The Way of the Gun (2000)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

best movie i've ever seen.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Violence ensues when two criminal lowlifes (Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro) decide to kidnap a pregnant surrogate (Juliette Lewis), carrying the baby to be adopted by a wealthy man (Scott Wilson) and his less-than-pleased trophy wife (Kristin Lehman). Soon they encounter some of his hired henchman, led by James Caan. With Taye Diggs, vet Geoffrey Lewis, and Nicky Katt as those either getting caught in the crossfire or offering fire towards Phillippe and Del Toro. Caan's being the father to Lewis adds a bit of gravitas to the gunfight, while Phillippe and Del Toro always attempting to make that big score against him proves to be the great question of "will they or won't they?" "Way of the Gun" is a guns-a-blazing shoot 'em up with credible car chases and a really bonafide western standoff at the end with the film's anti-heroes unloading ammunition at Caan and company with a brunt of the damage inflicted on the brothel itself. Not to be outdone, there is plentiful bloodshed and bodies are most certainly torn apart by some of the bullets that don't destroy the walls and shutters. Phillippe and Del Toro most definitely don't escape the film unscathed, and Caan's not even receiving one bullet during the whole affair, considering all the bullets that fire in all directions I found rather clever. There are really few characters in the movie to side with or care about, so "Way of the Gun" rests almost exclusively on its gunplay which is in abundance and full display. Del Toro is his usual quirky self while Phillippe is so intense he could crack walnuts between his ass cheeks. Caan is…well…Caan, so if you like him then here he is. Lewis plays her part relatively straight as the unfortunate barter item as bullets go off all around her. Dyllan Kussman as the surgeon burdened with trying to monitor Lewis' health and deliver the child if needed is like a fawn trapped in a dangerous forest surrounded by bears. I like the way the gunfights are staged and how these men shoot aimlessly mostly, rarely hitting their targets until a mistake of revealing themselves at the wrong time results in their demise. Diggs' fate in particular is rather startling. Phillippe's dive into a dried-up water fountain filled with broken bottles verifies the unpredictable nature of getting in a gunfight in the middle of nowhere when circumstances can rise against you. The "draw" is given a bit of irony as the film's typical anti-hero doesn't have any bullets left and, as a result, is put down due to his wasted ammo while the opposition has a seat comfortably.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and Christopher McQuarrie is obviously attempting to be Quentin Tarantino; he isn't close. A great cast is wasted by a convoluted story. Benicio del Toro is Longbaugh and Ryan Phillippe is Parker, and the pair travel together, scheming to separate people from their money. They hear about a surrogate mother carrying the future offspring of a rich guy and so they kidnap her in a shootout with her bodyguards. They demand $15 million to safely return the mother. It shifts to Mexico where the kidnappers are offered $1 million by Joe Sarno(James Caan), a go between, to walk away from the situation unharmed. The Mexican police become part of the program and we get more shootouts, some torture and a finale that looks like Peckinpah. The result is an o.k. crime drama; but don't expect Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction.

It's obvious that this movie got heavily inspired by many other genre movies. It tries to be just like them but it perhaps tries a bit too hard. It tries to combine basically every element that makes these type of old fashioned crime movies so great. It's just too much and it doesn't make the movie a very consistent one either. It therefore all also doesn't work out too original, which makes this movie feel a pretty redundant and pointless one, that you can easily do without.No, it by no means is an horrible movie but it's also not one I'm eager on ever seeing again. It's not really a fun or entertaining movie to watch and it takes itself very serious.A problem of this movie is also really its story. The movie doesn't begin off too bad but the more characters gets introduced in it, the worse it gets. I started too loose interest real fast in this movie. It's incredibly annoying how basically every character has his or her own agenda in this movie. The movie should had sticked more to its two main leads, played by Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro. That way the movie would had been better to watch and possibly also more fun. Now instead the movie starts giving you an headache with all of its characters and its long dialog. In the end you also just really don't know who is fighting who anymore and why. I can really see and appreciate what director Christopher McQuarrie was trying to do with this movie but I think he should just stick to his writing career. He can write great and also complicated stories, he just can't tell them very well, as this movie proofs.For this movie he still got a whole bunch of well known names to appear in his movie. Besides Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro, also Juliette Lewis, Taye Diggs and James Caan make their appearances. In a way it's also really an actors movie, since it's often filed with some long dialog. Nevertheless there also is plenty or room for some action, which still helps to spice things up a little for the movie. The action is simply great for most part.The movie never really gets horrible to watch but it also never really becomes an intriguing or entertaining one. It's a movie you can easily do without.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Choppy start and an even choppier middle and a very choppy ending make this a film that almost put me to sleep at the half way mark. Lots of standard pseudo cool verbal exchanges that are almost memorable and an almost action filled ending that is really just like a standard western gunfighting scene by another name is kind of a bore to me. Luckily I had eaten some mystery pizza that caused me to have to take off to the bathroom so I avoided some of it. Not really terrible but it seemed to stay stuck at about 70 mph, not really fast, not really slow, and not really exciting either. James Caan saves the day and kicks the bad guys asses, bad guys that the film has identified with the entire time as really the good guys in a land of jungle thick corruption. Could have been much better.