Bullet Points: VFW

I can say in all honesty that I haven’t seen a single thing by director Joe Begos, but I can’t open up my Twitter machine without seeing someone say very nice things about him. That led me to where I am today; renting movies on streaming networks and having all sorts of fun watching them in the dark by myself.

Synopsis: A group of war veterans must defend their local VFW post and an innocent teen against a deranged drug dealer and his relentless army of punk mutants.

• Our Nuclear Holocaust: This isn’t the 1950’s or the 1960’s so the threat of some sort of nuclear fallout causing all sorts of crazy reptiles to come from the sea isn’t as popular. We don’t have the constant threat of missile attacks from Cuba or the USSR to give us that edge anymore. Maybe our biggest current threat is from a bunch of junkie, drug-using, pieces of shit busting down our doors and trying to kill us.
• Angry old men: What an excellent cast of badasses! Joe Begos and crew have put together an outstanding collection of actors led by Stephen Lang to put the ever-loving fear of God into druggie losers the world over. Throw in William Sadler, Fred Williamson, Martin Kove, David Patrick Kelly, and George Wendt and you’ve got yourself a crew of old-timers who sound really fun to drink with. In VFW, they’re veteran regulars of the local VFW Post who are just there to have a few drinks, talk a little shit, and maybe catch a titty bar. Sadly, they’re forced into a bit of a predicament.

• The Predicament: A young girl (who just found her dead sister) steals a bag of drugs from a local drug dealer and runs into the VFW for protection from her chasers. Their plan isn’t to just take their loot back and let her off on her merry way but the vets at the Post aren’t gonna just let a bunch of maniac punks into their club without the proper DD-214’s!
• Shaved pussies: My favorite thing about VFW is the interaction between all of the old actors in the roles of the vets. I’d watch a movie of them just chatting in character, let alone, one of them killing drug addicts hell-bent on murder. What I’m trying to say is, “Sign me up for a sequel!”

• Bloody hell: Director Joe Begos sure knows how to push his blood budget to the max. The amount of head shots, deaths by saw, and craniums being smashed in with a boot are at a level that can only be described as “Olympian”.

• Fall in: The men may have been away from military service for decades but they fall right back into it on the command from Stephen Lang’s Fred. He takes charge, for sure. In a room full of alpha males Fred is the guy they look to for orders. With a collective dozen or more tours between the men, they shoot the shit, shoot junkies in the head, and then share a few shooters while the shit hits the fan.

• Abe’s takin’ point: Fred Williamson’s character snorts up a bunch of the drugs and declares that he’s “takin’ point this time!” You have to love the drug-induced gusto that he has in the moment, but you also must love the soon to be awesomeness of the sacrifice that he’s set himself up for.
• Drug maniacs: I thought that this movie was some sort of zombie movie but it isn’t. They attackers on the VFW post are just a bunch of crazed lunatics trying to get to the drugs. They’re essentially mindless freaks who die by the dozens (no different than zombies) but they die whether you hit them in the brain or not. When it comes down to it, VFW is a zombie movie with an asterisk. It delivers on the same sort of action without pigeon-holing itself into that niche.

The Verdict: VFW is the Assault on Precinct 13 of the new generation. Yeah, you’ve heard it called that already in other reviews but this movie is super heavy on the idea of brotherhood between the vets and their pledge to duty and honor which you might not see in the trailer. Stephen Lang and Company aren’t there looking for a fight, but the fight presents itself and they aren’t the type to pass on it. I’ve been in a scrape or two in my day but I can’t guarantee that I’d handle it as well as these guys after the amount of shots they’ve had. VFW reminds us that an entire segment of the population is sittin’ on a barstool talking about something awful that happened. Sometimes it just takes the right situation to get these guys in the wrong mood. If you’re looking for a grand time, though, VFW might be the first place to look in on. It doesn’t glorify war but reminds us what it makes of the men who wage it.