Once upon a time, Armie Hammer was one of the hottest rising stars in Hollywood. He won critical acclaim from playing both Winkelvoss twins in “The Social Network,” co-starred with Timothée Chalamet in Oscar-winning “Call Me By Your Name,” and attempted (not succesfully) to reboot an iconic screen hero opposite Johnny Depp in “The Lone Ranger.”
Then came 2021, when a woman he’d had an affair with leaked the salacious text messages the husband and father had sent to her. That led to more women coming forward, making some pretty awful allegations (let’s not get into that, but feel free to Google “Armie Hammer cannibal”) that brought his thriving Hollywood career to a standstill.
Armie Hammer Has Had Some Lean Years Before His Comeback Attempt
The scandal that ensued made the one-hot actor utterly toxic. Armie Hammer and wife Elizabeth Chambers divorced, and he fled Hollywood. At one point, reports claimed he was selling timeshares at a resort in the Caribbean.
But in 2026, Hammer made a big swing at a comeback when he was cast in the leading role in a new movie, “Citizen Vigilante.”
However, it’s fair to say the film is far from A-list. Its director is Uwe Boll, the controversial filmmaker whose low-budget films are panned by critics as among the worst ever committed to celluloid, giving “Plan 9 From Outer Space” director Ed Wood a run for his money.
‘Citizen Vigilante’ Was Savaged by Critics
Not surprisingly, film critics loathed “Citizen Vigilante,” in which Hammer plays a guy who takes justice into his own hands, much like Charles Bronson in the 1974 revenge classic “Death Wish.”
However, the film’s dismal 6% score on Rotten Tomatoes made it clear that “Citizen Vigilante” is no “Death Wish.”
Armie Hammer Reportedly Slammed His Own Movie
Reportedly, critics weren’t the only ones who hated Armie Hammer’s big-screen comeback.
According to a report from Puck News, Hammer himself was mortified when he saw the final cut of the film and its depiction of extreme vigilante violence.
“The first time he saw it, he was in tears,” a source told the news outlet. “He called me and said, ‘[Expletive]. This is hateful, disgusting.’”
Added the insider, “When he saw the final product, he was, ‘That was not the movie I thought we made,’ and he freaked the [expletive] out.”
That said, in an earlier interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Hammer admitted he viewed his career to be at the beggars-can’t-be choosers stage. “I would have done a [expletive] cat food commercial,” Hammer said of his first job offer in five years. “I just wanted to work again.”
Despite the Critics, ‘Citizen Vigilante’ Hit No. 1 Via Streaming
Despite the controversy — or, more likely, because of it — the film became a hit on streaming services.
As Slate reported, over the course of a brief two-day period, “Citizen Vigilante” rocketed to No. 1 on both Amazon and Apple.
The Film’s Director Denied Armie Hammer Was Unhappy with the Movie
Director Uwe Boll, however, disputes Puck News’ report, and vociferously denied that Hammer was unhappy with the film.
“Armie enjoyed the shoot and the project,” Boll wrote in a statement to The Independent.
“Armie is a great actor and I was happy to get him for the movie,” Boll continued. “I think he is happy about the success and by the way watched the film in the editing room and various times after. That’s how I see it. Everything was by the way full written — a 50 page script he got when I first approached him and then we developed a full script and shot it. He is in every scene and so the idea that he was surprised about anything is absurd. Everything what we shot was in the script.”
