Ellen Hollman Has Backwoods Gunrunners Outnumbered in Army of One

Ellen Hollman (THE MATRIX 4) headlines this indie thriller that plays on the trope of "band of criminals does the wrong person wrong." During a wilderness trek with her husband, Dillion (Matt Passmore), a police officer recovering from a recent attack, Brenner (Hollman) stumbles upon a band of backwoods clan of gun runners. The gang is led by Mama (Geraldine Singer), who rules with an iron fist in a velvet glove. Her men are mostly brutes, and the women are kept in cells, only brought out for subservient tasks or mating.

When Brenner and Dillion get discovered by Mama's head boy, Butch (Gary Kasper), he shoots both of them in the head, dumping their bodies down a ravine. Miraculously, Brenner survives, the bullet having only creased her skull. And as she slowly comes back to her senses, the audience is let in on her back story. Because while Dillion was a police officer, Brenner was the first female Army Ranger, and now she's an army of one set on vengeance against the entire gang who murdered her husband.

ARMY OF ONE is a throwback to films like COMMANDO and FIRST BLOOD, with a slight nod toward I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE. It has moments of luck, and plenty of situations where someone gets into trouble by being stupid (starting, ironically, with the heroine, who apparently learned nothing from the story of Goldilocks). The villains are numerous, and seemingly just keep coming as Brenner sets her sights on making sure everyone pays for her husband's death -- especially Mama.

While the plot isn't a particularly dense one, ARMY OF ONE is packed with scenes of action and suspense. It's a Saturday night popcorn flick where you just want to watch bad guys die in the most vindictive ways possible. This one will give you that necessary spike of adrenaline and dopamine that makes for a fun revenge film.