Let's talk about William Lustig. His name rarely comes up when people discuss the big directors of the genre. Lustig wasn't a prolific filmmaker, but his movies are pure grindhouse mayhem. No pretensions of style, no arty farty showmanship. William Lustig skillfully made stark, no-frills movies for fans.
Most people know him for Maniac, which is certainly a genre milestone. I like Maniac, of course, but it's a little too mean-spirited to be a real favorite. Relentless is a taut serial killer story with Judd Nelson, who looks like he was deep in his freebase years. Maniac Cop is a good marriage of eighties fun horror and seventies hard sleaze. Uncle Sam is an above-average latter day slasher opus.
My favorite is probably Vigilante, a hard, mean Death Wish clone. You know the drill: Punks have taken over the streets and the citizens must band together to stop them. By any violent means necessary. It's a grindhouse tradition.
Vigilante stars no nonsense Robert Forster as a decent blue collar worker whose wife is assaulted and young son is killed by a shitbag gang. The killers gets off scott-free, while Forster gets prison time for erupting in the courtroom. He emerges from incarceration ready for revenge.
Then you have the real Hammer, Fred Williamson, as a guy trying to keep his home and the streets safe.
Forster, Williamson, and a couple other good guys maim and kill a pimp, a neighborhood drug dealer, a crooked politician, and a corrupt judge. There are no surprises here, but who wants plot twists when you have time-honored gritty street vengeance?
William Lustig also owns and operates Blue Underground, a video distributor dedicated to bringing hard exploitation into your home. The Vigilante Blu-ray looks and sounds better than it has since it was made in 1982. If you're a fan of hard-hitting street movies like Death Wish 3, Vice Squad, Tenement, and Street Asylum, this movie belongs in your collection.
Written by Mark Sieber
Most people know him for Maniac, which is certainly a genre milestone. I like Maniac, of course, but it's a little too mean-spirited to be a real favorite. Relentless is a taut serial killer story with Judd Nelson, who looks like he was deep in his freebase years. Maniac Cop is a good marriage of eighties fun horror and seventies hard sleaze. Uncle Sam is an above-average latter day slasher opus.
My favorite is probably Vigilante, a hard, mean Death Wish clone. You know the drill: Punks have taken over the streets and the citizens must band together to stop them. By any violent means necessary. It's a grindhouse tradition.
Vigilante stars no nonsense Robert Forster as a decent blue collar worker whose wife is assaulted and young son is killed by a shitbag gang. The killers gets off scott-free, while Forster gets prison time for erupting in the courtroom. He emerges from incarceration ready for revenge.
Then you have the real Hammer, Fred Williamson, as a guy trying to keep his home and the streets safe.
Forster, Williamson, and a couple other good guys maim and kill a pimp, a neighborhood drug dealer, a crooked politician, and a corrupt judge. There are no surprises here, but who wants plot twists when you have time-honored gritty street vengeance?
William Lustig also owns and operates Blue Underground, a video distributor dedicated to bringing hard exploitation into your home. The Vigilante Blu-ray looks and sounds better than it has since it was made in 1982. If you're a fan of hard-hitting street movies like Death Wish 3, Vice Squad, Tenement, and Street Asylum, this movie belongs in your collection.
Written by Mark Sieber
The author does not allow comments to this entry
No comments