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The Way of the Gun (2000)
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Movie Review by Simon
August 29th, 2007
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After the success of The Usual Suspects, Christopher McQuarrie turned his writing skills to this blackly comedic crime flick. Storylines overlap, double-crosses abound, and an ensemble cast of some of the lesser lights of the A list let loose across a number of locations.
All the ingredients for a great film were there, but somehow they just didn't come together in quite the way that they should. The film moves from flat out comedy (the opening scene in the parking lot of a bar has one of the most unexpected laugh-out-loud moments in recent film memory) to action (the shoot-out in Mexico at the end has a particularly visceral scene involving Ryan Phillipe and some shattered glass).
Which isn't to say that The Way Of The Gun is in any way a bad movie. James Caan gives a fantastic performance as a cynical survivalist bagman, and Taye Diggs and Nicky Katt, as the opposite numbers to scheming criminals Ryan Phillipe and Benicio Del Toro, lend a suitable air of menace to the proceedings.
The plot of the film revolves around Phillipe and Del Toro's plan to ransom the unborn baby of a surrogate mother. But as soon as they kidnap the pregnant woman (the always dependable Juliette Lewis) they find themselves biting off more than they can chew.
All of the performances are good, the writing is as snappy as McQuarrie's other work, the storyline is a change from a usual Hollywood gangster movie, and the score is immediately noticeable as a powerful aid to the film. But comparisons to The Usual Suspect leave The Way Of The Gun unsurprisingly coming in second place, and the entirety of it never quite matches its predecessor in substance or style.
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