By now, you’ve likely heard of the numerous controversies surrounding German director Uwe Boll’s latest film, “Citizen Vigilante.”
To recap: The film stars disgraced actor Armie Hammer (in what was poised to be his big Hollywood comeback) as an American expat who takes the law into his own hands, eliminating troves of criminal immigrants in Europe.
Since its debut, “Citizen Vigilante” has been slammed in prominent reviews for both its muddled plot and its anti-immigrant rhetoric. Variety called the project a “morally bankrupt thriller,” while The Guardian described it as a “very cheap, incoherent and embarrassingly badly acted schlocker.” Boll himself even says the project has been banned in his native Germany.
But the project has gotten a second life on social media and in the zeitgeist. Despite those savage reviews, “Citizen Vigilante” boasts a 91% audience approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes (compare that to the 10% critic score), thanks in no small part to Elon Musk and a slew of right-wing influencers.
In June, Musk posted the full film to X for 48 hours (during which time it notched over 10 million views). Conservative online personalities from Nick Fuentes to Libs of TikTok have propped up the movie. It’s become such a hit in those circles that Boll has since announced a 2027 sequel – and is even eyeing ousted “The Mandalorian” actress Gina Carano for a role.
But for all the debate the title has stirred up, one surprising element of the “Citizen Vigilante” campaign has flown almost entirely under the radar. So I decided to boldly go where no journalist has gone before: I played the “Citizen Vigilante” movie tie-in video game.
Movie tie-ins were a staple of the 90s and early 2000s film marketing scheme, cropping up for films from “Batman Begins” to “The Incredibles,” to varying degrees of success. But the practice has since gone nearly extinct – until now, as Daniel Wengenroth of German game studio Polygon Art developed the official “Citizen Vigilante” game.
I purchased the title on PlayStation 5 for $21.99, undeterred by the 2.74 out of 5 star rating in the online shop (made up almost entirely of polarizing 1-star and 5-star reviews). After playing the game myself, I’m firmly in the 1-star camp: this game is so abysmal, so excruciating and so outdated, it left me questioning my sanity.
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