There is nothing like getting cozy with a warm and fuzzy Danny Trejo vigilante film with a hot cup of cocoa made with my Keurig coffee machine bought on the Amazon. Oh Wait! I'm not in the vine program. Never mind.

Danny Trejo, ex-Vietnam war vet, hot dog stand entrepreneur, becomes a reluctant vigilante after his war buddy Klondike (Harrison Page) was murdered. The police are dragging their feet on the investigation. The movie compares him to Charles Bronson, but at times he is more like Harry Brown. Ron Perlman has a minor role as the crooked mayor. Very cliche filled film.

It attempts to be funny, but can really only muster mild humor. Perhaps the funniest aspect is how our tough BA vigilante takes the bus everywhere he has to go to find the bad guys. This is not the grindhouse style Trejo fans are used to seeing, although it does turn bloody after a slow start. It is worth a rental.

Frequent F-bomb, brief sex, brief nudity

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.

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.