Gunshy

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.

Very well done film noir set in present-day Atlantic City, which uses the rather depressing boardwalk locations (off-season) to good effect. The story is rather twice-told but the direction and acting are solid, particularly in the case of William Petersen, Michael Wincott, and Eric Schaeffer.

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 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.

The only reason I watched this film was I'd read Michael Wincott had a leading role in it. Wincott is a superb character actor and always delivers in his villainous roles, proving the devil really does have the best tunes. This is another villain, on the surface, a brutal enforcer for the Irish mob in Atlantic city but Wincott, gives us something else as well, a sweetness and vulnerability that makes a interesting paradox for this type of movie and character. The other leads are filled out by the always watchable Diane Lane and William Petersen, whom, with Wincott form the menage a trois at the heart of the story. Director Jeff Celentano has also assembled an intriguing supporting cast of name actors; R Lee Ermey (Wasted in a bit part right at the beginning of the film), Michael Byrne, who is chillingly sinister despite the broadest Irish accent heard on cellulloid, Meat Loaf in a cameo that kickstarts the plot and Kevin Gage (Best known as Waingro in Heat) as an intense detective involved in a plot twist that comes out of leftfield and sort of works. So far, so good but where the film falls down, is a sometimes woeful script that at times makes you want to laugh in disbelief, the most ridiculous moment being Petersen singing "What shall we do with the drunken sailor", at length, whilst waiting as the getaway driver during a heist! Petersen was yet to star in C.S.I but had already been a very capable leading man in the likes of Michael Mann's "Manhunter" amongst others. Here, he is one note and irritating for much of the film, though he does improve, and it is hard to see why Lane's character would fall for him over the more charismatic Wincott. The plot, too seems somewhat contrived in bringing together Petersen and Wincott as friends but somehow the whole is better than the sum of it's parts. Once Wincott enters it is an engaging though flawed piece with good action sequences. With more care in the scripting this could have been a really good film but as it is, well worth a watch.