Everything goes sideways for the wicked villains in writer & director Christian Sesma's gritty but formulaic revenge thriller "Every Last One of Them,"when a father searching for his missing daughter upsets their best laid plans. Clocking in at a minimal but muscular 82 minutes, Sesma's eleventh feature film received an R rating for violence, sexual assault, drug use, profane language, and frontal nudity. Nefarious Ben Nichols (Jake Weber of "Meet Joe Black") rules the small California town of Coachella near the Salton Sea like a tyrant. He has brokered a lucrative water deal with a local Native American tribe which will generate billions for everybody. Ben's odious twentysomething offspring, Bobby (newcomer Hudson Garland),manages one of his dad's nude bars. When he isn't guzzling beer and harassing his half-clad strippers, Bobby throws impromptu parties in his trailer. Everybody is either shooting heroin or snorting cocaine. Inevitably, tragedy strikes when Bobby hooks up with a runaway girl, Melissa (Claire Kniaz of "Pinkapotamus"),who is estranged from her father. Meantime, this ill-fated liaison will overshadow Ben's business that his sister Maggie (Taryn Manning of "White Oleander") and he have forged with the Native Americans.

Clearly, Sesma and his three scenarists must love "First Blood" (1982) with Sylvester Stallone because they plundered it for their plot. Like John Jay Rambo, Jake Hunter remains cool under fire even when he is outnumbered and outgunned. Eventually, Hunter's former military commander, Murphy (Richard Dreyfus of "Jaws"),intervenes on his behalf, much like Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna) did for Stallone's Rambo in "First Blood." "Every Last One of Them" differs from the garden variety of revenge thrillers because its protagonist is deeply troubled about the disappearance of his 19-year-old daughter. A black ops combat veteran, Jake wields firearms with consummate skill. Nevertheless, he bawls like a baby over the blunders he made because he was often away from his wife and family when Melissa needed him. Consequently, he alienated his rebellious daughter. As Jake's confidante, Bill (Michael Madsen of "Die Another Day") agrees to help Jake's wayward daughter overcome her various addictions. Unfortunately, Bill cannot help Melissa once she involves herself with Bobby Nichols.

"Every Last One of Them" unfolds with Jake Hunter entering Bobby's bar. He is minding his own business when he runs afoul of Ben's arrogant son. Jake tries to sidle past him, but Bobby seizes Jake by the shoulder and spins him around so they face each other. Grabbing Bobby by his neck, our hero slams the youth face down into the bar twice. His nose broken, a dazed Bobby staggers backwards. Jake easily disposes of the three bouncers before Ben Nichols appears with two armed bodyguards. One shoves the muzzle of his pistol into Jake's neck. Our hero leans against the bar but refuses to identify himself. Without warning, the henchman with his gun stuck in Jake's neck slugs him unconscious. Between this scene and Jake's next scene, Sesma shifts into flashback mode to introduce Jake's daughter Melissa as she strolls down a deserted highway. Melissa has been trying to reach Jake on her cellphone. Desperately, she wants to get off drugs and clean up her act. Eventually, Jake recovers consciousness and finds himself in an interrogation room at the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. No matter what he does, Ben cannot persuade Jake to cooperate with him. Ben's bodyguards shove a plastic bag over Jake's head after their boss leaves and try to asphyxiate him. Sheriff Kim (Mary Christina Brown of "Paydirt") rushes in and prevents them from suffocating him. Afterward, Jake surprises Sheriff Kim, disarms her, steals a police car, and races off to the Nichols' sprawling palm tree plantation for a showdown.

When Jake Hunter isn't shooting adversaries, he sheds profuse tears over his daughter who fell in with Bobby's depraved bunch. Although he injected heroin into Melissa, Bobby didn't drown her in a pond on the family property. Revenge heroes are supposed to suffer, and Jake is so grief-stricken that he kills his adversaries without mercy. Nothing about the violence in "Every Last One of Them" is glamorous. Hunter doesn't qualify as a traditional hero. He refuses to play fair. He never gives his enemies the benefit of the doubt. Whether his nemeses are armed or not, Hunter shoots or stabs them without a qualm of concern. Usually, Hollywood sugarcoats its action heroes, so audiences will sympathize with their predicament. Hunter stabs an obnoxious villain in the neck after the goon refuses to shut up and die. Hunter is beyond mercy by the loss of his daughter.

Sesma leaves neither his heroes nor his audience feeling triumphant at fade-out. Primarily, you feel relief when the end credits roll. Stone cold thriller that it is, "Every Last One of Them" shuns humor and has no comic relief characters. Paul Sloan is thoroughly believable as the angst-ridden father. Richard Dreyfus is always a joy to watch, and the Oscar winning actor is no less animated in this abrasive little epic. His timely intervention in Hunter's plight is probably the most brazen act. He fools Ben and Maggie Nichols into thinking he is acting on their behalf. Literally, Dreyfus takes charge of the situation and smooths everybody's feathers. Sadly, Michael Madsen is wasted in a peripheral role and never picks up a pistol. Hardcore action junkies who crave above-average, B-movie revenge yarns with all the right cliches should savor "Every Last One of Them" for the offbeat but tragic actioneer that it is.

As an official Razzies voter, I got emailed a list of suggested titles to be nominated at this year's awards, there are ten titles in each category, and this film was suggested for about five or six of them, so I had to see why. Basically, in a desert town in California, Jake Hunter (Paul Sloan) comes to town and stops off in a strip club. There he has an encounter with Bobby (Hudson Garland) who gives him attitude and provokes him into a fight. Then Bobby's father Ben Nichols (Jake Weber) arrives with his henchmen who knock him unconscious. He is taken to the police station and stays silent when interrogated by Nichols. Sheriff Kim (Mary Christina Brown) stops the henchmen suffocating Hunter with a bin bag and they leave. Hunter grabs Kim's gun and holds her at gunpoint to make his way out of the station and steals a police car. Nichols returns home and Bobby tells him he does not know who the man who attacked him was. Hunter pulls over to take weapons out of the trunk and remove the handcuffs from his wrist. The Sheriff calls him on the radio, he answers only to say he needs to find out what happened to his daughter. Meanwhile, Nichols is introduced by his friend Victor (Nick Vallelonga) to Chairman Doug Welmas (as himself) and Congressman Mike Ellis (Patrick Evans),and they have a meeting about a deal over water rights in the area. When Nichols returns home, Hunter arrives with a shotgun to see Bobby. At gunpoint, Bobby confesses that he does know Hunter's daughter Melissa (Claire Kniaz). A flashback reveals that Melissa was with Bobby and a group of people taking drugs. Hunter shoots Bobby dead (perhaps by accident) and flees when Bobby's aunt Maggie (Taryn Manning) starts shooting at him. Hunter is chased by a group of mercenaries with machine guns through the nearby woods, although he evades and kills a few of them, he is injured. Officer Bartlett (Mike Hatton) arrives at the scene, fellow officer Stone (Brian Hayes Currie) orders him to shoot Hunter on sight. Bartlett is afraid and runs away, before being pinned down by Hunter, he gives him a message for Kim. Victor tells Nichols, who "runs the town", he needs to clear the mess up, and says sorry for Bobby being killed. While Hunter performs surgery on himself, a flashback shows conversations between him and his former boss Murphy (Richard Dreyfuss),and the fractured relationship between him and his daughter. Murphy is brought in to aid the situation and bring Hunter in. Another flashback reveals that Hunter tried to get his daughter clean of drugs with help from his brother Bill (Michael Madsen),a former drug addict. Hunter is found the following day by Stone and the mercenaries. Kim tracks Hunter using coordinates from Bartlett's locator that he took, he is sure that Nichols knows the circumstances of his daughter, and that there is a cover-up going on. Hunter tells Kim to look at the missing persons reports, and after she leaves, he tortures Stone for answers about what happened to Melissa. A flashback reveals that Stone witnessed Bobby having sex with Melissa whilst high on drugs and watched her die from a seizure. Hunter is enraged when Stone tells him that Nichols killed his daughter and stabs him with a knife through his head. Hunter goes to see Bill to find out where Melissa went and tells him that she with Bobby. Hunter speaks with Murphy on the police radio and says he will come in and bring those responsible for killing his daughter. Hunter steals a car and makes his way back to the police station, where many armed mercenaries are waiting for him. Following a shootout, Hunter is picked up by Kim, with Bartlett and Murphy, and asks them to take him to Nichols. When Nichols enters his home, Hunter is holding Maggie and demands to know what happened to his daughter. He breaks Maggie's fingers whenever he refuses to answer his questions. Nichols confesses that Bobby had a drug problem, as did Hunter's daughter, and says that it was a party with friends that got out of hand. When armed police arrive, Murphy calls Hunter out, and he brings them out with Nichols and Maggie. The last flashback reveals that Melissa was still alive following her seizure, Bobby wanted to save her, but Nichols insisted she was already close to death, and when Bobby and Stone left him, he drowned her in the lake, with Maggie watching from a distance. Nichols lies about how Hunter's daughter died, Hunter is emotional and, on Murphy's instruction, lowers his weapon. But it is Nichols and Maggie that are arrested. Kim comforts the bloodied Hunter and assures him that he is not the bad guy. Meanwhile, Bill makes a phone call to Hunter telling him to look after his daughter if he finds her, and if anyone should hurt her, they should "get what they deserve, every last one of them". It ends with Bartlett pulling over the police car, with Nichols and Maggie, and Murphy shoots them both dead with a machine gun. Also starring Viktoriya Dov as Jade and Dante Walker as Michaels. Sloan is reasonable as the leading anti-hero, Weber is a bit on-and-off as the villain, and Dreyfuss (apart from the ending) doesn't bring much to the table as the former boss. I can see why this can easily be compared to Rambo: First Blood, it is almost exactly the same concept, the tough guy on the run from the police, along with the bad guys, and things get violent. There is nothing wrong with the violence and when it goes all guns blazing, but the performances are lame, the dialogue is predictable, and the pace is uneven, it just feels too much like something you've seen before, a dull action thriller. Adequate!

Jake Hunter (Paul Sloan) is looking for his missing daughter, an addict. He traces her to Coachella run by the Nichols family. He eventually shoots the boy responsible for her death and becomes hunted as he attempt to enact revenge. Richard Dreyfuss plays his former commanding officer who is sent in to get Hunter out.

I had "Rambo" flashbacks. The film wasn't anywhere as good as "Rambo" and when you in part copy an iconic film, you need an "A" game which Sloan and Dreyfuss failed to provide. Michael Madsen is the guy Hunter sent his daughter to see to help her off her drug problem. Not my first choice.

Guide: F-word. Nudity (Viktoriya Dov )