Not every movie has to be built for awards glory and standing ovations at Cannes, and that’s a virtue, not a flaw. This was one of those movies, in which you see the angriest man in Yellowstone team up with one of the biggest action icons of all time for a revenge thriller, and while there is absolutely no subtlety to it, you wouldn’t want it for this.
Directed by Brett Donowho, Acts of Violence follows three Midwestern brothers whose lives get turned upside down when the youngest brother’s fiancée is kidnapped by a human trafficking ring. With the police struggling to do the job in bringing the criminals down properly, the brothers lean on their military training and decide that if you want a job done well, you gotta do it yourselves. This is the definition of a good old ‘dad movie’. And with Father’s Day coming up this month, isn’t that the best kind of movie for June?
The movie wasn’t exactly a huge theatrical smash, as it only earned itself a limited release back in 2018, but like so many action thrillers of the recent past, it’s simply been rediscovered and flourished on streaming. And the movie plays extremely well once it’s been discovered during a late night movie hunt because it’s short, it’s blunt, very violent and it’s got a simple premise: very skilled men are going to make very bad people pay for their misdeeds.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
Yellowstone
Landman
Tulsa King
Mayor of Kingstown
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
10
When it’s over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
Yellowstone
Landman
Tulsa King
Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
Who Stars in ‘Acts of Violence’?
Acts of Violence stars Cole Hauser (Yellowstone) as Deklan MacGregor, Bruce Willis (Die Hard) as Detective James Avery, Shawn Ashmore (X-Men) as Brandon MacGregor, Ashton Holmes (A History of Violence) as Roman MacGregor, and Melissa Bolona (Hurricane Heist) as Mia. The cast also includes Sophia Bush (One Tree Hill) as Detective Brooke Baker, Mike Epps (The Upshaws) as Max Livingston, Tiffany Brouwer (The Help) as Jessa MacGregor, Sean Brosnan (My Father Die) as Vince, and Patrick St. Esprit (Sons of Anarchy) as Hemland.
Hauser is the obvious draw now, thanks to his role as Rip Wheeler on Yellowstone, and Acts of Violence lets him play in a much more straightforward action-thriller sandbox than the stoic, tightly wound Rip would otherwise be engaged in.
Acts of Violence is streaming now on Paramount+.
Release Date
January 12, 2018
Runtime
86 minutes
Director
Brett Donowho
Writers
Nicolas Aaron Mezzanatto
Producers
Brandon K. Hogan, Corey Large, Marc Goldberg, Mark Stewart, Ryan S. Black, Wayne Marc Godfrey, Delphine Perrier, Vance Owen, Kirk Shaw, Barry Brooker, George Furla, Arianne Fraser, Anthony Callie, Ted Fox, Stephen J. Eads, Stan Wertlieb, Robert Jones, Randall Emmett, Martin Wiley
