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.

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.

Love siege movies. This one is an obvious tribute to Carpenter + the gore. It even has a Carpenter like ostinatto synth music at the beginning which establishes the menacing mood as in Assault On Precint 13. Still, the movie falls short in every aspect. The cast is good but their performance is shaky. Lang, more than anyone, is the weakest. The guy who plays the ranger is also bad. The mood is also destroyed by some mediocre continutiy. One moment a dear friend of theirs die and the next they are all laughing and delivering tacky lines. At this point in the movie, the music turns into obnoxious generic sounds. While the gore is there, the dark images prevent us from seeing it and enjoying it (a recourse to hide low budget effects maybe?). Still, it is fun to watch, the great William Sadler is in it, and it's a great (although poorly executed) Carpenter tribute.

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.

Or the More Expendable Expendables. Nice little low budget action movie. It doesn't pretend much so it kind of delivers. Lots of gore and fighting but little in the way of plot or drama.