VFW

Joe Begos is quickly becoming my absolut favorite indie director. Coming off his fantastic down n' dirty vampire flick Bliss, he is now back with his take on the classic siege film, doused in his trademarks of excessive gore, synth/metal score and neon lights.

The overall story is the very definition of simplicity and works all the better for it. It truly feels like a movie from a bygone Era populated with rugged old-times battling leatherclad junk peddlers to the blood spattered end.

If you love movies like Carpenter' Assault on Precinct 13/Escape from New York, I'm confident you'll find something here to your liking.

Hope you enjoy it.

I really enjoyed this movie. It reminded me of Peter Jackson's and Sam Raimi's early work. It feels like a total appreciation for anything "John Carpenter".

The gore is *chefs kiss*, the soundtrack is one of the best I've heard for a while, electro-bass pumping during the action. It's a great fun move worth your time.

With "Bliss", Joe Begos shot right up to the top of my favorite horror directors, and "VFW" continues his wildly fun reign successfully. While it's not without its faults, "VFW" raises true grindhouse hell, soaked in neon, coated in the grainy 16mm aesthetic, full of gory delights & led by a truly amazing, in-for-it-all veteran cast. What else could a man want?

"VFW" is a much too rare type of movie in our era, which is not saying much, it being universally acknowledged as an 80's throwback midnight flick, but we need more movies like this. I do. "VFW" is highly and undeniably entertaining from start to finish, full of splatterhouse action, practical FX mayhem, various kills and thrills - all the goodies a horror fan needs. The real attraction, however, is the movie's core cast, the 80's stars in an 80's kind of movie. Stephen Lang, Fred Williamson, Martin Kove, William Sadler and more provide snappy, relatable and just plain awesome characters having fun together and killing punks. A simple siege scenario, a classic good guys vs. bad guys idea, no twists, just a straight-forward, easily digestible fun. From a critical point of view, "VFW" lacks depth, feels a little disposable, has a high enough predictability factor & doesn't have all that much to say, but, frankly, throughout the 90 minutes, I couldn't care less. The script by Brallier and McArdle doesn't always hit the spot, not the entirety of the grizzled, old-school me-and-the-boys dialogues come off as organic & the narrative is shallow enough, but Joe Begos knows exactly how to treat it. Taking "VFW" on its own terms, nothing can go wrong, it's kinda like a grindhouse-indie "The Expendables", just cooler and with a lot more sauce.

"VFW", however flawed, will (and has) find its place in the heart of genre fans for it can't really fail, only in the hands of those who despise violence, old-school shenanigans & everything's that awesome. Joe Begos is, without a doubt, one of the best directors working the indie scene right now & I'm eager to hear what's next in store for us. My rating: 7/10

The only previous work of director Joe Begos that I watched was "Almost Human", which was a likeable and entertaining - albeit unmemorable - throwback to alien invasion flicks & body horror of the 1980s. "VFW" can also be categorized as homage-horror, yet this time Begos aims his periscope at the 70s, and processes typically contemporary cult themes in his film, like (Vietnam) veteran vigilante squads and violent sieges. Fellow fans of that era will definitely recognize the subtle and less subtle references towards classics like "Assault on Precinct 13", "Rolling Thunder", "Escape from New York", "The Exterminator" and a handful of others.

"VFW" is highly unoriginal, but Joe Begos is a clever guy and realizes that approximately 80% of the success-rate for this type of movies is determined by the casting. The group he assembled for "VFW" is downright awesome, and undoubtedly the greatest asset of the entire film. What self-respecting fan of horror & cult wouldn't want to see a blood-soaked vigilante thriller starring cool old blokes, like Stephen Lang, William Sadler, David Patrick Kelly, Fred Williamson, Martin Kove and George Wendt? They all star as "Veterans of Foreign Wars", currently useless in the eyes of society, but still gathering in their lair to drink beer and remember the old days. They are forced to demonstrate their combat skills one last time when the bar is invaded by derailed, psychopathic junkies. Good unscrupulous fun, but the camerawork is often very hectic and the lighting is very poor.

First, here we have a non pretentious movie with a great cast and 80's style gore-action. Second, looks like the director was inspired by movies like From Dusk Till Dawn or Hobo with a shotgun and Carpenter's Vampires. Last, I really appreciate the effort of creating something decent here and in some ways it accomplished. To add, decent performances and great 80's stylish music. So, overall a great B-movie entertainment.