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The Way of the Gun

The Way of the Gun

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Great gunfight scene.
Review: The gunfight scene early in this film is fantastic, other than that, the only thing that kept my interest was seeing Benicio del Toro....I was kind of in a del Toro mood. Juliette Lewis is just awful. Ryan Phillipe is okay. Del Toro is okay and goodlooking. That's why I rented this film...but I could never sit through it again. If there had been more fantastic gun fight scenes instead of all the silly talk, and Juliette Lewis acting a fool, etc...I could have given it more stores. It only gets three stars because of del Toro.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: a cold gun
Review: interminable, doom-laden saga of freelance badmen, mafia badmen and corporate badmen whom no one would want to know or care about. that's not such a bad thing but in the quest for simulacrum tarantino the one crucial ingredient is humor, and this film has none. for that i blame chris mcquarrie, who penned both the usual suspects and this but unfortunately took on the directing chores himself on this one. mcquarrie's sense of humor makes ben stein seem like bill hicks. the usual suspects, at least, had a kind of gallows sensiblity that distracted you from the plot. here that humor doesn't exist and so you're forced to pay attention to the story, which is about as barren as the morals of the characters. now that's not such a bad thing either, but without all the in-jokes, hip cultural decorating and cool movie homages, the whole thing just collapses under the weight of it's own nastiness and banality.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: CLASSIC!!!
Review: This is truly a classic!It is writer/director Christopher McQuarrie's astonishing film debut.McQuarrie was the man behind the story of "The Usual Suspects". The film follows two partners in crime "Parker"(Ryan Phillippe) and "Longbaugh" (Benicio Del Toro).They'll do anything to get their hands on some cash.So while donating sperm in a sperm bank they over hear a conversation about a girl, Robin (Juliette Lewis) who's a surrogate mother of a wealthy couple.The girl is getting paid 1 million dollars for doing it.The couple tell the girl what to eat, when to go out, and there's bodyguards watching her every minute, Jeffers (Taye Diggs) and Obecks (Nicky Katt). "Parker and "Longbaugh" hear the doctor's name who is involved with Robin's check-ups, Dr Allen Painter (Dylan Kussman).They find out where his hospital is and await Robin's arrival. There's a superb shoot-out between "Parker", "Longbaugh" and the two bodyguards.As a result of this P+L leave with the girl and demand a ransom of 15 million dollars. Everything you could imangine goes disastrously wrong.This film has everything including a great cast, good story, good lines,great and funny characters, great action sequences, especially at the end.This film is just pure,sheer brilliance!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A COPY FROM A COPY FROM A COPY ....
Review: What to say here ? Total dissapointment. The guy who wrote "THE USUAL SUSPECTS" seems to have tried to copy Tarantino in his heyday ( because Tarantino is gonne for sure, he is a clever guy who copies everything, than mix it together in blood lust movies ). The result, of course, was catastrophic. Julliette Lewis plays the "crazy, desorientated, criminal" woman for the elventh time in her career (see "NATURAL BORN KILLERS", "KALIFORNIA" ). RYan Phillippe is bad as ever. The great failure in the director's idea was try to copy something that never was good (Tarantino).

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Underrated Masterpiece!
Review: Some people say the movie is boring until the end. I say they must have missed the beginning. Yes, the middle of the movie is a little slow but this all makes sense towards the end. There is action all over from the doctor's office where the attempted kidnapping happens to the car chase with the bodyguards chasing the kidnappers. One cool part is when the kidnappers, Longbaugh (Del Toro) and Parker (Phillipe) jump out of the car, during a car chase, going five miles an hour, which forces the bodyguards out of their car who start walking towards the slow moving vehicle when the two kidnappers start shooting at the bodyguards and then jump back in the car and force the two bodyguards to run back to the car they got out of and start the chase again. There are many action scenes. I'd say there are three classic shootouts. If you love shootout movies without a plot, this movie is for you, I'm not saying this movie does not have a plot, it does. If you love shootouts, chaseouts, twisting adventures and great plots, this movie is definitely for you, an underrated McQuarrie masterpiece.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A one timer.
Review: This movie is definetly a one timer. This movie is about 2 criminals who attempt a new line of crime ..Kidnapping and Ransoming. I particulary liked the begining where Ryan knocks the crap out of this loud mouth Bi@#$%. The movie tends to drag some while things are happening and they leave you in suspense by not just saying right out what the deal is with Juliette Lewis' character. The mobster's young wife needed a good whack too but everyone involved in this movie seemed to have some kind of back-stabbing going on. The situations in the movie tend to be confusing. Some of the ideas that Ryan and Benecio come up with are astounding. Example.. they are in a car chase being chased. They stop their vehicle and ... they slip out and hide, making it look as if they ran off scared. Their victim is still in the car so they approach it to help her and when they do... the other guys pop out and start firing at them. Smart guys, but in the end... well I don't want to spoil it. Not totally a happy ending I should say. You should surely watch this at least once.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A superbly smart and gritty neo-Western
Review: "The Way of the Gun" is the best American movie I've seen since "Traffic". Certainly they're different types of films, but the similarities lie in their intelligence and their respective directors' evident love for movies. But I'd have to give the nod to "WotG", simply because Christopher McQuarrie wrote and directed his own movie, whereas Soderbergh simply directed someone else's script (itself adapted from someone else's).

If you didn't like this movie, I dare say it's because you were expecting another mindless American shoot-em-up. "WotG" is an "atmosphere" movie, a modern western, with unsympathetic and unrepentant characters who don't apologize for who they are or what they do. McQuarrie admirably does not tell us everything about his characters and their motivations, and that makes them all the more interesting. Parker and Longbaugh seem to know a lot about weapons and tactics, but we never get the typical Hollywood discussion about "back when we were in the army, or on the force, etc." that a lesser writer would have included, or a less intelligent producer would have insisted on.

Speaking of tactics, they were superb. A couple of minor technical glitches that most viewers won't notice, but all in all some very convincing (and realistic) action--and the antithesis of "Charlie's Angels"-type fantasy action. Characters load weapons, and reload, and reload. None of these Hong Kong action-style "bottomless" guns. Very realistic, and very refreshing. The DVD includes a hilarious script excerpt which was not filmed, and vividly illustrates McQuarrie's understanding of the Hollywood cliches he eschews.

Not a perfect movie, but very nearly. The re-watchability quotient is very high. I recommend it highly. And if you don't like it, then you'll just have to wait patiently for Pearl Harbor's release on DVD.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Ugh... This film is LOUSY
Review: When I heard the people behind The Usual Suspects, my favorite film ever were doing another movie I was very excited. When I learned the tremendous Benecio del Toro was being tapped, I thought it would be great....

... Well.. It wasn't. In fact this is an awful, awful movie which will bore you to death. There are a few good lines but I literally shut this movie off with about 10 minutes left on it. I couldn't even tell you if this had a "twist" a la Usual Suspects in the last few minutes, because the story was so banal and uninteresting a shocking twist would be meaningless.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Sam Pekinpah-ish Modern Western with...
Review: ...Crackling Dialogue, Clever Plot Twists, Awesome Gunfights and Characters that you Actually Care about. Ryan Philippe gives his Grittiest and Best performance to Date and Benicio Del Toro Embodies Cool in yet Another Startling performance.

Philippe and Del Toro play Parker and Longbaugh, two Petty Crims wanting to move up in the Criminal Food Chain, they find their chance in Robin (Juliette Lewis), a Surrogate Mother for a Wealthy Couple who turn out to be Underworld figures Way Up in the Food Chain, but that doesn't deter our (anti) Heroes from Kidnapping Robin and her Unborn baby, and taking on Anyone who stands in the way of their Ransom money, which include Joe Sarno (James Caan), a tough old Bag man and Jeffers and Obecks, two Steel-faced Bodyguards.

This film Shocked me in a Very Good Way, I Actually Cared about nearly All of the Lead Characters, (basically Everyone except the Emotionless Bodyguards and the Bosses Wife) Bad Boys or Good Guys, they all had Flaws, they were all Real and I Liked them all, they Grew on me So much that by the end, I didn't know Who I wanted to come out alive, being that the film is such a Homage to Pekinpah, I knew there wouldn't be Many left standing. It's theme of Bad Men finding Redemption, it's Mexican Settings and it's "Hail of Bullets" Ending would have made Pekinpah Proud.

The Character-actor filled Cast give Wonderful Performances, Particularly James Caan, who has played this sort of role Countless times before, but Still manages to Squeeze something new out this time around. Juliette Lewis is also great, her Character has a lot to Carry, a Baby and the Weight of the Entire Film, as it All Revolves around her, if the audience don't Like her, then the Game is off, we won't Care what Happens to her and the film would become a Poor Excuse to show Violent Killings. Thankfully that doesn't happen. Taye Diggs and Nicky Katt also have hard roles as their roles are Easily the most Unlikeable, as they are meant to be Completely Emotionless, Diggs overcomes this as he is Naturally a good actor, Katts doesn't, he just recycles his Emotionless Robot role from "Boiler Room", as he is Not that good an actor. (he is probably the Only reason the film gets a 4 star rating instead of a 5 star one)

Christopher McQuarrie's Directorial Debut looks like just a Taste of things to come in his young career, the Tip of the Iceberg. He takes a very Small Story and makes it into quite a Grand Film, with some of the Best Gunfights of Recent Memory (like "3000 Miles to Graceland", only more on the Realistic side), Ultra-cool Bad Guy Dialogue akin to "The Usual Suspects" which he wrote. (he even recycles a line of dialogue from that script... "I'm Just Talking Here". Stephen Baldwin says it in "The Usual Suspects", Nicky Katts says it in this one) and Well-Developed Characters. What More can you Ask from a Piece of Celluloid.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Film, Twists and Turns.
Review: I went in not expecting much from this film, not hearing much about it. When I finally sat down to watch it on DVD today I loved it. This was an amazing film. Benicio puts in another amazing film, Ryan Phillippe is also strong. Gunfights, plot twists you could never expect, and great acting all add up to the excellence of this film. No sappy love stories, just killing, and being killed. Buy this film!


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