Gunmen MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +2 Content: -3

Mr. Loomis (Patrick Stewart), a drug lord, has had all of his money stolen by Dani Servigo's (Christopher Lambert) now dead brother Carl. Loomis hires Armor O'Malley (Denis Leary) to get it back. Carl told Dani he hid the money on a boat. Cole Parker (Mario Van Peeples), a Drug Enforcement Agent, knows about the money and the name of the boat but not the location. Cole helps Dani escape from a Central American prison to find the money. O'Malley learns that Dani holds the key to finding the money. Dani and Cole are chased, caught, escape, and chased again. Cole and Dani have to eliminate O'Malley before he can get the money. All the chases and double crosses keep the action moving. Dani and Cole have an on-again-off-again trust that hinges on needing each other's information. GUNMEN is average entertainment for all but a few gun enthusiasts.

GUNMEN substitutes action for plot, which seems to require excessive violence. It is almost a parody of action films, not meant to be taken seriously, although the violence is frequent and occasionally graphic. Multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and one victim with a knife in the throat are excessively graphic. Among the villains there is little honor. We meet Loomis as his bride is put in a casket and buried alive because she was "disloyal." When Loomis is betrayed, he meets the same fate without the casket. O'Malley shoots a man in the head, then kills the man's wife in front of their child, telling her she is better off now. In one particularly disgusting scene, Dani eats a beetle and complains about the legs, opening his mouth to show the chewed bug to Cole. Dani frequents a brothel and engages in graphic intercourse with a prostitute. Villainous women include a female black-market dealer who sells Dani and Cole guns and a cold-blooded killer who shoots her boyfriend at close range. The film also has an abundance of profanities, obscenities, and crudities. All in all, GUNMEN is way off target.

Preview Reviewer: Paul Bicking
Distributor: Dimension Films