Elon Musk: Always A Douche

[Jacob]

I don't know if Uwe Boll would stoop that low.

[Tonitrus]

Brett Ratner of course, would.

[Syt]

I don't know if Uwe Boll would stoop that low.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_Vigilante

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 10% of 20 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 2.1/10.[40]

Prior to its promotion by Elon Musk, Citizen Vigilante received very few reviews from major publications.[29] Of these, they were overwhelmingly negative.[41]

Todd Gilchrist of Variety described the film as "astonishingly bad" and a "violent, incoherent, morally bankrupt slice of exploitation", with Hammer's character being as "xenophobic and entitled as the broadest American stereotype" who delivers "self-righteous monologues". He wrote that Hammer displayed "little of that spark" of his earlier charisma, and Boll's script as giving the character "prejudiced screeds". Gilchrist also commented that the film felt "like the writer-director-producer is deliberately sabotaging his star Armie Hammer, whose intended comeback can only be harmed by this project".[1]

Rebecca Onion of Slate called the film "one of the most disturbing movies I've seen in recent memory, for its reception as much as its content", with the film "perfectly [hitting] the zeitgeist for X-posting right-wingers who are single-issue agitators on the subject of migration". Onion concludes that, when juxtaposed with Boll's previous film Run, Sanders comes off as "irrational" and a "bit of a freak" rather than heroic, and that Citizen Vigilante—with the exception of the film's violent climax—"doesn't quite do what those right-wingers want it to do."[42]

Giancarlo Sopo of National Review, noting Boll's previous range of exploitation films that ranged from having "no point" to reaching for the "current loudest resentment", described the lead character as one that "has no wound, no soul, and no politics worth the name". He stated that despite its "reactionary provocations", Citizen Vigilante should not be considered a "conservative film" as it was "a Jacobin fantasy wearing right-wing talking points as drag." The review found merit in Hammer's performance, but commented that instead of giving the actor a comeback, the film "extends his exile".[43]

The German Rolling Stone called Citizen Vigilante a "modern take on Death Wish" and argued that the film's subject matter had turned Boll into "a pillar of right-wing culture."[44] In his review for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw called the film a "very cheap, incoherent and embarrassingly badly acted schlocker" and dismissed comparisons with Death Wish, Dirty Harry, or Taxi Driver, stating that Citizen Vigilante lacked the "passion, style, wit, purpose, vision and competent production values" these other films possessed.[45]

John Walker writing for Kotaku derided it as "a series of scenes", that could hardly be called a movie, referred to a scene taking place in a brothel as "one of the most unintentionally, hilariously awkward scenes of all time", and noted its failure to even promote its "disgustingly racist and Islamophobic" message through its lackluster quality. Additionally, he argued the movie "unambiguously and unironically" called for killings of immigrants and their families.[46]

Armond White of National Review and Robert Scucci of Giant Freakin Robot both called it "a straight-faced satire",[47] with the latter saying it is "actually a blatant criticism of [the] very mindset" of those who view Sanders as a hero. Scucci says that Sanders, a U.S. citizen living in Europe, is himself "a violent immigrant", and that while his goal to "protect women from being assaulted", he is "complicit in the same kind of societal degradation that he's profiting from while allegedly fighting against it", due to his ownership of multiple properties that house brothels.[48]

Neoconservative commentator Douglas Murray, writing for The Free Press, called it an "ugly film" that "can't be avoided, and it shouldn't be", approving it as indicting "European elites" but warned it "could stoke intemperate rage along with righteous anger".[49]

Newsweek compared the right-wing leanings of Citizen Vigilante to the much more progressive leanings of Supergirl (2026), describing it as a "culture war double feature" while criticizing both films' message of morality: "In both films, killing is rebranded as a burden the morally awake agree to shoulder...What both films actually worship is the sovereign individual—figures exempt from accountability because the world is too broken for accountability to function."[50]

Jurica Pavičić, writing for the Croatian news outlet Jutarnji List, described it as "the most fascist movie filmed in Europe since 1945".[51] Writing for Index.hr, Igor Tomljanović compared the film to Uwe Boll's earlier film, also filmed in Croatia, Auschwitz, which he said was described as torture porn. He went on to write that like in Auschwitz Boll "took a sensitive social topic and turned it into a cheap, exploitative spectacle that speaks to people's base passions and in a way serves to fulfill the wet dreams of peaceful citizens."[52]

Online response
Boll's posting of the full-length film on X gained 5 million views, while Elon Musk's posting of the film garnered more than 10.5 million views.[50] Slate noted that the film was popular among right-wingers on X.[42] Several far-right online personalities also praised the film, including Libs of TikTok, Jack Posobiec, and white nationalist Nick Fuentes.[53] Boll also appeared in interviews with white supremacist Jared Taylor and British far-right activist Mark Collett.[53]

[Jacob]

Oh.

I guess he would 

[viper37]

I had to google to check if this was real or not. Apparently fake (for now).

He got trolled really hard on X about his intent to fund "an historically accurate Odissey with Mel Gibson".  Lots of people wondered if it would include gay sex/kiss.

[Syt]

Someone posted a two and a half minute video made with Grok on Xchan, to which Musk replied, "Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of 'The Odyssey' that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer."

[Duque de Bragança]

Someone posted a two and a half minute video made with Grok on Xchan, to which Musk replied, "Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of 'The Odyssey' that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer."

It's Grok so it would make an acceptable naked Odyssey, at best. 

[Jacob]

I wonder if you'll be able to watch Elon's Odyssey in a fully self-driving Tesla, or on the colony on Mars?

[Sheilbh]

Historically accurate Odyssey is such a mad concept

Having said that and with all of is many, many issues I think Mel Gibson is a good director and I think both Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto are good films - and extraordinary to have Hollywood in Aramaic and Maya.

[Duque de Bragança]

Historically accurate Odyssey is such a mad concept

Having said that and with all of is many, many issues I think Mel Gibson is a good director and I think both Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto are good films - and extraordinary to have Hollywood in Aramaic and Maya.

Not mentioning Latin since the Ecclesiastic Latin used in Passion of the Christ was historically incorrect.   

Plus, Sebastiane by Derek Jarman, did it before. 

[Sheilbh]

In fairness I would love to see Derek Jarman's take on Greek epics.

No time for Latin nerds and it sounds crap - stick to the Italianised church Latin

[Duque de Bragança]

In fairness I would love to see Derek Jarman's take on Greek epics.

No time for Latin nerds and it sounds crap - stick to the Italianised church Latin

For once, Netflix actually beat Mel Gibson and Derek Jarman by having historically correct Latin.
Not to mention that a gay view of Saint Sebastian is way nerdier than using Eramus' restored pronunciation, the standard in (ambitious) documentaries these days.      

[The Minsky Moment]

Historically accurate Odyssey is such a mad concept

On two levels.  Level one being the idea of a "historically accurate" account of mythology; e.g., no woke casting of naturally two eyed actors as Polyphemus.  Level two being the idea that Elon Musk of all people could be relied on to pull off historical accuracy.

Having said that and with all of is many, many issues I think Mel Gibson is a good director and I think both Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto are good films - and extraordinary to have Hollywood in Aramaic and Maya.

Yes but I would distinguish the idea of having dialogue be spoken in the actual languages used at those times and places (to the best that it can be reconstructed) and being "historically accurate" which is different.

[Sheilbh]

I think that's fair - although I would add that I think Apocalypto does well at depicting a different menta/moral universe, which I think is always the biggest challenge of any form of historical fiction/depiction of the past. It's the thing that tends to age adaptations/translations etc - so you know the protagonists are often actually just 21st century secular liberals who are unfortunately living in a more benighted age.

I think this was a point Emily Wilson made in discussing the film (which I've still not seen) that basically it didn't really deal with glory. We're comfortable with shame and guilt and trauma - in our post-therapeutic age - but glory sits a bit less comfortably (especially when it's glory in violent triumph) while it's a hugely important aspect of classical culture.

I also think Rome was pretty good on that - but so long since I watched it.

[Razgovory]

Historically accurate Odyssey is such a mad concept

Having said that and with all of is many, many issues I think Mel Gibson is a good director and I think both Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto are good films - and extraordinary to have Hollywood in Aramaic and Maya.

Isn't it?  A faith retelling of the poem would have serious value dissonance with the modern audience.  In the Epic Odysseus wasn't in a big hurry to get home.  The first thing he does on the way back home is try, and fail, to raid some random town.  The executing of the domestic servants at the end of the poem is pretty jarring as well.  The Greeks had some problems with the poem, in paticular where Zeus allows Posideon to punish the Phaeacians for granting hospitality to Odysseus.

I think that Roger Eggers could make a good Odyssey, complete with value dissonance.  I think another avenue is to make one where Odysseus is just full of shit, and most of his stories are lies.