A Tale of Two Guns

Poor make-up, poor sound quality, poor Foley artistry. The sound effects were inconsistent, the make up was like cheap Halloween make-up, and the sound was all over the place. I've seen worse, but it's been a while. I'm guessing the budget was really low or poorly spent.

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.

Didn't go into this movie with any expectations as I was just planning on passing a couple of hours.

Unfortunately it was a poorly made, poorly acted, poorly written effort.

A lot of hammy acting and long winded monologues at key moments. The first gunfight looked like something you'd see in a school play and things didn't get any better after that.

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?

Parts of this movie were enjoyable, and the ending was quite nice, however, getting to the ending takes a bit of effort.

Since I love the old style dramatic Westerns,,CGI and special effects I can do without, but "sloppy" wardrobe is something that doesn't cost a lot to do well. There were no pre-printed paisley bandanas back then. The real ones were probably solid color rags from this or that. These (which literally EVERYONE wore) looked like they had just come off the shelf from Walmart. At least they could have washed & dried them (and the brand new cargo pants with the buckle in the back and all the "brand spanking new" vests and crisp shirts) No ironing, and leave them out in a dust storm a bit, especially the hats! This wardrobe GLARINGLY said "Fake".

Some very poor acting and writing, Jeff Fahey and Danny Trejo almost stole the whole movie with one scene.

Nice to see Tom Berringer looking and acting so well in his '70's - Wow.

Barely watchable. However, it had a pretty good "feel good" kind of ending.