One of Prime Video‘s most successful films is also one of its most unexpected. Ruthless, a direct-to-video action thriller from 2023 starring The Hunting Wives’ Dermot Mulroney, has climbed the Amazon-owned streaming platform’s charts for over two weeks and is currently looking to take the #1 spot.
However, its negative reviews might prevent it from going all the way. Ruthless has continued to receive criticism for being similar to other movies in its genre since its release, and its newfound popularity thanks to Prime Video might not help its case.
Ruthless is One Man’s Journey Into The Underbelly of Human Trafficking
Ruthless follows Harry (Mulroney), a high school wrestling coach and archetypal all-American dad. That is, until his daughter is murdered in a brutal and sudden attack. Years later, one of his students, Catia (Melissa Diaz), begins signaling that she is being abused at home and needs help.
While Harry helps Catia, this puts the two of them in the crosshairs of a dangerous group of human traffickers. After the group kidnaps Catia in an attack that feels suspiciously familiar, Harry realizes that to move on, he can’t just sit with his grief; he needs to act. Thus, he travels to Las Vegas to track down Catia’s kidnappers and to bring justice once and for all, no matter how many arms he has to break in the process.
Ruthless Has Been Called a Cheap Copy of Other Thrillers
Reading that plot description and watching that trailer may have viewers feeling a bit of deja vu. It may have some people asking, “wait, hasn’t that movie been made before?”
The answer to that question is yes, it has, and that is what the majority of the negative reviews for Ruthless point out. It has been called a cheaper version of Taken, but one can even go even further back to Paul Schrader’s divisive 1979 film Hardcore for comparisons. Regardless of which other perfect crime thriller came to mind, critics have called it an unoriginal, uninspired concept done on a budget of less than $26,000.
“Ruthless is a predictable revenge thriller that wildly suffers from an incoherent script and subtle-free acting,” wrote Peter Gray of The AU Review in his write-up of the movie, “violently barrelling its way towards an absurd final act that’s practically comical in its execution.”
Audience Enjoyment Might Trump Reviews For Ruthless Fans
Even with all of this in mind, it might not stop audiences or Prime Video subscribers from enjoying Ruthless. After all, it has a recognizable name, a justifiable action movie motivation, and a crisp 92-minute runtime. Even if it isn’t a good movie by traditional standards, it might just be fun enough for a modern audience to be turned on for an hour and a half.
Now, whether that is a good or bad thing, or a positive or a negative indictment on the future of movies, is up to the viewer. Regardless, if there is some time to kill and some desire in one’s heart to see Dermot Mulroney kill human traffickers, Ruthless is one of the action thrillers currently streaming on Prime Video.
- Release Date
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December 15, 2023
- Runtime
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92 Minutes
- Director
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Art Camacho
