Helio This was interesting on a number of levels. The main character got everywhere by taking the bus. The film could be an ode to public transportation in California. Imagine other cop shows having to depend on public transit to get around to track leads and pursue criminals. It is not as if the Bad Ass dude can't drive as is revealed in the "Las Vegas" vs "San Diego" chase. Giving the busses names helped keep track of which was the good guy and which the bad.The story was apparently based on a true incident but not acknowledged, perhaps for fear of having to pay royalties or not being given permission. The film does not explain where the Trejo character gets his fighting skills. Frank Vega (Trejo) seems to easily dispatch opponents. A few months in the army may not have been enough to display such skills. As a fictionalized account it may not matter.

billcarr31 Don Perlman was really wasted in this movie. I suppose we are used to people running long distances without getting out of breath. OK it may work with the young guys but Dutton carrying so much weight would collapse after even after 50 yards; then he is also capable of a heavyweight fight with Trajo without getting out of breath. Trajo is not lightweight himself and he would be about 65 in the plot

Robert W. I knew going into this that it would be bad period. How could it not be? The concept, Danny Trejo, the ridiculous cover...I remember when this came out and I thought some day when I really want to torture myself with something so bad it might be good I'll watch this. Now that its a trilogy currently, I finally decided to give the first one a go. It wasn't a total waste of time but it was close. Technically this could have been almost a loose remake of Death Wish but comparing those two are blasphemous. This is made for Trejo fans who love how bad what he does is. The idea that this is even loosely based on real life events is ridiculous because this takes the story into unreal areas and makes you laugh and not in a good way. His character actually isn't bad but the romance they throw in there and the ridiculous concept and just everything about this is B-Movie. Now I can't hold too much of that against them because I have no doubt that is exactly what they were aiming for when they made this. They wanted it to be a B-Movie and somebody must be watching it considering they chose to do two more of them and I will sadly watch those too quite likely.Danny Trejo is sort of a bizarre story because he does have something likable about him. He is really good at being in these horribly bad movies because he acts like he's taking them so seriously. He holds a film well and I can understand why he has his own group of fans. The supporting cast isn't really much to speak of. You may recognize a few of them but the film is solely a Trejo vehicle and no one else really gets any significant moments or screen time. Charles Dutton, Patrick Fabian, Joyful Drake and John Duffy are all decent and Dutton and Fabian are probably better actors than what this deserves. The film could have used a really significant villain (Dutton could have done it if they gave him more story) but instead its mostly about Trejo kicking the crap out of anyone that he crosses.It really is hard to trash this movie because they didn't make it to be some sort of Award winning critics choice. It was made to be dumb silly fun and you really do have to shut off your brain and expect simplicity and violence and just a ridiculous concept but even then its pretty weak in the entertainment department. Craig Moss who directs and co-wrote the script has just about the worst films to his credit that he possibly could have. He is single handedly pioneering bad movies, you'd think he was a Uwe Boll protégé. Bad Ass is what it is and you pretty much know what to expect. Its far from the worst bad movie I've seen and somehow I'm interested in forcing my way through the second two so what does that mean? Give it a whirl if this is what you're into or looking for. 5.5/10

Theo Robertson really enjoy the vigilante thrillers but they are rather self limiting . A man finds himself wronged by the apathy of society and in a violent inciting incident decides to strike back at the bad guys . We've all been there and there's something cathartic about a fictional character torture , maim , mutilate and execute bad guys but at the end of the day it's difficult to do something new with the genre which ends up have a same-ish feel to it . There's very little original about BAD ASS . It features a Vietnam veteran as the hero and right away you're reminded of John Eastland played by Robert Ginty in THE EXTERMINATOR and one can't help thinking that the myth of the alienated violent loner Viet vet is mainly down to Hollywood That said if you're getting your information from Hollywood movies then you're a very sad person and it's amazing that some people are under the impression that this is based upon true events . From the outset BAD ASS probably plays upon this ignorance . We're asked to believe that protagonist Frank Vega spent seven years fighting in Vietnam including one year as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese ! So ask yourself how he escaped ? The truth is that some bloke got in to an altercation on a bus and the incident became a viral sensation on the web and that's the closest the film becomes to being based on true events . A lot of people seem to have taken the film both as too literally and too seriously but this isn't the mindset the film should be watched in and certainly isn't the spirit the film was made in so sit back and watch a fictional character kill some other fictional characters