The Reel Review
A former special ops soldier looking for his missing, drug-addicted teenage daughter gets tangled up with a couple running a violent crime syndicate in the remote California desert, in this crime thriller starring Paul Sloan (Vigilante Diaries, Songbird) and Oscar-winner Richard Dreyfuss (The Goodbye Girl).
Every Last One of Them is VERY light on actual plot and heavy on action, with our bloodied, beaten vigilante unleashing a violent, cliché-filled barrage of Rambo-style ass kicking revenge against the bad guys, who are led by Jake Weber (Dawn of the Dead) and Taryn Manning (Orange is the New Black, 8 Mile). Dreyfuss stars as the vigilante’s mysterious friend and mentor in this low budget saga, where the local authorities are either corrupt or utterly useless. Our vigilante serves as a self-styled enema, ready to clean out this corrupt desert town. A series of flashbacks gradually reveal his teenage daughter’s fate.
The film works well enough when our vigilante is wasting all of the truly terrible villains. It doesn’t work when we are subjected to nonsensically cheesy lines in flashbacks with his daughter like “I don’t need a father, I need a dad” (huh?) or when the threadbare plot is lacking pertinent info. (What the heck does a local deal over water rights have to do any of this? And just what IS happening to all the missing girls in town?) Although its brief, one hour and 22 minute runtime still feels about 22 minutes too long, for a daddy-avenging-his-little-girl type flick, it is mindlessly entertaining. The title pretty is pretty spot on, thanks to a nifty, well done little twist that ends the crime thriller with a punch.
REEL FACTS
• Palm Springs restaurateur and film director Christian Sesma also worked with Paul Sloan on the 2016 crime thriller Vigilante Diaries. His next film is the action movie Section 8, starring Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, Dermot Mulroney, Ryan Kwanten and Richard Dreyfuss.
• Every Last One of Them was filmed in and around Coachella, California, site of the popular annual music festival.
• Taryn Manning was nominated for a 2022 Golden Raspberry award for Worst Supporting Actress for her performance in the film.
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