FilmSnobReviews

Title: VFW
MPAA Rating: Not Yet Rated
Director: Joe Begos
Starring: Stephen Lang, Martin Kove, William Sadler
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins

What It Is: In the near future everyone under a certain age is addicted to one particular drug. When an innocent teenager named Lizard (Sierra McCormick) gets caught up in a drug deal she flees to a VFW…with the drugs. When a gang leader named Boz (Travis Hammer) murders Lizard’s sister he’s on a hellbent crash course to get back his drugs. He’ll have to go through the veteran’s inside said VFW including Fred (Lang) Lou (Kove) and Walter (Sadler).

What We Think: This is a film that doesn’t do anything particularly badly…or well. Joe Begos is a director who’s filmography has never proven impressive to me (more on that later). It isn’t a well-written film, but it beats the other Begos film that played Fantastic Fest in that regard. Much of the film is predicated on you buying into the Mad Max lite plot. It doesn’t build the world well enough for that to happen though and instead gives you little to work with from a storytelling perspective. A poorly constructed film that never fully gets out of the gates.

Our Grade: C-, The definition of mediocre. I suppose that beats the alternative of it being bad. Having said all this the film is by no means a total failure. It’s a cool sight to see a guy like Fred Williamson, who’s a legend, on the screen. Even if it’s in something like this. This was simple fodder for fans of the genre if that’s not you…don’t really bother with this. If you’re into that then you’re in for a gory treat thats complete with enough recyclable dialogue to really let you focus on the insanity occurring in front of your eyes.