Gun (Blu-ray)

Nathan Swank February 10th, 2011

Director: Jessy Terrero
Starring: Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Val Kilmer, James Remar

Bwaaaahahahaha! Oh man, this is predictably terrible. Good for 50 Cent for having the means to make his own film. I commend him for that and he shouldn’t worry about any criticism from me because he gets to make movies with some fairly decent stars like Danny Trejo, John Larroquette, James Remar and “gasp” Val Kilmer? This is the product that appears to be the result of a guy with a bunch of money who said to himself, “I’m gonna make a movie.” I understand that. Sounds like fun. But like any film where the person doesn’t know what they are doing, GUN fails atrociously on many levels.

Curtis Jackson in Gun

Young gun salesman Rich (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson) guns down his competition where gun sales have increased by 125 percent. He leaves one gun at the scene as a message to the cops and any who oppose him all while the word “gun” is said several times in the aptly titled GUN. Mysterious Angel (Val Kilmer) is recently released from prison and due to a past interaction, Rich is more than eager to have Angel work on his crew. The cops are onto Rich something fierce and will do anything to gain evidence and discover the identity of his top supplier.

Curtis Jackson in Gun

Directed by Jessy Terrero and unexpectedly written by 50 Cent, the script is full of senseless clichés, set up to make Jackson look cool. He gets to be a little crazy, kill most of the people, have a graphic love scene with a beautiful woman and supplies a large portion of the soundtrack. Curtis gives himself most of the lines that are hard for him to handle clearly, however his energy is apparent and his acting actually shines because of it. Unfortunately, the script is flat and the other actors know it, producing lukewarm performances for their parts written around Mr. Jackson’s character. Flashbacks are poorly produced and scenes are unnecessarily shot in slow motion or linger on while nothing is happening. The police shout obvious lines like, “I want the victims ID’d” or “Wherever this guy is, that is where we wanna be!” that are unnecessary filler to create characters based on a conglomerate of other typically bad movie and television characters.

Curtis Jackson in Gun

Now onto Mr. Val Kilmer. What are you doing!? What has happened in life to bring you to this? Kilmer does not look well in this film. He is overweight and out of shape in an unhealthy form. His performance and clothes are out of place and ill fitted throughout the picture creating a sad man that is neither strong nor intimidating. I do not mean these criticisms out of jest but as a concerned fan for a once respectable actor. You are better than this Iceman.

GUN invites nothing new to a familiar genre. The characters and story are pedestrian at best. I’m happy for 50 Cent that he has the money to create a film in which he is passionate about on many levels but the passion falls well short of a talented production.

Val Kilmer and Curtis Jackson