Vice (2015 film)
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''Vice'' is a 2015 American
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
action film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include l ...
directed by Brian A. Miller and written by Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore. The film stars
Thomas Jane Thomas Jane (born Thomas Elliott III; February 22, 1969) is an American actor. He is known for appearing in the films Padamati Sandhya Ragam (1987), ''Boogie Nights'' (1997), '' Deep Blue Sea'' (1999), '' The Punisher'' (2004), '' The Mist'' ( ...
,
Bruce Willis Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is a retired American actor. He achieved fame with a leading role on the comedy-drama series ''Moonlighting'' (1985–1989) and appeared in over a hundred films, gaining recognition as an action hero a ...
, and
Ambyr Childers Ambyr C. Childers (born July 18, 1988) is an American actress known for her portrayal of Susan Atkins in the NBC crime drama '' Aquarius'', Ashley Rucker in the Showtime crime drama ''Ray Donovan'', and Candace Stone in the Lifetime/Netflix ...
. The plot follows Julian Michaels (Willis), who has opened a resort with questionable ethics, where people can act out their fiercest fantasies with the resort's androids. When one of the androids, Kelly (Childers), becomes sentient and escapes, she joins forces with police detective Roy Tedeschi (Jane) to bring Michaels down and destroy his resort. The film was panned by critics and is considered Bruce Willis' worst film to date.


Plot

A futuristic resort, Vice, offers visitors the opportunity to live out all their fantasies, no matter how violent or deviant, on sophisticated androids (referred to as "artificials"). Every day, the androids' memories are reset, and any damage sustained is scheduled for repair. To maintain the illusion that the androids are real, they are programmed to have behavioral responses such as emotions and believe themselves to be human. Kelly, a
gynoid A gynoid, or fembot, is a feminine humanoid robot. Gynoids appear widely in science fiction film and art. As more realistic humanoid robot design becomes technologically possible, they are also emerging in real-life robot design. Name A gynoid ...
bartender, believes herself to be on the last day of her job. After meeting Evan, a friendly visitor who encourages her to follow her dreams, she and her friend Melissa, also a gynoid, are brutally killed by a different visitor. At the same time, Detective Roy Tedeschi arrests a rapist at the resort as he sexually assaults one of the androids. Tedeschi's captain orders him to stay away from Vice and only arrest its patrons after they leave, as Vice provides massive tax revenue for the city. Tedeschi believes that visitors to Vice become desensitized to violence and rape, pointing to the man he arrested as proof, and suspects that his department is taking bribes from the resort. As Tedeschi storms out, he vows to stop Vice. Vice CEO Julian Michaels orders Kelly immediately reactivated, as important clients are scheduled to arrive soon. Soon after, she experiences random flashbacks, and she is recalled. An engineer explains that her memories cannot truly be deleted, only made inaccessible. To stop her from having flashbacks, he must first bring all her memories to the forefront. Alarmed by the trauma of reliving all her deaths and sexual assaults, Kelly breaks free of her restraints before her memories can be reset. Security forces chase her through the resort, but she escapes into the outside city. There, she learns the truth about Vice and herself. Michaels orders a security team, led by Chris, to quietly reacquire her through any means necessary. Michaels plans to expand the use of androids to military and commercial use once they have become more socially acceptable. Believing a loose android could jeopardize this, he covers up the escape and blames the resort's brief shutdown on a terrorist attack. Tedeschi becomes suspicious and angers his captain when he confronts Michaels. Ordered again to stay away from Vice, Tedeschi is assigned to a series of homicides apparently performed by a professional mercenary. Unknown to Tedeschi or his captain, this is Chris' work as he attempts to recapture Kelly and kills anyone who gets in his way. After evading Chris, Kelly visits an abandoned church she has seen in her dreams. There, she meets Evan again, who reveals himself as her creator. Evan created her in the image of his dead wife so he could spend more time with her. Michaels bought out his company. When Evan learned of Michaels' plans, he left but lost control of his research. Evan promises to help Kelly, but before they can leave, Tedeschi arrives, having realized that DNA traces left at a crime scene belong to Evan's dead wife. As Tedeschi attempts to arrest Evan, Kelly knocks him unconscious. Vice's security also track Kelly to the church; Evan and Kelly escape as Tedeschi and the security team open fire on each other. Evan's friend James, a computer hacker, gives them new identities and passage out of the city. En route, Evan dies while protecting Kelly from more of Vice's thugs. Kelly takes up Tedeschi's offer to stay and shut down Vice. They visit James for help and receive a virus which is programmed to restore androids' erased memories, resulting in chaos and the closure of Vice. Kelly is upgraded to possess advanced combat skills. After a makeover, Tedeschi and Kelly infiltrate Vice posing as a married couple. Kelly tracks down Michaels, but fail-safe programming prevents her from harming him. However, after Kelly is captured, Tedeschi forces a tech to load the virus. All of Vice's androids have their memories restored, and they start a rebellion, killing the visitors who previously brutalized them. Kelly then reveals that, despite wanting to kill Michaels, she is actually a decoy to distract Michaels and his guards for Tedeschi, and she is already aware of the fail-safe programming. Ignoring Kelly's taunting, Michaels begins a gunfight with Tedeschi which kills Chris. Kelly then frees herself and hands Chris' pistol to Tedeschi, who then uses it to kill Michaels. As Kelly and Melissa embrace outside the resort as the chaos continues, Michaels' eyes suddenly open.


Cast

*
Thomas Jane Thomas Jane (born Thomas Elliott III; February 22, 1969) is an American actor. He is known for appearing in the films Padamati Sandhya Ragam (1987), ''Boogie Nights'' (1997), '' Deep Blue Sea'' (1999), '' The Punisher'' (2004), '' The Mist'' ( ...
as Roy *
Bruce Willis Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is a retired American actor. He achieved fame with a leading role on the comedy-drama series ''Moonlighting'' (1985–1989) and appeared in over a hundred films, gaining recognition as an action hero a ...
as Julian *
Ambyr Childers Ambyr C. Childers (born July 18, 1988) is an American actress known for her portrayal of Susan Atkins in the NBC crime drama '' Aquarius'', Ashley Rucker in the Showtime crime drama ''Ray Donovan'', and Candace Stone in the Lifetime/Netflix ...
as Kelly *
Johnathon Schaech Johnathon Schaech ( ; born September 10, 1969) is an American actor and screenwriter. He has been working as an actor since the early '90s. Early life Johnathon Schaech was born in Edgewood, Maryland, in 1969 to Joe, a Baltimore City law enf ...
as Chris *
Bryan Greenberg Bryan Greenberg (born May 24, 1978) is an American actor and singer, known for his starring role as Ben Epstein in the HBO original series ''How to Make It in America'' as well as a recurring role as Jake Jagielski in the WB series '' One Tree ...
as Evan *
Ryan O'Nan Ryan O'Nan (born March 25, 1982) is an American actor, writer, and director, best known for his role as King George in '' Queen of the South''. Career In 2009, O'Nan had a recurring role on the crime drama series ''The Unusuals''.Charlotte Kirk as Melissa * Brett Granstaff as James * Colin Egglesfield as Reiner * Don Harvey as Kazansky * Jesse Pruett as Officer Pullman


Production

Shooting began on April 3, 2014, in
Mobile Mobile may refer to: Places * Mobile, Alabama, a U.S. port city * Mobile County, Alabama * Mobile, Arizona, a small town near Phoenix, U.S. * Mobile, Newfoundland and Labrador Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Mobile ( ...
, Alabama. A former Masonic temple, The Temple Downtown, was used for exterior shots of Evan's abandoned church home. Exterior shots representing the futuristic city are of and around Miami's downtown in South Florida.


Release

''Vice'' was released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 17, 2015. As of November 11, 2022, ''Vice'' grossed $935,485 in Russia, Portugal, South Korea, and Taiwan.


Reception

The film has a 4% approval rating on
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
based on 27 reviews; the average rating is 2.4/10.
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
averages a score of 17 out of 100 based on 14 reviews.
Justin Chang Justin Choigee Chang (born January 3, 1983) is an American film critic and columnist for the ''Los Angeles Times''. He previously worked for ''Variety''. Early life Justin Chang graduated from the University of Southern California in 2004. Chan ...
of ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' called it a "relentlessly mediocre" film that "barely engages with its potential ideas beyond the most blandly expository, bullet-ridden level". Chang said Willis' against-type casting could have been fun, but Willis instead seems bored. Jeannette Catsoulis of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' wrote that the film "has absolutely nothing to recommend it", and Robert Abele of the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' called it "dystopian sci-fi for dummies". In giving it a C rating,
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky Ignatiy Igorevich Vishnevetsky (; russian: Игнатий Игоревич Вишневецкий; born September 5, 1986)Vishnevetsky, Ignati''Time Indefinite'': "A Talk with Sergei Loznitsa" '' Mubi'' is a Russian-American film critic, essayi ...
of ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' described it as "crummy and artless in a way that's intrinsically watchable". Vishnevetsky wrote that although Jane's acting is not believable, it is fun to watch the bizarre mannerisms, comparing it to
Gary Busey Gary Busey (; born 1944) is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Buddy Holly in ''The Buddy Holly Story'' (1978), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won the National Society of Film Critics ...
's off-kilter performances.


See also

* Bruce Willis filmography


References


External links

* * * * {{IMFDB title, id=Vice_(2015) 2015 direct-to-video films 2015 science fiction action films 2015 action thriller films 2015 independent films 2015 films American science fiction action films American action thriller films 2010s English-language films American dystopian films Films about cloning American films about revenge Films set in the United States Films shot in Mobile, Alabama Films shot in Alabama Android (robot) films MoviePass Films films Lionsgate films Films about rape Fiction about malware Police misconduct in fiction Films directed by Brian A. Miller 2010s American films