VFW

release year: 2019
genre: action
viewing setting: home Bluray 5/31/20

synopsis: A group of old veterans gathered for a night of drinking end up fighting a mob of drug-crazed punks.

impressions: Take a handful of tough old B-level stars, put them in a siege situation like Assault on Precinct 13 against an endless army of insane people...and you have this. It was pretty good; the characters were well-defined, and their friendship (dating back to the Vietnam War) felt genuine. The faceless bad guys are basically junkies so desperate for their next fix that they'll do anything. Fortunately for the veterans, they have plenty of creative ways to deal with the attackers...guns, knives, grenades, traps, bats, chainsaws, and more.

acting: For each of the actors playing the veterans, I'll name one major role from their past. Stephen Lang (who was Ike Clanton in Tombstone and Colonel Quaritch in Avatar) is the bar owner and informal leader of the group. William Sadler (who was the leader of the terroists in Die Hard 2) is the semi-crazy one. Fred Williamson (who was the big biker in From Dusk Till Dawn) is the big tough one. Martin Kove (who was the evil sensei in The Karate Kid) is the flashy, dressy one. David Patrick Kelly (who was Sully in Commando) is the first one to get injured. George Wendt (who was Norm in TV's Cheers) is the last one. Tom Williamson is the young soldier who stops in for a drink and ends up helping out. Sierra McCormick is the girl whose theft of the bad guy's drugs starts all of this. Travis Hammer is that bad guy, Dora Madison is his machete-wielding right-hand-woman, and the pair of them reminded me of the main villains from The Crow.

final word: Entertaining action/pseudo-horror siege movie.

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