A Tale of Two Guns

I had the opportunity to sit down and watch the 2022 Western movie "A Tale of Two Guns" from writer and director Justin Lee here in 2022. And seeing that there were indeed a handful of good actors on the cast list, of course I sat down to watch it.

However, it was obvious pretty early on in the movie that this was not really a top notch production. How so? Well, from the very first gun fight, which actually starts off the movie, you have a feeling of it being an amateurish production actually, especially in terms of cinematography and the sounds. I've never sat through a movie with guns of any kind where the gunshots sounded so pathetic as they did in "A Tale of Two Guns".

The storyline in "A Tale of Two Guns" was actually fair enough. It wasn't the most riveting and compelling of storylines, but it was sufficient enough for a single viewing.

The movie does have a good cast ensemble, with the likes of Tom Berenger, Casper Van Dien, Ed Morrone, Judd Nelson, Jeff Fahey, Griff Furst, Jake Busey and Danny Trejo among those listed. However, most of these were just in the movie for a moment or two. And the audience are treated to Casper Van Dien and Ed Morrone for the majority of the movie.

I don't understand why they opted to show the gunfight scenes in slow motion. It didn't really add any excitement to the scenes. If anything, it just served as a nuissance, especially when laced with those god awful pathetic sounds for the guns.

All in all, "A Tale of Two Guns" was watchable for a single viewing, and that was about it. This was by no means a milestone in the Western genre. Nor is it a movie that brought anything new to the genre.

My rating of writer and director Justin Lee's 2022 Western "A Tale of Two Guns" lands on a four out of ten stars.

The production is terrible. The sound is so bad.... The gun shots sound really fake like muffled cannons, all the background sound is laughable, with extra wind noise, muffled sound one minute, one minute nothing at all. I'm not sure the horses moving ever sounds right. The story is good, and Tom Berenger is ok. Everything else is just bad.... Characters even die in funny ways.

I watched this Western while suffering from pseudo-COVID (y'know, you have all the symptoms but the tests show negative), so the oddly muted gunfire sounds were kind on my headache-infested skull. As some of the action scenes were also in slo-mo, I linked the softened bullet noises to the filmmakers attempting to imitate life going slower and softer in a stress situation. May be wrong, just my take.

Some dialogue was good, some was flowery, and some just superfluous. Quite liked any dialogue from the stoic Gunslinger, Artemis Hollinger (Ed Morrone). Direct, judicial use of words that offered just the right level of explanation. I found the costumes and make-up jarring for people living in a hot dust bowl. No sweat-stained shirts, dust and horse hair matted pants, hats that have seen better days or limp, discoloured bandanas. It was all stiff spotless shirts and dresses, shiny hats, whitest of white aprons and patterned vests and bandanas. Repeat shots of perfect American white chompers, women sporting contemporary eyeshadow, and lots of clean styled head and facial hair conspired to crack the illusion I was watching a Western set in the US Civil War era.

Mainly watched to see Tom Berenger again, who can forget his iconic portrayal of Sgt. Barnes in Platoon?

If you like westerns and Jake Busey (big fan and it's criminal he's not in more) then you'll accept this film and watch it.

Action wasn't that good for a western but it wasn't the worst.

I enjoyed this film for what it was and I would recommend it only to big western fans.

7/10 - 7 because of the cast.

Ed Morrone plays Artemis Hollinger, an uncorruptible and determined law enforcer hired by the legendary Marshall Terrance McTeague (Tom Berenger) to chase the cold-blood killer Abel Cruz (Casper Van Dien) in a classic "good vs. Evil" manhunt.

The mediocre sound quality of the film, the poor acting of some secondary characters, the discrepancies in timing between a bullet impact and the physical reaction of the bodies being shot at (which are in fact highlighted by slow-mo takes) are all strong reminders that this is a low budget movie.

But, if we manage to put that aside, we´re left with a nice story which reminds us that the world doesn´t always fall into the clear-cut, black-and-white model that we´d want it to fit most of the time for the sake of our peace of mind.

Chivalry, honour and ethics strugle to find a share at a place and time where those qualities maybe were rather unusual.

Despite the feeble general production of the movie, director and writer Justin Lee succesfully achieves the task of delivering a story that is worth to be told.

BTW, there is a cute redeeming post-credit scene that somehow enhances the plot twist that the whole movie ends up revolving around. Make sure you don´t miss it.