If you've seen Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, Playing God, Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, or any of the multitude of Tarantino rip-off films that glutted the market after Pulp Fiction in 1994, then you've seen The Way of the Gun. The climax even occurs in that most cliché of violent hipster heist film settings - a brothel in Mexico. Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote and directed the film, was responsible for writing The Usual Suspects, one of the more successful Tarantino wannabes, and he tries to cram The Way of the Gun with serpentine relationships that really don't pay off with any surprises. The film is entertaining enough in its own slight way, but it's about five years too late to seem original or unique in any way. Two other notes: Ryan Phillippe's inner city Muppet speaking voice is the worst film accent since Keanu Reeves in Bram Stoker's Dracula, and the gun shots in this film are excruciatingly loud.
Review of The Way of the Gun
