day knighthood with its madness, brutality, subservience and yet heroism and almost inbuilt core values.

Writing this one in a stream of thought to balance, in my opinion, unfairly negative reviews.

Cinematography is excellent, but doesn't make up for the amateur script and directing.

[ranifuni · 1/10 · 8 January 2017]

Didn't research the director and haven't seen any of his other films, but I bet he did a lot of music videos because this is what this film feels like. A series of montages between scenes with nonsense dialogue that barely move the thin story along to an almost comedic ending. I wish I had seen this at a festival, because it feels like the disc has scenes chopped out of it at random by the distributor. There are holes in what is already a weak plot and no motivation for character choices. The acting is laughable, but feels like if the actors actually had something to work with in terms of a script they might have done better. Cinematography is excellent, but doesn't make up for the amateur script and directing.

This film is all surface and no substance. No emotion. Just a pretty empty shell. Blu Ray has great packaging too, but as they say... you can polish a turd, but it's still a turd.

Perhaps the worst movie ever made

[mbv-934-190763 · 1/10 · 25 November 2017]

Perhaps the worst movie ever made.

If you can avoid wasting a precious hour and a half of your life watching this horrible piece of garbage please do so.

There are many art films that include violence, and this pretends to be of that ilk but it fails miserably.

Nothing realistic. Nothing resembling reality in this universe.