Movie Review: The Way of the Gun
Intro
Written and directed by Chris McQuarrie, writer of “The Usual Suspects”, “The Way of the Gun” is more than your regular action picture. There’s a coherent, deep and intruiging script, multi-faceted characters and a good plot.
It’s like Pulp Fiction, but with with more guns.
Speaking of intros, this film has perhaps the most foul-mouthed intro ever seen in a mainstream film. Here’s a taster;
“Bar Patron: Hey, hey. Yeah you, get up. What are you retarded? Get off the fucking car!”
“Raving Bitch: Hey dickless, get off the fucking car! Hey fucksuck, get your slippery fucking ass of the car! Listen to me, get off the fucking car with your fucking ass!”
“Parker: Shut that cunts mouth or I’ll come over there and fuckstart her head!”
“Raving Bitch: You’re gonna wish you never fucking got up this fucking morning asshole, because my boyfriend’s gonna fuck you up! And then after that while he’s fucking up your fucking gay uncle over there I’m gonna fucking cut off your cock and mail it to your mother, you fucking faggot bitch! You gaylord fucking bitch! How do you like that? You like that a lot you fucking faggot? You like to ass fuck? Fontanella fucking babyheads!”
“Bar Patron: Go ahead.”
“Raving Bitch: You like to fuck babyheads? You like to fuck boys? He’s gonna fuck you in the ass, how do you like that? He’s not even gay but he’ll do it just to fuck…”
“Bar Patron: Honey honey. She’s got a big mouth but she’s not kidding. I’m gonna whip you silly and I’m gonna fuck you stupid. You wanna do the man dance? First dance is yours.”
Story
Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Bel Toro play Parker and Longbaugh, a couple of two-bit hoods who visit a fertility clinic to sell their sperm when down on their luck. Whilst there they learn about a surrogate mother to a rich husband and wife couple and formulate the plan of kidnapping her to hold to ransom.
Parker and Longbaugh are particularly sleazy and unlikeable, a pair of anti-heroes in the truest sense of the word. They get more than they bargained for when abducting pregnant mother Juliette Lewis and are pursued all the way to the border by a couple of borderline-psychopathic bodyguards who’ll stop at nothing to bring back their employers ‘property’.
There are twists, turns and one hell of a supporting cast. “The Way of the Gun” feels a bit like a Tarantino flick, but with all the flashy, trashy crap trimmed off the sides.
9.5/10
Action
For a film which such an engaging and enjoyable story, “Way of the Gun” sure packs one hell of a punch in the action stakes. Boasting the loudest gunshots ever committed to film, it delivers the kind of shoot-outs on a scale the title implies.
The final set-piece is particularly fantastic, like some twisted orchestra of mayhem set in a Mexican hotel which reminded me heavily of the final scenes in “The Wild Bunch.”
There’s shotguns, Israeli assault rifles and a shitload of handguns all being put to great use as extras are blown away with suitable conviction.
Pretty fucking wild!
8/10
Acting
This film has action of a higher caliber than most of the other films I review. Frankly I bought it because I had heard it had “the loudest gunshots committed to film”, as mentioned earlier, but “Way of the Gun” is much more than a foul-mouthed, pistol-whipping action epic, it’s got a solid story and great cast to fall back on during the quieter moments and you’re as eager to see where the characters are heading as you are to see them pull those pistols.
I thought Ryan Phillippe was the prince of gay teen rom-coms… clearly I was wrong.
9/10