The Way of the Gun-review

In short, don't use any tollbooths kid.

“The Way of the Gun” has some fun action to it.  It is nice to see Ryan Phillippe is not just a pretty boy.  Both he and Benicio del Toro do a great job in a movie that on paper seems like it would have been a pretty cliché idea.  The idea of stealing from a mob boss and having them come down on you has been done to death. However, it’s not a bad thing if it’s at least done well and with some new elements which in this case actually makes this a good movie.

Well I guess looking through the hole is an idea.

Parker, played by Ryan Phillippe, and Longbaugh, played by Benicio del Toro, kidnaps a pregnant surrogate mother in the hopes of getting ransom for the baby.  The problem is that the baby is supposed to be going to a mob boss and his wife.  So soon there are all manner of ups and downs and twists added to this plot that create problems for them and the situation is not as it seems.  Can they simply get the money? Is there any way out of this that doesn’t involve them being rubbed out?

As a whole the acting is decent. Phillippe and del Toro do a great job.  James Caan is in the movie as an operative working for the mob boss.  He is probably the weakest part of this movie.  Sometimes he does his best Sonny Corleone impression the rest of the time he is on camera looking bored out of his skull like he was just there dying for a paycheck.  The shitty thing is they really milked the hell out of his part and he is integral to the plot. 

Laaaaadies???!

I recommend this movie if you are into crime action.  There are a lot of shoot out scenes and all in all it ends okay enough.   I think if you are fan of the antihero genre this is the movie for you.  The line of what is good and bad seems incredibly blurred for these protagonists.  It’s a lot of fun that is for sure.