Citizen Vigilante is arguably one of the most controversial films of 2026: a racist dog whistle that has been amplified by one of the loathsome yet powerful men in the world.
Europe is suffering from an epidemic of violent crime by illegal migrants. These crimes include a woman being stabbed in broad daylight in front of her young son and a 14-year-old girl being gang raped by a group of Muslim boys. One American man, Michael Sanders (Armie Hammer), takes action into his own hands and sets out to bring his own brand of justice against the gangs and the system that protects them.
Before its release, Citizen Vigilante’s most interesting feature was its star. Armie Hammer, who has been persona non grata in Hollywood after allegations of sexual and emotional abuse in 2021. His last studio film was Death on the Nile, and that was because it was filmed in 2019. His career was hit so badly that he was selling timeshares in the Cayman Islands, and now he has had the greater indignity of working with Uwe Boll.
Boll is infamous for being one of the worst filmmakers in history. He’s known for making some of the worst video game movies in history, using German tax loopholes to fund his films, and at his peak he was churning out multiple films a year. If anyone dared to criticise the German filmmaker, he would challenge them to a boxing match. His films and abrasive personality lack any charm compared to other bad filmmakers.
Citizen Vigilante gained infamy because Elon Musk announced his support and posted the film on Twitter for free for two days. There are loads of copies available on Twitter, and that was how I viewed it, because there’s no way I was going to pay for it. The film has been thrust into the middle of the culture war because it has a 10% on Rotten Tomatoes, but a 91% audience score, and has a suspiciously high 5.9 out of 10 on IMDB. The only two positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes come from critics who are culture war warriors, Armond White and Alan Ng. It has led culture war critics to embarrass themselves by claiming The Odyssey was a ‘woke’ failure whilst defending Uwe Boll.
Citizen Vigilante was a film with no redeeming features. First and foremost, it was made to spread far-right ideas. It starts with a message about Europe suffering a wave of illegal immigration and ends with a ‘dedication’ to the victims of violent crimes and the systems that failed them. It was a film that depicted immigrants, Muslims, and non-whites as criminals who committed the most heinous crimes. It’s the type of film that was made for the MAGA or EDL crowd by MAGA/EDL members. It’s worse than other films made for this crowd because Sound of Freedom could be watched devoid of the political baggage and Rogue Elements could be laughed at.
The big crime in the film was a 14-year-old girl getting gang raped, and the perpetrators were let go because they weren’t integrated properly and didn’t understand Western values. It’s a film that’s saying the system was protecting violent criminals. It’s a heinous and shameful message. It’s a film being sold to an audience which would lap up anything that affirms their beliefs and profit off it.
Vigilante films tend to lean rightwards, such as Death Wish, Taken, and Law Abiding Citizen. Harry Brown felt like it was ripped from the headlines of the Daily Mail. These films have some humanity because the main characters had a personal reason why they turned to vigilantism, like losing or saving a loved one. These films entertain because they have solid action scenes and set-pieces. Citizen Vigilante had none of these.
Sanders was a cold-blooded psychopath. He was a loner who spoke in a monotone and had no problem killing police officers, a random motorist, and a family of immigrants. Sanders claims to be taking justice into his own hands, but in reality he’s advocating for a Darwinist society. Plus, Sanders was a hypocrite because he was in the European nation illegally and visited a brothel, so he was potentially aiding human trafficking. A bizarre moment was when Sanders stopped his adult fun time to complain about a patch of black mould on the ceiling. He also planned to use force and coercive methods to get rid of tenants who weren’t paying rent.
Besides the horrendous message, Citizen Vigilante was just plain boring. The film was told with a non-linear narrative, making it seem like a Tarantino film, but it came across as not slated properly during filming, and the editor shuffled scenes like a pack of cards. The film felt like it had 45 minutes’ worth of material, stretched out to 90. There were pointless detours, like Sanders crossing paths with a couple of teenage thugs and a hapless Interpol agent trying to find the vigilante. The film was sluggishly paced.
The big action set-piece was when Sanders locked himself in a steel box and killed a squad of SWAT officers despite Sanders’ guns having limited movement. The gore was hilariously excessive, but the officers could have just gotten out of the way of the gunfire. Boll is the cinematic equivalent of a shock jock. His films have excessive violence and show taboo subjects like child death. Citizen Vigilante’s opening showed a woman getting stabbed and flashbacked to the rape of a character that’s legally a child.
Citizen Vigilante was a film that was ugly in message and execution. It was one of the most loathsome films I have ever seen.
Summary
Repugnant!
