At first glance, Mean Guns is simply about a bunch of thugs thrown togther by the boss of a crime-syndicate to shoot eachother's brains out, and he's promised $10 million to the last three left standing.
The first time I watched this movie, I thought it was pretty ordinary.
I found it rather silly, with it's seemingly pointless plot, and out of place mamba playing all the way through, even during the many frenetic battle scenes.
It was only after I popped it back into the vcr for a second viewing a little while later that I realised my mistake.
I had watched the movie with my brain turned off; as soon as I'd seen some chap fire a few rounds into someone at close range, and that cheerful mamba tune kick in, naturally I crusied through the movie expecting some mindless entertainment, and to many it would succeed in that respect.
But it is so much more. The plot is there, and an intriguing one at that, but you must be paying attention and keeping the brain tickiing over, to understand half of what each character is talking about.
I have yet to decide whether the script is deliberatly underwritten, or whether director Albert Pyun has phased that part out of the production as much as possible, focusing on his trademark gunfire and killing at every corner.
And yet, I feel it's probably better this way, as it leaves the viewers to make their own mind up regarding events and the murky motivations of characters.
Ah yes, the characters.They are what makes Mean Guns stand out among these low budget 'B grade' action flicks- They've all been superbly crafted, and written for- and for me, the greatest pleasure of this movie is delving deeper into the thought-processes of these guys and girls, and seeing their characters develop.
We learn much about their view of life, how they see the world, and after each viewing I learn something new about them (I've seen it five time now).
But of course, you can have as interesting charcters as you like, they won't come to life unless you have talented actors playing them; again, something you won't find all that often in these 'type' of movies, but Mean Guns is lucky enough to have three outstanding performances.
One of course, is dear old Christophe, who after almost 400 words in the review hasn't been mentioned yet, and boy do I wish he'd play characters like Lou more often! He was born to play this role (well, maybe after Highlander), and in my opinion delivers the best perfomance of his career. Never has he delivered his lines with such conviction and panache! I personally think he's much more suited to playing people of dubious character, rather then the sqeaky clean, soft-spoken hero he often plays. I get the impression he's enjoying this reversal of role too.
Christophe gets the best lines, and there's plenty of great ones, it would literally have to be at least every second line. He also handles the action better than in, say Beowulf , a couple of years later, but then what actor could do all those constant back-flips!
Ice T is pefect as Moon, the crime-syndicate boss, he's also an actor I also like, and I'd love him and Christophe to do another movie together. Every line is delivered like a punch in the face (ie. "All competition!" "Then don't!").
Special mention to Michael Halsey as Marcus as well. While he's hardly a household name, he holds his own against the more recognisable actors, providing a cool powerful presence, and it makes a change having an Englishman on board (do you know he was in an episode of Fawlty Towers!?)
The rest of the cast does their job well, the two guys who like repeating what the other one's just said are particularly good, I love that conversation where they're working out how much competetion they've taken out up to then ('bad hair guy, staircase guy, screamer' etc.).
The hooker's scenes are probably the least interesting; while I think the actress does an ok job, she's just not hot enough for the role!
The mamba tune really grows on you too, it sure does make you "wanna dance," I really do want to know "where can I get this cd?"
Lastly, I don't want to suggest I totally understand this movie, because I certainly don't, I think it's probably impossible unless you're the guy who wrote the script maybe, but if you haven't seen this movie it's a journey not worth missing, and if you've already seen it, watch it again!
At the time of writing, there's only one vote in the favourite movies poll on the movies page (get in there and vote!), and it's mine. You don't have to think hard to guess which title I voted for! ;)
In fact, recently I decided that Mean Guns is my favourite movie ever.
(if you would like to comment on this review, or submit one of your own, please email me, and I will gladly put it up for you)
Ice T
Michael Halsey
Deborah Van-Valkenburgh
Kimberly Warren
Yuji Okomoto
Thom Matthews
Tina Cote
Albert Pyun
DVD review at digitally obsessed.com
on DVD
Notes: Besides the thrill of finally seeing the uncut version of the movie, there isn't much else that's remarkable about the DVD I'm afraid. Even though it's clear to me the film was filmed in widescreen, we only get a full-screen version here, and the only extra to speak of is the trailer. Oh well, it's good to have it on dvd anyway. It's also available in a 'double feature' with a poorly regarded Ice T flick called 'Corrupt.' (this is the dvd reviewed in the links section above).
