A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Very confusing film, casually acted.The problem here is that there is no moral or ethical center to this film, and what pretends to be ironic humor falls completely flat. It is this irony that should fill the space where the absent ethos is; but since the actors clearly don't care about their characters, why should we.Of course all this would be easier to tolerate if we had a snappy story well-directed - but the fact is, after a half-hour, I realized I didn't know what was going on, and that I really couldn't care less.I remember Van Peebles from New Jack City, how brilliant he was - what happened to him?

"Gunmen" was loosely based upon Sergio Leone's "The good, the bad and the ugly". But it isn't that much of a rip off. It's actually pretty good. Here are the most obvious resemblances :1. In "The good, the bad and the ugly", there are three men : the good, a lonesome cow-boy (Clint Eastwood); the bad, an gun-for-hire(Lee Van Cleef) and the ugly, a thief (Eli Wallach). In "Gunmen", Mario Van Peeples plays a bounty hunter (the good), Dennis Leary plays a cutthroat (the bad) and Christopher Lambert plays a thief (the ugly). The relationship between Van Peeples and Lambert in "Gunmen" is similar to Eastwood and Wallach's partnership in "The good, the bad and the ugly".2. There also is what I call the "you've got the gun and I've got the bullets" situation. In "The good, the bad and the ugly", Eastwood and Wallach are forced to work together to find the treasure because Wallach knows the name of the cemetery and Eastwood knows the name of the grave in which the treasure is buried. In "Gunmen", Van Peeples and Lambert both have their own part of the secret. Lambert knows where his brother hid the boat with 400 millions dollars aboard and Van Peeples knows its name.3. Finally, there are many scenes in "Gunmen" similar to the ones in "The good, the bad and the ugly" like the scene where Lambert is forced to reveal where the boat is to Leary (Wallach is beaten up and reveals the name of the cemetery to Van Cleef) and the scene at the end when Van Peeples makes Lambert believe he'll get rid of him to keep the treasure (Eastwood hangs Wallach but cuts him loose and shares the treasure).With all these resemblances, it makes no doubt that "Gunmen" is a remake of "The good, the bad and the ugly". A good remake, though. Considering this movie was made with a very low budget with terrific cast, I thought "Gunmen" was a cool action/adventure flick. Mario Van Peeples and Christopher Lambert are great in their roles and Dennis Leary is excellent as the main bad guy. Patrick Steward also gives a very believable performance as the drug dealer.Overall, "Gunmen" is a fun modern day remake of Sergio Leone's epic western. I give it a strong 7/10.

I think it's fair to say Christopher Lambert has had his fair share of duds in recent years. Started off in a great way in the 80's and then it's been one long slide into obscurity (Highlander 4 anyone?). Mario Van Peebles career path has been pretty similar since 'Heartbreak Ridge' though he seems to have done all right recently appearing in Ali. Anyway ‘Gunmen' co-stars the two the same year they appeared together in Highlander 3. The basic plot of this South American actioner is that Dani Servigo (Lambert) is the only one who knows the name of harbour where a boat with 400 million dollars of drug money onboard is moored. Cole Parker (Van Peebles) is the only one who knows the boat's name. Together they're trying to get there before Loomis (Patrick Stewart), the drug lord the money belongs to and Armor O'Malley, his right hand man (Dennis Leary) who's starting to strain at the leash.Why am I recommending this film? Well, Sam Raimi said that the success of the Evil Dead films is dependant on how much abuse Bruce Campbell suffers. I think it's the same with this. At one point Van Peebles is tortured for information by being hung below a helicopter and flown through trees and then dunked in a lake. The more they suffer the more you want them to overcome the obstacles in their way. Mind you, Dani and Cole not the nicest of ‘heroes'. Actually they're a couple of complete jerks. They bicker constantly and don't trust each other, stooping so low as to shoot each other in leg so they other can't run off with the money (this being a early 90's action film all this does is give them slight limps, how realistic). What makes it great to watch them is Lambert and Van Peebles aren't afraid to go for it and it's obvious they're bouncing off each other. On top of this we have Leary playing exactly the nasty driven character he's so good at (don't believe me? watch Judgement Night), whether it's shooting his own men or having people buried alive. An interesting fact to note is that this is an early writing effort from Stephen Sommer, who went on to demonstrate his ability with action pictures with such films as Deep Rising and The Mummy.

If you've read any of my other movie reviews, you'll know by now that i'm a massive Christopher Lambert fan. Gunmen see's Lambert team up with Mario Van Peebles who also stars in Highlander 3 with Lambert, in the same year. Lambert is a drug smuggling rebel with a soft side and Peebles is a tough cop. They team when they hear about 400 million dollars which are hidden in a boat somewhere, so they set out to find it. In their quest there are laughs, thrills and spills galore. But the two of them don't exactly get on together, they are like two little kids argueing.For a low budget movie it's pretty good. I would say it was one of Lamberts better movies but not as good as Highlander and Fortress.If you like explosive action and guns galore, this is the one for you.Silly in parts but good fun.I rated it 7/10