The Way of the Gun

December 10, 2004

Rated: R Runtime: 119 min Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

The Way of the Gun should’ve went the way of the editor. The pacing of this movie is not quite as brisk as Grandma when she’s behind the wheel of her Buick. This is Christopher McQuarrie’s debut as a director, and it shows. There are some good moments but the movie really drags.

The Way of the Gun

The plot, as if it really matters, revolves around two thugs who decide to kidnap a pregnant girl from a wealthy family. However, it turns out that her “family” aren’t exactly nice normal people either and things do not go exactly as planned. There are no real good guys here.

The story, characters, general feel of the film with the violence, shady characters and such will draw inevitable comparisons to films by Quentin Tarantino. And I’m not so sure this is unintentional on the part of the director. But if he was going for a Tarantino style movie, McQuarrie really missed the mark on the dialog. The dialog in this movie is almost painful. When the characters have extended conversations with each other it feels like the scene is going to last forever. I’ve heard deeper more interesting dialog from the teenage girls hanging out at the mall while in line for the movie.

This movie doesn’t totally suck though. The opening scene totally cracked me up. If that attitude and edge had been maintained throughout the film, it would be a winner. And the final 30 minutes or so of the movie is some of the most gratuitous violence you’ll ever see.

The shootouts are top notch, and that is what saves this from being a total bomb. Other than the gun play, this movie is very slow and doesn’t have a lot going for it. We do not even get to see Juliette Lewis naked. This one can definitely wait for DVD.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 2 Stars, Action, Benicio Del Toro, James Caan, Juliette Lewis, R, Ryan Phillippe, Taye Diggs, Theatrical