Gunmen - B Grade Excellence

i was browsing around a CD & DVD store when i stumbled upon a somewhat forgotten gem from my earlier years, Gunmen. i saw it at the time (early 90's, i think) as it had my beloved Denis Leary in it. Mario Van Peebles and Christopher Lambert are the main stars, and it also features a, at the time, relatively obscure Patrick Stewart.

i am not going to even pretend to not have spoilers here, as the thing is ludicrously straightforward and surprise-free. the plot, granted with more potholes than your average Johannesburg highway, revolves around Patrick Stewart's $400 million of illegal money being on a boat somewhere in the world, with only the joint knowledge of Mr Van Peebles and Mr Lambert being put together providing the answer of exactly where in the world it is.

needless to say, as keen as Mr Lambert and Mr Van Peebles are to get the cash, Mr Stewart kind of wants it back, and thus despatches the mental, insane Mr Denis Leary to go and fetch them and the money.

Mr Lambert and Mr Van Peebles do not like each other, which does not help their quest. shooting each other in the leg so that one of them does not run away is a nice touch, and the bullet wound is not so severe that it stops them doing ace roundhouse kicks on people, nor does having a bullet wound in the leg stop either of them swimming. gravity and all we know of how the human body reacts to damage is pretty much thrown out of the window as the two of them throw themselves out of helicopters and planes on a regular basis, now that i think about it.

the star of the show for me, predictably, is Denis Leary. a very bad bad guy he is, full of ace one-liners that could have come straight from any of his one man shows rather than the script for the film, should Gunmen have actually had any sort of script. Mr Leary's final scene in the film is one of the all time greats too, sort of.....

a very silly, predictable slap-people-about film if you wish, but one that is rather good fun and hard to switch off (Michele was heading off to bed when i put it in the DVD, yet she stayed awake for it all). if you are lucky enough to find this on tape or disc, or if it happens to crop up on late night TV wherever you are in the world, you can do a lot worse than watch it!!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!