Savage Salvation movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Savage Salvation

This drug-filled revenge movie is now available to rent or buy on streaming services like Apple+TV, but is also free on Amazon Prime.

RATING: R

LENGTH: 1 hour 41 minutes

MOVIE REVIEW MOM GRADE: C

IN A NUTSHELL:

Sheriff Church (Robert De Niro) and Detective Zeppelin strive to keep the peace in their rough town, where residents’ only two interests are the church or oxycodone. Newly engaged Shelby John (Jack Huston) and Ruby Red want a fresh start. They decide to have a family together and get clean, with the support of Peter, Ruby’s brother-in-law (John Malkovich). However, Shelby discovers his beloved Ruby dead on their porch before she could fulfill her final wish: to be baptized in the river and washed away from her past sins. Filled with fiery rage, Shelby embarks on a vengeful killing spree to right all the wrong done to Ruby by every link in the drug dealing chain. Armed with nothing but adrenaline and a nail gun, Shelby picks off dealers and junkies one by one until he gets to the top. Sheriff Church and Detective Zeppelin must race against the clock to put an end to Shelby’s vigilante justice before his fight with the crime lord Coyote (Quavo) turns the entire town into a bloodbath.

If you enjoy vigilante justice movies, you’ll like this one. The problem with them is that you usually feel like you’ve been swimming in the gutter for 1 ½ hours after you finish watching them.

The movie was directed by Randall Emmett. The screenplay was written by Adam Taylor Barker and Chris Sivertson.

THINGS I LIKED:

Who doesn’t love Robert DeNiro? His face on the poster definitely caught my eye. He and John Malkovich both do a good job, but their talents are mostly wasted in this predictable movie.
The movie also features the awesome Dale Dickey. If you want to see her fantastic performance in a leading role, watch A Love Song.
Jack Huston also does a good job in his very dramatic role as the boyfriend who tries to hunt down the drug dealers whose products killed his girlfriend.
I really liked the soundtrack and musical choices.
There’s a sense of satisfaction as you get to see scumbag drug dealers get what’s coming to them.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

Some characters speak in such low, garbled voices that it’s hard to understand what everyone says. Sadly, I could almost never understand what Robert DeNiro said.
Acts 1 and 2 are very slow-moving while we watch people do drugs and get super sick. Hopefully, this movie will be an effective cautionary tale for people who are considering drugs by getting a realistic look at the awful consequences.
There are some very contrived, hokey moments.
Some of the characters seem more like exaggerated cartoon characters.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Tons of profanity and F-bombs
Blood and gore
Violence with multiple weapons
High dead-body count with brutal deaths
Cigarettes
We see drug paraphernalia
We see people shoot up drugs in their arm
We see someone throw up.
We see a young woman in just her underwear
We see a couple go at it (clothed) in a public park.
We see dead bodies.

THEMES:

Choices and consequences
Drugs and drug dealers
Revenge
Vigilante justice
Family

FUNNY LINES:

None worth noting.

INTERESTING LINES:

“Are you decent?” – Jess (Lindsay Pulsipher) “Only sometimes” – pregnant friend
“We all struggle, but it is the way we confront those struggles that defines us.” – Peter (John Malkovich)