I love the shoot outs in this movie. Great gun play!

"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.

'The Way of the Gun' is a film that people either love or hate. There doesn't seem to be any middle ground. It could have benefited from some minor editing to help with the pacing, but I love the dialogue and characters so I can forgive this flaw.Parker and Longbaugh are drifters and petty crooks, although they appear to have served in the military as judged from their training. While donating sperm for money, they overhear a doctor gossiping about a woman who is being paid $1 million to carry a wealthy couple's child to term. They quickly hatch a very poorly thought out plan to kidnap her and hold her for ransom.The attempted kidnapping is ultimately successful only because the woman is trying to get away from the icy bodyguards who escort her everywhere she goes. After taking her, Parker and Longbaugh encounter one unforeseen complication after another. The wealthy patron who is the father of the unborn child brings in a bag man to "adjudicate" the entire situation, and Parker and Longbaugh are hamstrung by their own incompetence.This is a talking heads movie punctuated by a few brief action scenes, and luckily it is populated by a great cast. Benicio del Toro and Ryan Phillipe are very good in this film, which is half of a surprise. Who knew that Phillipe had the range to pull this off? Juliette Lewis is, well, Juliette Lewis, as she sympathetically portray's Robin. James Caan nearly steals the movie as Joe Sarno, the bag man. There are a lot of great character actors at work, in fact there are too many to name. The dialogue is occasionally over written and writer / director Chris McQuarrie over indulges himself in the way these scenes play out. That said, there are a lot of beautifully crafted scenes in the film. The plot is really about the various family relationships that are slowly being revealed, and culminates with a surprising revelation about Joe Sarno's connection to Robin.I love the metaphor used during the game of hearts speech, as well as the compassion that the two kidnappers show for their hostage. I love that the bodyguards are plotting against their boss in his own kitchen, while his scheming wife eavesdrops. Joe Kraemer delivers a beautiful orchestral score, and I particularly enjoyed the music which accompanied the ultrasound viewing. The piece of music which accompanied Sarno's receipt of the money was the other highlight in the film. One reviewer asked why the score was so prominent here: I will opine that it's because the scene sets up the final act wherein the characters' fates will be decided.I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Sarah Silverman's hilarious and profane diatribe during the opening scene, which leads to a fight where Parker and Longbaugh are left bleeding on the ground. It's an image that bookends the film. I will also compliment McQuarrie on the fantastic weapons handling from all of the actors. Apparently his brother is a Navy SEAL, and he trained all of the actors. That man should become a full time technical adviser. We see Parker and Longbaugh use a perfectly executed bounding overwatch to break contact and escape the first failed kidnapping attempt, as well as outstanding room clearing skills and even a 'rolling T' when they sweep through the brothel. They also perform tactical reloads, weak hand magazine exchanges, and immediate action drills like complete pros. Very, VERY few films display this degree of technical accuracy, so for me it's noteworthy.If you enjoy hard boiled dialogue and gritty realism, and you can enjoy a relationship based drama, then you probably already love 'The Way of the Gun.' It's a shame that it wasn't more commercially successful, because I'd love to see McQuarrie make another film like this.

now some of you are wondering what this movie is about. i don't blame you.the title says it all. now usually the title is a cryptic clue, but in this case--it says it all.if you are wondering why devote a film exclusively to gun-play, then ask yourself why devote a summer movie solely to computer special effects.i know most of you are guilty of seeing one of the hot season flicks because your friends said it looked awesome. it's the same motivation for a different audience.i'm an old pro, and let me tell you the action direction in this film is awesome, and i don't use that word often.this film is a gunfight pasted with story, instead of the other way around. and i believe it shows a director who wanted to direct the ultimate action+editing rendition of a running gunfight.i can only say, that if the director and the technical adviser ever read this statement, you have my vote as one of the best, most thrilling and realistic film gunfights ever. thank-you.