Gunmen (1994)

Gunmen is set in the jungles of South America where drug lord Loomis (Patrick Stewart) has hired mercenary Armor (Denis Leary) to find 400 million dollars of his stolen money, while moving the cash one of his men named Karl Servigo loaded it on a boat somewhere ready to sail off after meeting his brother Dani (Christopher Lambert). After Karl dies while being tortured by Armor the only other person who might know where the boat is happens to be Dani, however Armor isn't the only one looking for Dani as New York cop Cole Parker (Mario van Peebles) is aware of the money & breaks Dani out of prison in order to find out where the boat is. The hunt for the 400 million becomes a race against time as to who will get there first...Directed by Deran Sarafian I have to admit to being rather disappointed by this lacklustre buddy buddy action thriller that doesn't have nearly enough action or thrills. The script by Stephen Sommers (who notably later went on to direct high profile fantasy films such as The Mummy (1999), Van Helsing (2004) & G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra (2009)) is a light hearted affair with plenty of banter between the two mismatched leads who inevitably become good friends by the end & a quick succession of one-liners but I thought there was a real chemistry lacking between the two leads, maybe it was Lambert & Peebels performances or the script or the direction but I never warmed to either of them. The villain starts out as a frail Patrick Stewart in a wheelchair (practice for his role as Xavier in the X-Men films?) who is wasted in a small role before Armor decides to run the show himself, having said that Armor isn't the brightest bad guy, why did he kill Karl in the first place? Despite needing Dani & Cole alive he lets his men shoot at them constantly & why kill that woman at the end? At 90 odd minutes Gunmen moves at a decent enough pace but the action is forgettable, the character's don't click & the plot about finding hidden money while avoiding the bad guy's is nothing that original or special & Gunmen doesn't distinguish itself from any other average action thriller.The action mainly consists of a few shoot-outs where the bad guy's can't shoot straight as usual, a few people crashing out of windows & a boat exploding at the end. Gunmen looks quite nice, set in South America the lush green jungles add a little something the close-ups of wrinkled faces & guy's with thick stubble remind me of a Spaghetti Western. There's a topless woman & a bit of blood but nothing excessive.With a supposed budget of about $8,030,000 this had a fair bit spent on it & I can't really see where the money went besides the locations & even then Gunmen was filmed in Mexico not South America. The acting didn't impress me, as I said I thought there was little to no chemistry between Lambert & Peebles which really killed the film dead for me.Gunmen is an average action thriller with the whole buddy buddy mismatched partner thing going on of which there are many better examples out there. Not something I would want to watch again, ever.

I can't believe some of the glowing reviews here and feel compelled to set the record straight as this web site is generally an excellent guide to movies. I am a big Chris Lambert fan and so tuned in eagerly to this one. What a waste of time. Everything about this movie screams out cheap, cheap, cheap! All I can think is the talented actors must have been desperate for some quick cash to get roped into this one. Its turgid, brainless and moronic. It has no plot, absolutely shameful acting and effects that make The A team look out of this world. Do yourselves a favour and do something more interesting like.... watch a snail make its way over the pavement for an hour and a half.

I watched this film expecting it to be a rip off of Lethal Weapon or The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Sure, the director is influenced by Sergio Leone, but that's no bad thing and this is hardly a remake of it. Instead, it has the same laid-back approach of any Leone western and is inspired by some of his great movies moments. If anything, this is much more a clone of Lethal Weapon, and it's a good one too.Being a fan of Christopher Lambert, it was great to see him in wise-cracking action and Mario Van Peebles was equally good. I also thought Denis Leary was a terrific bad guy and I liked Brenda Bakke as Maria too, a much better role for her than in Under Siege 2. I would go so far as to say this is just as much fun as Highlander, except it's a comedy with plenty of gags, some good, some not so good, but the film has so much pace to it that it doesn't really matter.So if you like a good-humoured buddy flick, and you liked Heartbreak Ridge, then you should see Gunmen.

After watching the original Highlander, I found myself wanting to see a guy I'd never heard of act in some other movies because of the performance he put on in the one I'd seen. Christopher Lambert isn't what I'd call a great actor, he plays pretty much the same soft spoken character in everything, but for some reason that character tends to be entertaining. Gunmen was pretty much an hour and a half of stupid fun and while I'd never nominate it for an oscar or any other accolade, I still think it was worth watching.