Gun (2010)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning'Rich' (50 Cent) is a ruthless street gangster, intent on wiping out the competition and striking up a weapons deal with some other gangsters. Angel (Val Kilmer) has just been released from prison and has been placed undercover in Rich's organisation to square a deal with the police and assist in an investigation, building up to an explosive final confrontation.'A drama set in the world of drug dealing', is the simplistic summary of this film on the rental sleeve. And, indeed, it's hard to decipher any more of it than that, simply because there isn't any plot to it. It's barely seventy five minutes worth of style over substance, seeming like just an excuse for 'Fiddy cent' to plug some new tracks on his latest album. His acting is as flat as you'd expect, and ditto the now grossly puffy and out of shape Kilmer, a real 'what happened to them?' case.This looks promising on the cover, but the reality is a very sloppy and messed up affair indeed. One to avoid. *

Val Kilmer and 50 Cent have been cranking out a lot of direct to video gems these days. They did "Streets of Blood", which I actually really enjoyed, and then did "Blood Out", which got worse. "Gun" seems to be the nail on the coffin in a strange relationship.Val Kilmer plays Angel (what kind of name is that for Val Kilmer?!), a man released from prison after taking the rap for his gun-running friend played by 50 Cent. Angel immediately goes back to his old ways, and helps 50's rising ring come to glory in battle-scarred Detroit, despite the efforts of a relentless detective (James Remar).An interesting plot that covers many bases, ie the gun-control problem in the U.S. (particularly Detroit) as well as the violence guns ultimately cause from their simple existence. I took "Gun" to be a film lightly promoting Gun Control, which is an admirable message from the film's screenwriter 50 Cent.The script is well-written, which is a definite plus. Several of the scenes are very compelling and concerning, especially those with James Remar and John Larroquette. But several other scenes seem thrown in, without any sort of analysis or reason for them being there. One such scene is where 50 tells Val of how guns killed both his parents as a child. The irony is something that I suppose is obvious, but it's not covered well in the film. The scene seems shaky, and doesn't represent all that it could, or is really supposed to.The acting really lacks. Val Kilmer has put on weight, his eyes are lifeless, and his performance here seems forced. He seems to read his lines from a poster behind the camera. But 50 Cent is just awful here. Whatever acting talent briefly blossomed in Streets of Blood had gone under for this performance. I hope he gets better, because 50 has a lot of potential. Though James Remar really makes up for both of them, he's very good and turns in a great role. John Larroquette has a fantastic couple of scenes at the end, and by the end of the film he's the light at the end of the tunnel. Danny Trejo has a small cameo as well."Gun" is a film with a lot of potential but few gears that get the machine moving. If you're willing to look past glaring errors and some wooden acting, you might enjoy it as much as I did.

Police in Detroit are looking for a stolen revolver used in a murder a few years ago. Rich (Jackson) and Angel (Kilmer) are crime partners involved with the distribution of arms. Overall better then I expected it to be, (50 Cent wrote it). We find out pretty early that Rich is the one with the revolver and from then on it gets pretty predictable. For the type of movie it is, I will give it a 6 out of 10, but don't let that deceive you, it's better then Streets of Blood (the last Jackson and Kilmer movie) but thats not saying a whole lot. If you are looking for a top notch, exciting action flick I'd go with A-Team over this one. I will say that this is Kilmer's best movie in awhile, which again isn't saying a whole lot. I give it a C+.

I didn't expect to enjoy this film as much as I did, I actually expected it to be terrible, but I left the theater thinking wow that was pretty good (Put that on the box). Curtis Jackson (50 cent) delivers a strong performance along side James Remar and Val Kilmer. Curtis' character, Rich, was deeper than expected showing believable wit and banter along side his entourage. Kilmer and Remar are also great, no one phones it in. The story starts out by the numbers, but then it evolves into a more complex plot that keeps you guessing. There were scenes with real tension. The ending was the only thing holding this film back from being great. The characters evolve complex arcs, but then the ending extinguishes those arcs before they feel completed. Overall this film is a good gritty cops chase robbers crime drama, you will not be disappointed. Full disclosure, I saw this film on Dec. 15th for its premier in Grand Rapids, MI where it was filmed. The atmosphere was obviously positive. Jackson introduced the film stating "remember I am a work in progress, I will be better tomorrow than I am today". It was great to see someone with such a large perceived ego to be humble, and honestly not give himself enough credit for this movie. He was great in it, and the screenplay he wrote was great.