Gun

this is without doubt the biggest pile of crap i have ever seen. i bought this on DVD on the strength of it being produced by Robert altman and starring such an impressive bunch of actors.i figured it much at the very least be watchable. but i was wrong, the writing was the biggest insult to my intelligence but the direction and even the acting were just as laughable. how anyone can say this series was innovative escapes me. there is no explanation of how the gun ends up in its different locations and with no obvious passage of time to allow the viewer to perhaps fill in the blanks. add to that the ridiculous plot of each story and this entire series was nothing but frustrating. using the dvds for coasters would be too good for this abomination.

This film contains two almost totally unrelated vignettes connected by a common gun. A terrorist is apprehended in an airport, but before he is caught, he throws away a handgun that was previously used in an assassination. After he is released, he obsessively seeks out the gun, which has by now been found and sold to Walter (James Gandolfini), a security guard who takes it home to his wife (Rosanna Arquette) to protect herself when he is on the night shift. After various events (which I will refrain from spoiling), the gun ends up in a pawnshop. From there, it finds its way to the next vignette.

It next belongs to the president of a country club in the Deep South. When he is bitten by a rattlesnake while on the golf course and dies, the gun is lost in the tall grass. The new president (Randy Quaid) is a philanderer who is fooling around with numerous women (Jennifer Tilly, Sean Young, Sally Kellerman, et al). His wife (Daryl Hannah) seems oblivious to all this and contents herself by cooking the favorite recipes of dead presidents. Suddenly, pieces of the gun are being received in packages addressed to all the president's lovers leading to his wife's discovery of his indicretions.

The first story is a well-crafted drama that draws the viewer in with two storylines, one following the terrorist and the other following Walter's wife Lily. The second vignette is a short story by Robert Altman, which is an imbecilic farce. It is not clear how these two short films were pasted together. I can only guess that the first story was not commercially viable due to its short length.

The acting in the first vignette was excellent. Gandolfini does his NYC working class shtick to perfection, strutting his corpulent Italian stuff around the set like a bloated stallion. Rosanna Arquette is equally good, playing the bored NYC housewife to the hilt and delivering a surprisingly accurate performance including an excellent New York accent.

The second vignette had a good deal of recognizable talent, but nothing even remotely intelligent for them to say or do. The dialogue and story were so bad that it is hard to understand why these veteran actors would want to be associated with the project. Maybe Altman had some kind of damaging evidence against them. To their credit, Randy Quaid and Jennifer Tilly made the best of a bad situation and delivered a couple of comical moments amid the mindlessness.

In rating this film, I had to split the rating in two. The drama I rated an 8/10 and the comedy a 2/10. Therefore, the average would be a 5/10. It is worth seeing the first one, but if you dare to continue, turn off your VCR/DVD and drink a six-pack. That is the only way second vignette is tolerable.

The common feature of anthology films (or series) being uneven is taken to the extreme in this series. Only the Altman segment can be recommended without reservation. Moreover, the three more dramatic segments are not very good. I think the main problem is while the direction, acting is solid throughout the series the writing is often subpar. Sadwith was the other main creative force behind this series and there is a reason his career is far smaller than Altman's; Sadwith was the main writer and it really shows. The writing is very procedural and a bit too self-serious. However, if you are a Altman fan-he is my favorite director-this is worth checking out or owning if cheap enough. Each film in the series has Altman touches and ideas; it is understandable why Altman was attracted to this set of stories. Furthermore, All the President's Women-the Altman directed film- is a really good hour of TV.

I must also note that it is annoying that you can link the gun's path through like 3 of the films *without* being to fit the other 3 in the gun's lifespan. This sort of writing gimmick you either do or you don't-going halfway is the worst of all possible worlds.

This series is currently being rerun on the Trio network as part of their "Brilliant, but Cancelled" theme. I have no idea on what planet this series is considered "brilliant", but it was most definitely "cancelled". They are running a show on this theme, plus their show "Perfect Pitch" which attempts to describe the best way to pitch a new series and have it be made into a pilot. I'm guessing that "Gun" connects to this theme in that it had the perfect pitch -- "It's 'Twilight Zone' meets 'The Outer Limits' -- but wait, they are all linked by the same gun!" I've seen this theme so many times, most notably in that movie (whose name escapes me) where they follow the same twenty dollar bill around to different owners. The links to that twenty dollar bill were much more plausible than the links to this gun. I would only recommend watching this show if a) you are bored or b) you happen to like one of the guest stars, of which there are plenty. The episode with Kirsten Dunst and Carrie Fisher was my favorite, but I probably could have found better use of an hour of my time.

I found the anthology rather interesting. I noticed on the cast listing for Ricohet, Episode 5 on the Tango Entertainment, Inc. release there was a query whether Kris Park aka Christopher Elsewhere was in any episode. He looked to me that he might be one of two people. He is either the one who steals the gun or is the one running from the place where Super Lotto tickets are sold and a having a gun fly from his hand as he is shot. I did notice the same handgun in two places. In the person's waistband before his partner that is driving the car backs away from the store on noticing the detectives and later when the gent runs out of the store. Are they the same person?