Men with Guns

Men With Guns opens with two twenty-something guys sitting around discussing the times in their life when they were humiliated. Gregory Sporleder, Lucas, relates the time when he was forced to hold a guys coat every gym class or risk getting beaten up. Donal Logue, as Eddie, listens intensely, "I thought that was your coat... why didn't you tell me? Ah man, I got your back! You know that!"

This powerful opening stands out more than anything else that happens in this film. It concerns two friends, Eddie and Lucas, who go out to a farm to retrieve some money for a local club owner. When they arrive, they are brutally attacked by a group of thugs.

The incident doesn't sit well with Eddie and Lucas. They decide to put a scare into the men who attacked them. They manage to recruit one of their friends, Mamet, played by Callum Keith Rennie. Mamet is a well meaning sort but his mind-set appears suspended somewhere out above the clouds.

The revenge plan goes horribly awry. Eddie and Lucas find themselves sitting in a room with three corpses and a whole lot of money and cocaine. At this point the film seems to get lost. It really doesn't know what to do or where to go. We watch as our three simpleton heroes party away the cocaine and money.

A problem arises when it becomes evident that the cocaine and money actually belong to a local mob boss played by Paul Sorvino. Sorvino and his laughable cronies begin a man-hunt for the three.

Without trying to give anything away, the film becomes a little tedious and manages to immerse itself in a bloodbath. A needless one.

Where the film gets lost in its story it finds solace in its actors and characters. Callum Keith Rennie, a truly amazing Canadian actor, offers a haunting performance as a man whose subtle eccentricities begin to give light to his absolute insanity. Also watch for Easy Gary played by Max Perlich. His character is one of the most interesting that I've seen in a film in a long time.

Donal Logue ('Gotham') and Gregory Sporleder ("The Rock") are Eddie and Richard, two small-time hustlers and good friends who are tired of being humiliated in life. Yet it happens again when they fall prey to a trap. They then arm themselves and go back looking for some revenge. But they get in over their heads when they also snatch up some cocaine belonging to mob boss Horace Burke (Paul Sorvino, "GoodFellas").

Despite the familiarity of the scenario and the plot (by Australian actor / writer Lachy Hulme ("The Matrix Revolutions")), Canadian director Kari Skogland ('The Falcon and the Winter Soldier'), injects it with enough vitality and hard-hitting violence to make it watchable enough. (And yet, despite all the gunfire throughout, the film is not as gory as one might expect.). It also helps that this does have a highly capable cast, also including Callum Keith Rennie ('Californication') as the sad-eyed Mamet, Max Perlich ("Drugstore Cowboy") as the gun runner, and Joseph Griffin ('Ready or Not') as Burkes' thuggish son. Admittedly, Sorvino could play his kind of role in his sleep by this point, but he's solid as always, and does manage to play Burke with some light-hearted humor. Rennie is definitely the standout. Janet Kidder ("Bride of Chucky") makes her feature film debut here in the small role of Crystal; in real life she's the niece of the late Margot Kidder.

The effective opening does nicely set up the characters of Eddie and Richard immediately, and it does rate as more interesting than the balance of the story. But overall, this is a decent example of violent crime fiction, provided that the prospective viewer can handle a LOT of profanity. The heartfelt friendship between Eddie and Richard does give this little film some poignancy.

Co-executive produced by Antony I. Ginnane, the Australian genre veteran whom fans of "Ozploitation" have referred to as the "Roger Corman of Australia".

Six out of 10.

The basic plotline could apply to hundreds of movies: a couple of regular guys get mixed up in the world of drug dealers and guns, to their peril. There are only so many twists and turns a screenwriter or director can throw into such a story, so this isn't exactly the kind of film that will change the world. But the performances are excellent (especially Callum Keith Rennie, playing the sad, sweet, tragic mental case so well you can practically see the thoughts in his sleepy eyes), the script and art direction are just fine, and the overall level of suspense is perfect. The viewer will know his own tolerance for violence and profanity--there's quite a bit of both, but not so much that I found them distracting. Plenty of shots are fired, but no one is turned into bullet hamburger like you see in some movies. All in all, a good entry in the B-movie shoot-em-up crime genre, and especially watch out for CKR.