Des belles, des balles et des brutes

Guns, Girls And Gambling is an absolute doozy of a film. The term 'so bad it's good' was invented for slapdash mockeries such as this, and with every stylistic cliché and ridiculous tactic, it owns the moniker vigorously. The filmmakers are obvious disciples of the neo noir crime thriller, as we see countless hard boiled walking stereotypes prance across the screen. Whenever a character shows up, a garish font announces them in writing below, which is crime genre 101. This happens so many goddamn times though, that eventually I felt like I was watching Mel Brooks's attempt at a heist flick. It's silly beyond words, derivative enough to give you the onset of dementia and admirably dumb. But... I still had fun, at least in parts of it. It concerns the theft of a priceless Native American artifact from a tribal casino. The perpetrators? A gang of Elvis impersonators with, let's say, interesting characteristics. There's gay Elvis (Chris Kattan), midget Elvis (Tony Cox), Asian Elvis (Anthony Wong) and Gary Oldman Elvis, played by Gary Oldman who looks like he was dared into taking the role at a frat party. The bumbling Elvises break ranks post heist and the plot thickens, or should I say befuddles, with the arrival of every kooky, sassy assassin and archetype under the sun. Now from what I could make out: Christian Slater plays a dude called John Smith, a 'wrong place at the wrong time' type of guy who is swept up into the intrigue and is in way over head. He's pursued by all kinds of unsavory people, and joined by the girl next door (Heather Roop). There's The Cowboy (a salty Jeff Fahey), a gunslinging hit-man who claims to never miss but literally misses upon firing the first bullet. The Indian (Matthew Willig) is a hulking tomahawk sporting badass. The Chief (Gordon Tootoosis) is the casino owner, muscling in on everyone to get back his artifact. The Sheriff (Dane Cook) is a corrupt lawman out for anything worth a buck. Best of the bunch is a snarling Powers Boothe as The Rancher, a good ol' southern gangster who languishes in a white limo longer than the cast list of this movie, chewing scenery as vigorously as his cigar. There's also a sexy blonde assassin called The Blonde (Helena Mattson) who wanders around quoting Poe right before she blasts people's heads off. Its inane, mind numbing eye candy, with a cast that seems to have been blackmailed into participation. There's even a last minute twist ending that seems to have wandered in from a much more serious film. It's quite literally one of the most stupefyingly odd flicks I've ever seen. It's earnestness in aping countless Pulp Fiction style films before it is beyond amusing, and the only thing that will make you laugh harder is how spectacularly and epically it flounders. It's truly B movie gold, and one that demands a watch simply because it's a sideshow unto itself.

I think this movie is being unfairly judged by some of the previous reviewers. Yes, as previously stated, it does has Tarantino and Rodrigues overtones but I think that was the idea. Winnick was undoubtedly using the formulas that made both of those Directors/Writers/Actors famous.

Unlike some other reviewers, I liked the movie. The Blonde was right in line with someone that Tarantino would have crafted to include the over the top duel automatics protruding from the hips above her rear. I don't know how she managed to slink around in broad daylight with such devices in plain sight but hey, this is a movie, right? Who can resist watching a flick with Gary Oldman? If you've ever seen The Professional or The Fifth Element, as well as other great performances, Oldman is a classic actor of the highest calibre. Bizarre, yes but still classic.

Powers Booth has had varying success during his career and his appearance in this piece was similar to that in Extreme Prejudice. There is little doubt of his ability if you've ever seen The Jim Jones story about the Jonestown mass suicide in Guyana. As usual he presented a magnetic being that you love to hate.

I think if the movie had the name Tarantino or Rodrigues affixed to it, you would see higher ratings but alas, it may take this director time to reach the pinnacle of success claimed by Quinten and Robert.

GGG is a nice little movie that keeps you entertained throughout. Michael Winnick manages to keep the cadence really steady, so if you like the first ten minutes you'll probably like the whole thing. This is actually a great accomplishment as too many movies starting with a similar vibe get goofy and boring after a while.

Plot- and character-wise Winnick uses many stereotypes, the ingredients of GGG are very familiar. But the overall result looks fresh and new, so there's nothing wrong with that.

The hypocritical prejudices against the use of stereotypes are a main source of GGG's humor. If you can't laugh about people with prejudices complaining about the different prejudices of others, you should skip this movie.

The two movies GGG really reminds me of are "Lucky Number Slevin" and "Snatch". Both have a rating of 8. That sounds a bit high for "a nice little movie", but GGG's current rating is 3.7 and that's just embarrassing. So 8 it is.

First of all, I must admit that my expectations to this movie was not at the higher end of the scale. However, it turned out that director and director Michael Winnick managed to pull off quite a surprisingly nice movie, and an entertaining movie at that too.

I was initially interested in watching the movie because of the cast, which included Gary Oldman, although in a minor role only, unfortunately. But it also had Christian Slater in the lead role, and he actually carried his weight quite nicely.

The storyline was quite interesting, as it was fast paced, had a really solid script, and the storyline was really unpredictable. And most of the times, the twists and turns that the story took just makes you go "what just happened?" And it worked out so well in favor for the movie.

Writer Michael Winnick has also managed to create some very good, witty and interesting dialogue for the characters in the movie. And that really helped the movie to stay fresh and interesting, if that is an appropriate term for such. Lots of great chatter and banter back and forth between the various characters.

And then, of course, there was the acting. As I stated earlier on, they had a great cast ensemble whom did really good jobs with their given roles and characters. And this was true from both the lead and supporting cast.

"Guns, Girls and Gambling" was a genuinely entertaining movie that really turned out to be a nice surprise. If you haven't already seen the movie, then I can warmly recommend that you take the time to sit down to do so.

While there is a pervasive sense of fun with tongue firmly in cheek, this movie is ultimately too derivative to be that memorable. Most of all, it's just lazy. Most of the characters, if you can really call them that, don't even have names. The writer(s) also must have thought they were being really clever by having movie clichés and racial stereotypes blatantly pointed out, yet they use them like they were going out of style (see what I did there...). The bare thread of a plot is about a bunch of people who are after a priceless Apache/Hopi warrior mask that was stolen from an Indian/Native American casino. Some of those colorful caricatures include four different Elvis impersonators, a rancher, a cowboy, a college student, two sheriffs a lesbian prostitute and a blonde assassin who wears black and has a penchant for quoting Edgar Allan Poe. And that, my friends, is as far as the character development goes. What's worse is that the movie is clearly trying to ape Tarantino and Rodriguez, but it does it really badly. Still there are a few moments you'll laugh at, and the movie is mercifully short. It also has a pretty good soundtrack. Overall, if you're looking for some time to kill it's not too bad. Just don't go in expecting a good movie.