the audience applauded

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

GUTSHOT STRAIGHT is a basic, slightly weird noir-thriller that was seemingly cast at random. The eclectic team of stars populating this one is its most unique asset, while everything else is predictable and firmly in the B-grade of cinematic standing. It's good for a lazy evening's repast, but it's got no hope of becoming anyone's new favorite.The story: A hapless gambler (George Eads) is drawn into a vicious setup that places his life at risk.In addition to Eads, the ensemble includes AnnaLynne McCord as the femme fatale, Stephen Lang and Ted Irvine as creepy weirdos, Steven Seagal as a mob boss and Vinnie Jones as his enforcer, and Tia Carrere in a three-minute role as a club lady. Despite most of the cast's affiliation with the action genre, there is very little action here, but at the best of times, there's a decent amount of intrigue. Essentially, the plot boils down to a slain millionaire and a case of blackmail, and when the film kicks into gear, the angst experienced by the Eads character is palpable and compelling. Disappointingly, suspense collapses in the form of Seagal's character, who's essentially written as a panacea to the lead character's problems and wrests an unconvincing happy end for the star.Even before then, the film has trouble maintaining its level of suspense. Giving every impression of trying to stretch their screenplay to meet a required runtime, the filmmakers resort to several time-killing scenes – sometimes it's a forced interaction between characters, and other times it's simply Eads walking around aimlessly. Speaking of which, it doesn't help the movie that the Eads character is a thoroughly unlikable and uninteresting jerk. Most of the other major characters are at least mildly interesting, but whatever time Eads doesn't spend directly imperiled is spent being a cad and a loser. The times that the film does get interesting are due to the hard work of the story, not of the protagonist.Among all of the performers whose name got drawn out of a hat to be in here, Seagal is the most curious. It's almost as though his scenes were filmed for another movie, given the abrupt change of tone the film undergoes as soon as he shows up, playing the mafioso persona he's cultivated for the last several years. I almost wish that Seagal were the main character, because even if this didn't actually improve the quality of the film, it at least would have made it shorter. As is, it feels overlong at 85 minutes, and I cannot recommend it to anyone but George Eads die-hards.

I didn't know what to expect with this movie. Maybe having little expectation is why I liked it.First of all it had a pretty good variety of good/known actors. Stephen Lang (Sargent guy from Avatar), Ted Levine (The Silence of the Lambs), even Tia Carrere and Steven Seagal have an appearance.Although the hat was a little silly. Really who wears a hat like that these days? I know, I suppose it was to add character.Not fantastic, but not that bad either. Definitely a notch above the average at least.With out giving anything away, the film had a nice dark film noir feel to it. This movie might be sort of a sleeper, I bet it will gain popularity in a few years..It might not have many reviews, and, a lot of them might not be great but I'd recommend it to anyhow who likes noir/mystery/dark style!

This nonsensical and bizarre noir initially offers some intrigue as to where exactly this dark tale is going. However, to me, it just seemed to get more and more convoluted and ridiculous as it progressed.Set in Las Vegas, George Eads gives a solid performance here as Jack, a wise-cracking poker playing chump, who always seems to be dodging or getting beaten up by his creditors. One night, he's approached in the casino by a wealthy smarmy gambler, named Duffy (Stephen Lang), who offers Jack a chance to make some big bucks, but won't reveal to him the details.When Jack gets desperate enough for cash, he takes Duffy up on his offer and goes to his mansion. Jack soon finds out the deal is for him to have sex with Duffy's sultry wife May (AnnaLynne McCord), while Duffy observes and Jack will receive $20,000.Of course, you know that things are not going to go smoothly and Jack will get himself deeper and deeper in a web of deceit and death. When Duffy's brother Lewis arrives on the scene, even more mayhem and murder will follow.As so often happens in these types of films, Steven Seagal's name will be used for advertising but his screen time is limited in a supporting role. Why Tia Carrere agreed to play a ridiculous cameo role of a strip club drinks hustler is beyond me.All in all, I found Eads performance here good, but after an initial interest into where this was going, I just found this noir to eventually turn into just a muddled mess of a movie.

"If you want to live, if you want those you care about to live, you will do this." Jack (Eads) is a poker player who is on a losing streak, and not just with the cards. When a chance meeting with a high roller gives Jack the opportunity to make some serious money he decides to take him up on his offer. When he is offered $20,000 to do something he doesn't want to do an argument happens and things go horribly wrong. Now that his life is in danger he is offered a way out. Jack must now decide what is more important to him. After watching so many of these cheesy action movies I was expecting yet another drawn out movie that could have been done in 20 min but drug out for 90. I have to say much like the recent movie Throwdown I was really surprised at how much I liked this. The movie is really nothing new but for some reason it drew me and I kept me interested the entire time. Overall, nothing amazing but this was very entertaining and I liked it much more than I expected. I surprisingly give this a B-.