The son of infamous B-Movie impresario Fred Olen Ray proves he's a chip off the old schlock with his boisterous DTV actioner 'Assault on VA-33'. Very similar to recent low budget JCVD shoot 'em up 'Kill Em All', with likeable action man Sean Patrick Flanery playing PTSD sufferer Jason Hill who has his therapy session royally fubar'd by the unexpected incursion of trigger-happy, hospital hijacking mercenaries, cartoonishly headed by the ponytailed 'Adrian', one of the more pleasingly 90s-styled Ruskie villains, a tailor-made role for maestro Billy Drago, but, sadly, the viewer will just have to make do with Weston Cage Coppola.
After Jason predictably goes full McClane, 'Assault on VA-33' proves itself to be a serviceable, if undeniably formulaic actioner, and while the conclusion is never really in doubt, ruggedly handsome, fleet-fisted Flanagan makes for a sympathetic pistol-packing patriarch, with charismatic action icons Michael Jai White and Mark Dacascos doing the best with their somewhat undernourished roles. While perhaps not the best in show, Christopher Rey's toothsome DTV shoot 'em up has enough mongrel charm for me to overlook its flaws. I really don't need every film to subtext me into dazed submission, just like the man said, if I wanted a message I'll listen to Marvin Gaye, sometimes I just like to watch noisome, lunkheaded, high test B-movies that energetically take my mind of the dismal day-to-day dross of modern life. 'Assault on VA-33' is nothing you 'aint seen before, and, sometimes, that's precisely what I need!'
After Jason predictably goes full McClane, 'Assault on VA-33' proves itself to be a serviceable, if undeniably formulaic actioner, and while the conclusion is never really in doubt, ruggedly handsome, fleet-fisted Flanagan makes for a sympathetic pistol-packing patriarch, with charismatic action icons Michael Jai White and Mark Dacascos doing the best with their somewhat undernourished roles. While perhaps not the best in show, Christopher Rey's toothsome DTV shoot 'em up has enough mongrel charm for me to overlook its flaws. I really don't need every film to subtext me into dazed submission, just like the man said, if I wanted a message I'll listen to Marvin Gaye, sometimes I just like to watch noisome, lunkheaded, high test B-movies that energetically take my mind of the dismal day-to-day dross of modern life. 'Assault on VA-33' is nothing you 'aint seen before, and, sometimes, that's precisely what I need!'