The Adventures of Beatle

First this first: a lot of people are under the impression that Guns For Hire is an action film. It is not. While there is some action sequences in it, it is really a dark comedy, and a fairly witty one at that.

As a small budget indie film the production is very good. Orlando Jones and Tony Shalhoub originally drew me to this title but it was a pleasant surprise to see Sarah Shahi in the cast as well. I have been a fan of hers since I first saw her in Sleeper Cell.

Without giving too much away, the story moves along nicely without too much padding or unnecessary exposition. The dialog does seem a little overwrought at times but the entire cast does an excellent job. There are some very funny lines in this film, mostly delivered by Jeffery Dean Morgan, that make is clear you are watching a very smart, dark comedy.

Athena (played by Ever Carradine) hires Beatle (Michelle Hicks) to kill her. However, Athena is already being stalked by a killer thanks to some dealings in her past. And that is the set up for the rest of the story. Normally I can pretty much tell how a film like this is going to end but I was pleasantly surprised at this ending. The payoff at the end was worth the wait.

The romance between Athena and Beatle develops naturally and does not seemed rushed or shoehorned in like so many other movies out today. I'm sure there will be some that object to any same sex relationships in films but this one does not seem to be gratuitous of there only for shock value.

With some witty dialogue, solid performances, surprising plot twists and just enough action to keep the story moving Guns For Hire deserves a look.

There's an attempt to create a smart exchange of wit and bullets here, although the material lacks the depth for assembly of rogue gallery. Sadly, it doesn't deliver in term of style as well, since it spends too much time portraying the struggle with overreaching extravagance. Furthering the awkward nature is the dubious script which sounds like poor interpretation of Mexican low grade action movies' one liner.

It follows the strange lead female as she's thrown in noir web of assassination and conspiracy, the only consistent part is next subplot will be more ridiculous than before. For most parts, acting is mediocre, the actors can't cover the silliness of it all. Their dialogues are highly surreal, not in preferable over-the-top manner either. At one point, they really appear to be throwing rejected catchphrases from 80s to each other.

The surprising thing is the movie manages to present Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Orlando Jones. However, they can't carry the movie with the material given to them, it's not that one or two decent performances could overcome the campy unrealistic nature anyway. The movie also tries to shoehorn some fanservice, but this just makes the entire scheme more muddled as it tries to produce level of polish it can't afford.

Action department is also subpar. In some other movies like Smokin' Aces or Shoot 'Em Up, they do all sorts of ridiculous stunts, this movie barely has anything resembling high octane choreography. Perhaps, the whole thing is more intended to be a parody, yet the shifting tone is jarring. Not to mention, it's not exactly humorous.

With a mess of awful logic in the plot, shifty acting and lack of solid direction, this one is not a decent hire.

This movie is like a long episode of one of your average 90's tv shows. Maybe Sunset Beach or any of those dussin for a dine shows. It's all sjot in a studio with bad lighting and it's a mystery to me that the movie could gather up any kind of budget. The actors are flat. The one sticking out to me though , is JDM who shows some of the qualities we see in n Negan.

I'll never know whether the story was interesting because I couldn't get past the pacing of the dialog: it's as though the actors were just taking turns saying words aloud, with an interminable beat between each turn.

Obviously a number of the actors and actresses went on to better gigs and enjoy successful careers, but this wasn't fun.

I'll never know whether the story was interesting because I couldn't get past the pacing of the dialog: it's as though the actors were just taking turns saying words aloud, with an interminable beat between each turn.

Obviously a number of the actors and actresses went on to better gigs and enjoy successful careers, but this wasn't fun.

Considering a somewhat acceptable rating of 5.4/10 and how absolutely awful and embarrassment of a movie this is to everyone involved, I can only come to the conclusion that the higher ratings were from either people directly involved or people that were paid to fix the rating (their are legitamite businesses that specialises in that).

I don't know what got somewhat respectable actors like Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Orlando Jones and Tony Shalhoub to appear in this tired crapfest, and based on their performances (which are their worst of their careers by far) I can only suspect that they were dared into making appearances in it or something.

The reason I gave it a 2 instead of a 1 is because I have to be honest, I stopped watching halfway through, there was literally nothing that was remotely interesting. Not even the terribly constructed cheesy lesbian sex-scenes (which starts already by the startcredits of the film) could keep my interest.

Oh yeah the movie was filmed 10 years ago, but no company wanted to release it. Then Jeffrey Dean Morgan got signed on for a role on the biggest TV show on earth THE WALKING DEAD, and what do you know all of a sudden there was interest enough to release it and so it was in the last week of 2015. But he's not the lead for the record and again, truly terrible.