A film that Germany’s rating board refused to classify, starring an actor Hollywood dropped after sexual assault allegations, directed by a filmmaker critics have savaged for decades — Elon Musk decided this was exactly what X needed.
Musk uploaded the full cut of Citizen Vigilante, directed by Uwe Boll and starring Armie Hammer, to X on Thursday, making it available to stream free for 48 hours — one week after the film’s release in theaters and on demand. The original post accumulated more than 10.5 million views before the window closed.
In the film, Hammer plays a wealthy American businessman who travels to Croatia and begins hunting down violent criminals and corrupt judges, eventually becoming a wanted man himself. Germany’s FSK, the country’s age-rating authority, declined to grant the film any classification — a bureaucratic mechanism that, in practice, bars it from cinemas, physical retail and mainstream streaming platforms inside the country.
Boll denied that the anti-immigrant characterisation was accurate, telling The Telegraph: “The rating system refused to give us a rating [in Germany], so now you can only watch it if you bring in a Blu-ray from Austria or Switzerland.”
Boll announced the 48-hour X window himself before Musk amplified and posted the full film. The move was quickly framed by right-wing commentators as a free speech gesture. Alex Jones called it a breakthrough against what he described as the left’s “electronic Berlin Wall.”
Variety’s review was unsparing, calling the film “violent, incoherent, morally bankrupt” and suggesting it could only damage Hammer’s intended comeback. Audience scores told a different story, with a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes driven by an influx of reviews following the X release.
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For Hammer, the film marks his most prominent screen appearance since 2021, when sexual assault allegations effectively ended his Hollywood career. The LAPD investigated the accusations — which Hammer denied — and prosecutors ultimately declined to charge him, citing insufficient evidence. Boll said he cast Hammer specifically because he had been “canceled and wanted to work.” A sequel, Citizen Vigilante 2, has already been announced for 2027.
