My New Gun

This movie interested me since I first heard of it, which was a Siskel & Ebert review. Until Gerald Bender has to go to the hospital, the movie is really interesting. But after that point, not so much. It was still very watchable, indeed, but somehow the edge wasn't all there. The Stephen Collins character, I think, is what keeps the movie going. But when Diane Lane is now the lead, the movie is a bit slow. As for Skippy (played by James LeGros), this character is too subtle. The reasons for wanting his neighbors' gun are never clear. Is he secretly a murderer? Is he protecting somebody? As to whether this is something you're easily supposed to figure out, I have no idea. And as the movie gets closer to the end, it starts to make a lot less sense. And as for the ending (without spoiling too much), there is a gun involved, but what is the point of this scene? And I don't think the movie ends. It just stops.

**1/2 out of ****

I LUV the pacing of this film - it just sails along completely untroubled by the constant irony - all the actors play off of each other with perfect timing and reaction - Diane Lane. Playing the central character, plays a young housewife consistently at a total loss but forging on nonetheless, Stephen Collins is, as always, solidly in role as the witless husband, and James Le Gros as the "Skippy" character is a bemusingly understated suburbia Rebel Without a Clue.

Director/Writer Stacy Cochran is in full control of the film - unusual for a Director/Auteur - and keeps the overall look, feel, timing, and timing of the whole thing in beautiful sync.

Favorite line: Diane Lane in marvelously modulated deadpan: "You're a fishy guy, aren't you Skippy."

Catch this one if you can, it's fun and a little camp, and lot of professional work and performances that are a pleasure to watch proceed through the narrative.

This movie is quirky and will not appeal to most people. It's does not contain much in the way of action, there are no special FX, and the plot is down to earth. The film is also mistakenly billed as a comedy and this tends to throw people expecting funny hah hah as in Meet the Parents. This is a subtle black comedy. It's more funny in the same vein as After Hours. In fact anyone that liked After Hours a lot will probably like this too.

There are 2 central characters in the story. Diane Lane plays Debbie Bender a sexy youngish woman married to a stuffy slightly older doctor. I use the term youngish because her character appears to be in that strange zone that is the twilight of youth. Her husband although only slightly older has fully completed to transition to adulthood, is very materialistic, does not respect or acknowledge his wife's intelligence and views her as some sort of a possession / servant.

Jame LeGros plays Skippy a neighbour whos a sort of mid 20s James Dean crossed with Peter Pan type character slightly younger than Debbie... but not much. He's also rebellious - the aging neighbourghood bad boy stuck in a menial job and and still living with his mother obstensibly because he's too broke to get a place of his own but secretly because he has to look after her. Amusingly the Benders both perceive themselves to be much older than Skippy and treat him like the a neighbourhood kid, although deep down you can tell that Debbie perhaps identifies more with Skippy than her husband...

There's a hugely surreal aspect to the film although not as blatant as say Twin Peaks, this is presented is a voyueristic way letting you catch various characters with their guard down and seeing how they behave when they think nobody is watching.

The best part of the film is the sexual tension between Debbie and Skippy as they become thrown together by their vaguely and intentionally hum-drum adventure.

If you like films about the more interesting an amusing parts of real life while exposing some of the quirkier aspects of the human condition and with a crackling of sexual tension then you need to get hold of this.

Great soundtrack too!

One of the weirdest comedies I've seen yet. I didn't think it was funny or even particularly interesting, and at times it played much like a drama. The acting was fine, I merely feel the writer was smoking banana peels during the project's creation.

I watched this movie and found it to be extremely disappointing. There were one or two slightly humorous scenes, the plot was very slight. The story revolved around what happened when Diane Lane's character & her husband when they buy a new gun and cross path's with their neighbour "Skippy". I kept waiting for something interesting to happen but it just didn't. The acting was decent enough but the pace of the movie was very slow & uninteresting. The character of Lane's husband played by Stephen Collins was extremely annoying. I also saw Happiness which was mentioned in one of the reviews of this movie, I was disgusted with it and did'nt find it to my taste at all.

I personally thought this one one of Diane Lane's worst movies. 3/10