As written and directed by George Armitage, "Vigilante Force" is acceptable "turn your brain off", yahoo action fare, albeit with a solid premise. An excellent cast that's full of familiar faces clearly has a fine time with the material. Armitage gets down to business extremely quickly, with an energetic opening credits sequence. From then on it's a series of confrontations that culminate with a whole lot of gunfire and explosions going on.
Jan-Michael Vincent plays Ben Arnold, upstanding young citizen in the small town of Elk Hills. Unfortunately the scores of men who came to work on nearby oil fields have begun to raise bloody hell in the town. In desperation, the towns' bigwigs agree to bring in Bens' brother Aaron (Kris Kristofferson), a Vietnam vet, and Aarons' wartime comrades, to try to restore law and order. Soon, however, the "solution" proves to be another problem, as Aaron lets a position of power go to his head and indulges in all manner of crooked ventures.
Vincent is good, but Kristofferson out-acts him with style, bringing charisma and humour to his juicy role. The sweet and sexy Victoria Principal plays Vincents' gal pal, and the cute as a button Bernadette Peters is endearing as flaky singer "Little Dee", whose shtick involves acting as if she knows everybody. The Who's Who cast of supporting players is most impressive: Brad Dexter as the mayor, Judson Pratt as the police chief, and David Doyle as a banker, as well as Antony Carbone, Andrew Stevens, Paul Gleason, John Steadman, Charles Cyphers, and Carmen Argenziano. Bombshell actress Loni Anderson and cult icon Dick Miller have uncredited cameos.
The folksy music by Gerald Fried adds to the substantial fun factor of this movie. Armitage really gives his audience their money's worth, and knows how to end things in a big way.
Seven out of 10.
Jan-Michael Vincent plays Ben Arnold, upstanding young citizen in the small town of Elk Hills. Unfortunately the scores of men who came to work on nearby oil fields have begun to raise bloody hell in the town. In desperation, the towns' bigwigs agree to bring in Bens' brother Aaron (Kris Kristofferson), a Vietnam vet, and Aarons' wartime comrades, to try to restore law and order. Soon, however, the "solution" proves to be another problem, as Aaron lets a position of power go to his head and indulges in all manner of crooked ventures.
Vincent is good, but Kristofferson out-acts him with style, bringing charisma and humour to his juicy role. The sweet and sexy Victoria Principal plays Vincents' gal pal, and the cute as a button Bernadette Peters is endearing as flaky singer "Little Dee", whose shtick involves acting as if she knows everybody. The Who's Who cast of supporting players is most impressive: Brad Dexter as the mayor, Judson Pratt as the police chief, and David Doyle as a banker, as well as Antony Carbone, Andrew Stevens, Paul Gleason, John Steadman, Charles Cyphers, and Carmen Argenziano. Bombshell actress Loni Anderson and cult icon Dick Miller have uncredited cameos.
The folksy music by Gerald Fried adds to the substantial fun factor of this movie. Armitage really gives his audience their money's worth, and knows how to end things in a big way.
Seven out of 10.