Very well executed

To me, this movie is perfection.

So much average

Just perfect...

If you liked playing Double Dragon on your Nintendo, you will love this movie! It's about the kind of blokes you'd have in the video game but now it's just about as psycho crazy and atmospheric as Abel Ferrara's Driller Killer. A street-brawler kid quits his gang to live with his girl, but off course it's not that easy to turn his back on the gang.. It's a very simple plot, but it has a certain style and intensity that make up for that lack of complexity. The style, to compare, is a bit between Driller Killer and Richard Kern's short films (The Hardcore Collection). A sometimes psychotic montage with lots of stylish and semi-shocking images and great action scenes with intense gore and a haunting musical score. Or maybe it was just really good weed. Who knows..

While watching Deadbeat @ Dawn I was having a pretty difficult time trying to put a finger on what my feelings were about this film until Keith from the Ravens (I think that's who it was) took a swig of Jack Daniels and chased it w/ a mouth full of Bush beer. I laughed gagging (not the first and definitely not the last time while watching) because that was exactly the taste that this movie was leaving in my mouth : bitter/sour and cheap but a pretty wicked buzz after awhile. Producer/writer/director/actor/editor/stunt choreographer/ special makeup effects artist Jim Van Bebber pulls off some fairly excessive stylized screen violence w/ a minuscule budget but the weakly scripted directionless performances stretches it thin. It's amateur shines through in many scenes containing dialogue and lose editing (especially in the first half) throwing off the pacing; making a fairly short film seem long in the tooth. In the end it feels like Troma w/out any zaniness…Well a little zaniness. Ninja stars and golf club beatings are pretty zany.

This film is pretty good in its own right with a budget of probably less than $10,000. Jim Van Bebber should be commended for his work on this film, or should I say his 100% effort on this film, starring in it, writing it, directing it, stunts, makeup, and so forth. However, I would not consider the acting in this film great. Though the most rewarding scene for me was the concluding 10+ min fight sequence. Some of the stunts that were pulled off in that sequence looked much more dangerous than what you see in the multi-million dollar films, and Van Bebber probably did most if not all of them. 9 for the action, 3 for the acting gives you a 6/10 overall.

Inspired by the drive-in success of The Evil Dead, Deadbeat at Dawn is disturbingly effective film-making. It's violent, gritty, and has shock value that's second to none. Jim Van Bebber is a madman behind the camera. He controlled every aspect of this film: he wrote, edited, acted, choreographed stunts and fights, created make-up effects, and directed. In Deadbeat, Van Bebber stars as Goose (or Goose Lee as he's known to my friends and I), the leader of the Ravens and the greatest anti-hero ever. The leader of the rival gang, the Spiders, orders his best goons to attack Goose at home. Instead of finding Goose, they find his girlfriend...and beat her to death. Goose returns home after a hard day of drug dealing only to find his girlfriend's mangled body. That's when Goose goes ballistic. And you better bring along a strong stomach. It's a standard tale of revenge and redemption but there's something special about it. It taps into the raw and savage power of film. The action and violence are unbelievable, but there are breaks in between to let the viewer slow down and take a deep breath. In these breaks, there are hints at social commentary. One scene sums this up: Goose watching two children shoot each other with toy guns. It's so short and there's no dialogue but it certainly says a lot. There's an unspoken element there that's missing from most action movies. I honestly expected all of the reviews I read to dog the film. To my surprise, it was actually well-received. It seems as though everyone who has experienced Deadbeat appreciates the awkward feelings it inspires. Deadbeat at Dawn is truly an American independent action classic.Note: The Spider's outfits with the underwear on the outside were created as an homage to A Clockwork Orange.