Saving the day is Harrelson's low-key, rooted performance, adding an unexpected layer of poignancy when things take a decidedly darker turn.
Defendor
An unexpected hero will rise.
2009 · 1h 41m · R
Action, Comedy, Crime, Drama
Directed by
Peter Stebbings
Overview
A crooked cop, a mob boss and the young girl they abuse are the denizens of a city's criminal underworld. It's a world that ordinary Arthur Poppington doesn't understand and doesn't belong in, but is committed to fighting when he changes into a vigilante super-hero of his own making, Defendor. With no power other than courage Defendor takes to the streets to protect the city's innocents.
Director and cast
- Peter Stebbings Director
- Woody Harrelson as Arthur Poppington / Defendor
- Kat Dennings as Kat
- Elias Koteas as Chuck Dooney
- Sandra Oh as Dr. Park
- Clark Johnson as Roger Fairbanks
- Michael Kelly as Paul Carter
- Kristin Booth as Wendy Carter
- Lisa Ray as Dominique Ball
- A.C. Peterson as Radovan Kristic
- Tony Nappo as Biker Cliff
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
Stebbings is more interested in deconstructing heroism than creating a concrete world, sapping the movie of the immediacy it needs to come alive. For all its aspirations, the film never meshes into something cohesive or substantial.
Likable but hardly memorable.
The low-budget movie continually shifts from comic-book spoof to gritty crime story to mental-health drama, the inconsistent tone preventing it from ever fully working as one or another.
Modest but likable effort is packaged in a straightforward style.
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