#Vigilante (1982)

Robert Forster stars in this old school urban revenge flick by William Lustig. After his wife is assaulted and his son is murdered, the judge doesn't do shit and he has to spend a moment in prison because he's rightfully pissed the fuck off about it. With the help of Fred Williamson and some other pissed off residents, he does what we all would do in this situation. He becomes a... VIGILANTE!

Forster often plays it real casual, and I've always liked him for that. Fred "The Hammer" Williamson is always cool, even when he does his fake kung fu moves. Twenty years ago when I was just getting into exploitation movies, I would have eaten this stuff up. It already felt like the type of movie they didn't make anymore, but now? It seems like a golden cinematic era that's lifetimes ago.

I love the feel of these older crime movies because the grit doesn't feel fake. They didn't have huge budgets to give a movie the polished dirty feel. No, they were just authentically raw, and it shines through. This is the heyday of exploitation from one of its pioneers.