the leading man is my tpye

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

The success of Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction spawned a whole wave of gritty copycat thrillers that revolved around unsavoury characters doing bad things to each other. The Way of The Gun is one such film, featuring two reprehensible criminal drifters— Mr. Parker (Ryan Phillippe) and Mr. Longbaugh (Benicio Del Toro)—who kidnap and hold to ransom Robin (Juliette Lewis), the heavily pregnant surrogate mother of a Mafia money launderer, who shows his displeasure by sending out his toughest men to bring her back.Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who also wrote the over-rated The Usual Suspects, the film struggles to match the hip sense of style or sharpness of dialogue of either of Tarantino's aforementioned films, despite the best efforts of a cool cast that includes Taye Diggs, James Caan, and Juliette's old man, Geoffrey Lewis. McQuarrie does at least manage to end his film with a suitably ballistic scene that lives up to the title: a well executed and very bloody Peckinpah style gun battle that leaves a pile of corpses in its wake.

On the surface "The Way of the Gun" (2000) looks like a good, offbeat flick. It was written & directed by a proved writer and features a quality cast. In addition, the film is touted as a "modern Western" with two protagonists (term used loosely) patterned after Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (their names in the film were the last names of Butch & Sundance).THE PLOT: Two low-life criminals kidnap a pregnant surrogate of a rich couple who, unknowingly, has ties to the mob.The film starts out as a comedy with cussing every other word and then morphs into a serious crime thriller-drama. The score is likably offbeat.Two problems hold the film back: (1.) A plot that becomes ridiculously convoluted and therefore increasingly unbelievable, and (2.) unlikable characters, except for maybe the surrogate. Concerning the second fault, I understand the concept of antiheroes, but even antiheroes have to have some redeemable or universally human qualities to make the audience root for them or care about them. Wolverine and Clint Eastwood's Western characters, like Josey Wales, are good examples, as are the antiheroes in films like "Runaway Train" and "Apocalypse Now," two cinematic masterpieces. These two problems naturally create disinterest. By the 90 minute mark, with only a half hour to go, I couldn't care less about the characters, their story or how it turned out, even though I really tried.To the film's credit, it has style and surprising glimpses of depth, but the absurdly convoluted screenplay and unlikable characters sink "The Way of the Gun." The film was shot in Utah.GRADE: C-

"The Usual Suspects": brilliant, innovative, Oscar-winning screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie, creative low-budget directing from Bryan Singer, giving the film a visual flair and some overall superbly directed action scenes."The Way of the Gun": screenplay by and directed by McQuarrie himself. I thought: "this should at least be interesting? Del Toro is in it?" Yeah, let's watch that.The opening scene is, in my mind, a classic. It shouldn't be spoiled by trailers of people, so I'm not going to.Then the opening credits follow. They introduce us to the awe- inspiring score by Joe Kraemer, who's been composing for movies that are insulting to his dramatic abilities as a composer. The score, at that's no-one but the director's fault, practically saves a big chuck of the movie.The movie starts dragging before you realize it. But it's okay, at first, because of some truly brilliant, "it's-like-Mamet-had-sex-with-Tarantino"-"pieces of dialog writing."There's always free cheese in a mousetrap.""Karma's justice without the satisfaction. I don't believe in justice."And, my personal favorite:"The only thing you can guess about a broken down old man... is that he is a survivor." Wonderful performance by James Caan.Then you have two secondary characters (of which there are way too many in this film): Taye Diggs & White-Mexican guy. White-Mecixan Guy is the serious one. (always bad if you remember the name of the actor and not the character - no one says "Brad Pitt in Fight Club", they say "Tyler Durden says...") Ryan Philippe plays Parker. That name you'll remember after seeing his performance. Philippe surprised me. I only knew him from "IKnow What You Did Last Summer", which was more fun-then-freight, and "Cruel Intentions", a good and somewhat underrated attempt at modernizing "Les liaisons dangereuses". Sarah Michelle Gellar outplays him in that one, though.But in this he squares off with Benicio Del Toro's Longbough. Del Toro I first saw in The Usual Suspects. A whole string of great work followed: "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas", a short part in "Snatch." that stole the entire movie, a wonderful comedic performance in the underrated "Excess Baggage" and of course, "Traffic". An Oscar well deserved. Del Toro is the kind of actor who always stretches himself in his performances, always doing something new. In this one, he made the wise choice ("suggestion to McQuarrie" says IMDBtrivia) of keeping silent most of the time. Some of his facial expressions alone makes some scenes in this worth watching.So how come this movie started dragging after a good hour? It was a long wait for a shoot-out-ending which is, admittingly, fantastically choreographed and leaves the viewer with a climax to remember. But was it worth the long wait?The problem to me is that, visually, the film is quite boring most of the time. In terms of lighting, creating the "mood, feel, style, what have you" that a movie with this kind of script deserved. Now it's just people talking like they're living chess pieces, just there for the plot to take place.There is an occasional inspired shot, especially in the last half-hour when things start to get rolling again. All of a sudden you're paying attention again. Thanks to Dick Pope, D.o.p.Aaron Sorkin, whom McQuarrie could be if he went political, realizes his writing is basically "people talking brilliantly" and that he needs a competent director to make it visually interesting, fit for a film. That's why he lets others direct.McQuarrie hasn't directed a film since "The Way of the Gun", but he is writing again. I enjoyed his occasional fingerprint in "The Tourist", a movie I otherwise didn't enjoy at all. Let's hope him and Bryan Singer get together and do a crime movie together again. "Until that day then?" Until that day.

Ryan Phillippe isn't a very good actor, especially in this movie. He's completely and totally miscast in his role...now maybe that's not his fault, after all, they do have casting directors who are supposed to determine who is right for what roles, but you still can't let Phillippe off the hook for thinking he could play a part like this...He spends most of the movie using some sort of weird voice, it almost sounds like he's trying to channel vintage Pacino or something. Whatever it is, it doesn't work and he sounds like a moron.Now, I can buy Benecio Del Toro as a badass. He's greasy. He's tired-looking. He doesn't say much. But, he's also not very interesting. Just because you're a badass doesn't mean you're very much fun to watch and he certainly isn't.Also, someone needs to tell James Caan it's not 1972 anymore. He just shouldn't play a badass these days. It just looks ridiculous...I know he says something in the movie about how even though he's an old man, that just proves he's a survivor...or some crap like that, but, to me, it just seems like he's making excuses for looking like a nonthreatening old fart and hopes that by saying something like that he might con (or is it Caan?) a few people into still thinking he's tough.The only part of this movie worth watching is at the very beginning where Sarah Silverman gets punched in the face for being a mouthy rag. It's all downhill after that.