Mean Guns (1997)

100 people, who have betrayed The Syndicate, are gathered in a prison opening the next day. They are given weapons and 6 hours to kill each other. The 3 remaining share $10,000,000.

Director:

Albert Pyun

Writer:

Andrew Witham

Stars:

Christopher Lambert, Ice-T, Michael Halsey

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christopher Lambert	...	Lou
Ice-T	...	Vincent Moon
Michael Halsey	...	Marcus
Deborah Van Valkenburgh	...	Cam
Tina Cote	...	Barbie (as Tina Coté)
Yuji Okumoto	...	Hoss
Thom Mathews	...	Crow
Kimberly Warren	...	D
Hunter Doughty	...	Little Lucy (as Hunter Lockwood Doughty)
Jerry Rector	...	Bob
James Wellington	...	Ricky
Hoke Howell	...	Commissioner Guildner
James Mathers	...	Jerry Montegna
Milan Nicksic	...	Kobolski
Jahi J.J. Zuri	...	Blondie

Storyline

A gangster boss (Ice-T) has a list of about 100 people who have screwed up at one point or another. Rather than outright killing them, he decides to have a little fun by putting all of them together in a high security prison, unarmed, and dumping bucketfulls of guns, ammo, and baseball bats on them and letting them kill each other. The final three who survive are given a prize of 10 million dollars. Let chaos reign.

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Plot Keywords:

baseball bat | gangster | prison | vomiting | game of survival | 

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Taglines:

100 Assassins. 1,000 Weapons. 10,000,000 Dollars. Only One Can Survive.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for nonstop violence, and for language

Did You Know?

Trivia

The length of Vincent Moon's game is six hours before everyone still left standing dies.

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Goofs

In the last scene of the movie during the final showdown Christopher Lambert's character would be able to tell the gun he was tossed wasn't loaded by the weight.

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Quotes

Marcus: Let's just say that once upon a time, there were 3 bears
Lou: Oh God, not another story!
D: Yeah Marcus, just spit it out!
Marcus: The bears went out one day looking for food which was other bears
Lou: Ah, cannibalistic bears!
Marcus: And when these 3 bears got back to their house, they found little Goldilocks sleeping in their bed. Just before they could eat her, Papa bear said, 'Now just wait, we're cannibalistic bears!'
D: Yes, yes we are
Lou: I wanna be Mama bear
D: *Three* bears
Marcus: Ah, the bears. Goldilocks is tasty to us so Goldilocks must...
[...]

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Alternate Versions

The DVD and Home Video versions differ from the cable tv version. The DVD adds more footage missing from the cable version. The scenes include:

• 3 flashback scenes involving Christopher Lambert's characters' past.
• A scene where Lambert sees his daughter after the first opening gun battle inside the prison.
• The demise of Tina Cote's character after she think she's got the right suitcase with the money.
• The cable version features:
• A longer introduction of the characters as they reach the prison.
• Yuji Okumoto and Thom Matthews' character killing a guy in an overhang while walking up the stairs with Tina Cote'.
• The demise of Bob by Okumoto and Matthews is substansally longer and leads to the showdown between Okumoto and Matthews before they kill each other.
• More scenes of Bob wounded in the stairwell after being shot.
• Lambert's demise runs longer after he's shot by Michael Halsey and Ice-T during the showdown.
• More shots of Michael Halsey's character faking his own death after the last big final battle with the syndicate goons.
• A scene where Lambert goes outside the prison in search of Deborah Van Valkenburg's character, yelling, "Ollie, Ollie, Oxen free...You Damn Snitch!".
• Another scene where Lambert kills another loose goon after his futile search for the snitch.
• Another scene of Lou shooting at someone in the prison yard off screen.
• A scene of Deborah Van Valkenberg running into the prison yard and finding the pictures she had obtained in the beginning of the movie.
• Another scene of Michael Halsey chasing after Deborah Van Valkenburgh in which he plants the suitcase with the movie and reveals his true motives and the real outcome of the game.
• Another scene where Michael Halsey calls Deborah Van Valkenburg on the cell phone to make sure their plan is in full swing.
• The final showdown scene between Ice-T, Lambert, Halsey and Van Valkenburg is longer and adds more dialog between Lambert and Ice-T revealing that he is a liabitilty to the syndicate.
• Lambert's death and Halsey's confession scene is longer.
• A scene where Lambert's daughter goes inside the prison to check on Van Valkenburgh after the showdown aftermath.

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Connections

References Highlander (1986)

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Soundtracks

Loco
Written by Anthony Riparetti (as Tony Riparetti), Paul Edwards and Roberto Amaral
Published by Tony Riparetti Music ASCAP

User Reviews

This movie in 2 colors: orange and blue!

This situation is fantastic. We have many action in genre "Comedy". Of course, we can see murders, shooting and other bad things, but ... it's funny. And Lambert in this role, he is another. Tony Riparetty did one main sound theme " Mamba" and it works. Bang, bang, bang - and this music as in the club.

Want to say one word "Funny"

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 November 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

American Venecular

Filming Locations:

Twin Towers Correctional Facility - 450 Bauchet Street, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,095,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Filmwerks

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min 105 min (TV) 110 min (video)

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1