VFW 2019 * * * Stars

Director: Joe Begos
Year: 2019
Rated NR
Rating: * * * Stars
Cast: Stephen Lang, Fred Williamson, William Sadler

2019's VFW is my latest review. It has a cast of comfortable shoe, character actors from the past (William Sadler, David Patrick Kelly, Martin Kove, George Wendt). These actors dons Glocks, fists, shotguns, and machetes for some ghastly, gory amusement. If only the lighting was just a little better I could see the corollary of their carnage. Oh well. You can't go wrong with VFW's background music (by Steve Moore) which feels like something a modern-day John Carpenter would have concocted.

Anyway, VFW's regurgitated story reminiscent of Project Greenlight's Feast, goes like this: A group of war veterans convene at a dive bar only to get infiltrated by a bunch of stoned hoodlums with itchy trigger fingers. Said veterans have to perimeter the establishment, weapon up, and defend at all costs. In truth, VFW is not for the squeamish but it is for the raucous, midnight movie crowd. It is one of the most unabashedly violent flicks I've seen in a long time.

VFW's running time is right on the money for 92 minutes. Most of these minutes involve grisly killings, lots of alcohol consumption, and kooky, tough guy dialogue. If you like grindhouse suture with plenty of red corn syrup splattered on the screen, then VFW will give you your horror action fix. And if you like a John Carpenter version of Assault on Precinct 13 with old-timer drinking buddies instead of cops and inmates, then VFW will update your longing for all things 1976 (or 2005 if you dug the remake).

Filmed in Dallas, Texas which looks more like eight mile Detroit, VFW is down and dirty and dark and nasty. Oh and in case you are wondering, VFW stands for "Veterans of Foreign Wars". In 2019, the "war" here is obviously not over. Rating: 3 stars.

Written by Jesse Burleson