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William Petersen plays Jake, a down-on-his luck writer who has lost his muse and crawled into a bottle. One night, he drunkenly takes on an obnoxious bar tough, Lew (played by Meat Loaf), who takes him outside and begins to hand him a serious beating. The beating is interrupted by a low-level Irish mob enforcer, Frankie (Wincott), who had an appointment with Lew for a collection. Frankie puts a hurting on Lew and takes Jake home where Frankie's girlfriend, Melissa (Diane Lane), who happens to be a nurse, provides medical attention for Jake.

Though Jake is obnoxiously resistant at first, Frankie wants to be his friend and help him out of the hole he's dug himself into. In exchange, Frankie wants Jake to help him become more educated and erudite.

While this could turn into a sappy story on the level of Danny DeVito in Renaissance Man, instead it's a cool, dark tale of conflicting loyalties and desires with a little redemption thrown in to boot. Well acted and with solid dialogue, the film has a few cliche moments, but they are ultimately forgivable in the end.

Nothing not to love about this movie. Everything, acting, soundtrack and plot of Gunshy is a treasure, especially to those of us who grew up on loving film noir. The tough guy Frankie (Michael Wincott) is wonderful! He is tough as nails with a heart of gold. He feels the need to rescue people in return for someone who had helped him in his past, and feels the need to grow intellectually for the woman he loves, another he has rescued. He feels the need for a tutor to educate him. Enter Jake (William Petersen) a has-been writer who lives in a whiskey bottle in the underbelly of Atlantic City. Jake has lost his job and catches his lover with another man. He tells her he knows a place where a loser like him will fit right in.. So he checks in to a seedy hotel in Atlantic City. He becomes so down and out he becomes self-destructive, picking a fight in a bar and getting his butt kicked. Frankie sees something in him worth using and saving. This is movie-lovers TREASURE!

This movie was good overall with great cinematography and the the special effects were well done. The actors did a great job in their roles despite a script that could have been better written as it had some unbelievable scenes.

This is a fairly average movie about a writer wasting his life, and writing skills away on alcohol. Well, not actually wasting; It's just that he has lost his inspiration to write, and drinking seems to give some sence to his life. Then he bumps into Frankie, a poor man working for a gangster who Frankie claims he owes his life to. Frankie is very violent, and while not kills, he always gets the job done. The writer on the other hand is fairly well off on his own world, because he hasn't known of any other world for quite some time. Untill of course the day that brains (the writer) meet fists (Frankie) and this is where the core behind the whole plot of the movie lies. As a little extra, Frankies girlfriend, loves both men, and soon has to choose between the two very different two men.

The main character, and Frankies girlfriend, play fairly average, but Micheal Wincott as Frankie really surprises me. His acting is awesome, his furious expression from The Crow in the fight scenes, from the new innocent look when listening to Jake Bridges (the writer) read Moby Dick out loud to him. I never saw him in any serious movie, so this role he truly deserved.

The movie has a lot going for it because of the unexpected ending, and Micheal Wincott. The movie also has some quite good scenes which deserve some audience from other directors. Brill. See this movie.

Okay, it's one of the oldest plot lines in the gangster film genre, but if done well, the "man infiltrates vicious gang and finds himself loyal to the friend who got him in.". The cast is good, William Peterson has the downtrodden man character down pat these days, Diane Lane is serviceable, but the real surprises come by the way of Micheal Wincott finally playing a sympathetic almost good-guy, and Eric Schaeffer for the first time in his life not being annoying on screen as the creepy hitman. Good dialogue, an abscence of bad acting, and dark look that hides its low budget origins. Definitely worth picking up from the video shop.