SnoopyStyle Decorated vet Frank Vega (Danny Trejo) returns from the Vietnam War to find his world has left him behind. His girlfriend has a new baby daddy. Nobody is willing to give him a job. The cops reject him. Even his hot dog cart becomes obsolete over the years. Years go by and he becomes a shell of a man. One day, he defends an old man on the bus which goes viral and he becomes famous as the Bad Ass. His friend is murdered but the police pays only lip service to the case. He decides to investigate on his own.The premise is campy and Danny is a good guy to camp it up. While it has some camp value, the movie insists on being serious. Director Craig Moss is making a living from broad spoof comedies. Having never seen his work before, it's hard to know whether he's any good. This is not going to help. As a parody idea, there is good potential. As anything else, this has no chance. For example, there is an obvious miniature during the train crash. The entire bus chase could be hilarious if it's all done with toy miniatures. It's hard to explain it any better. This is too cheap and too ridiculous to be Lethal Weapon. It is too straight to be entirely funny. It doesn't work either way.

Leofwine_draca BAD ASS is a straightforward action vehicle for star Danny Trejo, almost unrecognisable underneath a thick beard. Bizarrely, it's based on a Youtube video that went viral and featured an old-timer standing up to a couple of thugs on a bus. This is the opening of the film, but things become pretty generic from this point in.It's obvious that this is a low budget movie, because a pivotal bus chase has been stolen from the movie RED HEAT (and it's not the first movie to steal this scene). Otherwise we're in the territory of macho one-liners, small-time hoods, and some serviceable fight sequences. What I didn't like about BAD ASS is the jokey script, which robs the film of menace and effectiveness.Scenes of Trejo swapping one-liners with a smart-mouthed kid sit oddly with moments like when he feeds a villain's hand into a garbage disposal unit. If BAD ASS had been a straight, dark thriller throughout then I think it would have been more effective. Still, there are some well picked actors in support (namely ALIEN 3's Charles S. Dutton and A.W.O.L.'s Harrison Page), and at least it's never slow.

Sandcooler I've always had a soft spot for Danny Trejo because his old age, rugged looks and lack of acting training makes him such an unlikely movie star, but even his performance can't save this project. "Bad Ass" is one of those irritating movies that never seem to take off. You expect the movie to go for broke and turn into a 1970s grindhouse movie anytime, but throughout it remains middle of the road and inoffensive. Even the one ultra-violent scene where Trejo puts a thug's hand in a garbage disposal tries to go for laughs rather than for gritty realism. Trejo's acting is far more subtle than usual and he has his character down to a tee, but he's stuck in a plot that just won't move and he gets surrounded by underwritten and uninteresting characters. The search for the villain is also incredibly long. It's just Trejo asking people where he is, finding out the villain is not there, asking a new person, villain's not there either, rinse and repeat: it's just boring filler the makers try to pass of as suspense. "Bad Ass" looks like "Death Wish" without all the interesting parts: that's hardly a recommendation.

SanteeFats 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.