Expect to hear more about Joe Begos in the future. I plan to talk about him and his upcoming movie, Jimmy and Stiggs, in the upcoming weeks. For the time being I checked out his earlier movie, VFW.
The plot is like something from the grand old days of Charles Bronson and Chuck Norris. A group of grizzled old veterans are partying down at the Veterans of Foreign Wars lodge when a young woman bursts into the place. She's pursued by a group of mean street drug dealers. Picture the guys from Death Wish 3, which is surely among the greatest movies ever made.
Stephen Lang is the leader of the vets, with time-honored actors playing his crew. There's blacksploitation legend Fred Williamson, William Butler, Martin Cove, David Patrick Kelly, and the recently-deceased George Wendt.
VFW is an homage to innumerable action movies, with nods to Night of the Living Dead and Assault on Precinct 13, Trespass, and Original Ganstas, among other genre classics.
The young woman grabbed a stash of heroin from the gang and they will do anything to retrieve it. The veterans are duty-bound to protect and serve.
If you like violent action pictures, you will not be disappointed. The gore effects in VFW are outrageous and plentiful. The budget is low, but that doesn't hurt this kind of movie. In fact, after the cartoonish low rent silliness of Side Effects May Vary, which I recently watched and reviewed, it's good to see a real balls-out violent thriller that pulls no punches.
The art direction is slightly curious. There are garish neon reds and blues, giving the production a schizophrenic atmosphere. This kind of down-and-dirty actioner doesn't need to look like Suspiria. Nor should it.
That's a petty bit of nitpicking. It's gratifying to see a hard, mean, old fashioned exploitation movie that doesn't conform to the sensitive nature of much of today's entertainment. I see a lot of violence in recent horror movies, but it seems safe and predictable. VFW isn't trying to compromise its explosive nature. It's in your face, like it or not.
Plus it's just good to see these old guys in this kind of movie. I doubt there was much money for them, but I'm grateful to see them get the respect they deserve. They're all veterans in their own right, scarred and bloodied from the Hollywood skirmishes they've survived.
Take note now. Eli Roth's The Horror Section is dedicated to bringing real horror back to theaters. Their first release, coming in August, is Joe Begos' Jimmy and Stiggs. The movie looks like an insane spectacle in the influential tradition of Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead and Peter Jackson's Bad Taste. If you call yourself a horror fan you'll see Jimmy and Stiggs in a theater when it gets its wide release this August.
Written by Mark Sieber
The plot is like something from the grand old days of Charles Bronson and Chuck Norris. A group of grizzled old veterans are partying down at the Veterans of Foreign Wars lodge when a young woman bursts into the place. She's pursued by a group of mean street drug dealers. Picture the guys from Death Wish 3, which is surely among the greatest movies ever made.
Stephen Lang is the leader of the vets, with time-honored actors playing his crew. There's blacksploitation legend Fred Williamson, William Butler, Martin Cove, David Patrick Kelly, and the recently-deceased George Wendt.
VFW is an homage to innumerable action movies, with nods to Night of the Living Dead and Assault on Precinct 13, Trespass, and Original Ganstas, among other genre classics.
The young woman grabbed a stash of heroin from the gang and they will do anything to retrieve it. The veterans are duty-bound to protect and serve.
If you like violent action pictures, you will not be disappointed. The gore effects in VFW are outrageous and plentiful. The budget is low, but that doesn't hurt this kind of movie. In fact, after the cartoonish low rent silliness of Side Effects May Vary, which I recently watched and reviewed, it's good to see a real balls-out violent thriller that pulls no punches.
The art direction is slightly curious. There are garish neon reds and blues, giving the production a schizophrenic atmosphere. This kind of down-and-dirty actioner doesn't need to look like Suspiria. Nor should it.
That's a petty bit of nitpicking. It's gratifying to see a hard, mean, old fashioned exploitation movie that doesn't conform to the sensitive nature of much of today's entertainment. I see a lot of violence in recent horror movies, but it seems safe and predictable. VFW isn't trying to compromise its explosive nature. It's in your face, like it or not.
Plus it's just good to see these old guys in this kind of movie. I doubt there was much money for them, but I'm grateful to see them get the respect they deserve. They're all veterans in their own right, scarred and bloodied from the Hollywood skirmishes they've survived.
Take note now. Eli Roth's The Horror Section is dedicated to bringing real horror back to theaters. Their first release, coming in August, is Joe Begos' Jimmy and Stiggs. The movie looks like an insane spectacle in the influential tradition of Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead and Peter Jackson's Bad Taste. If you call yourself a horror fan you'll see Jimmy and Stiggs in a theater when it gets its wide release this August.
Written by Mark Sieber
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