From the '80s through the early 2010s, Nicolas Cage was one of the most popular actors in Hollywood. I became a fan of his after watching Con Air and Face/Off nonstop, since they were on TV all the time. But while most of his films were released first on the big screen until 2013, he pivoted in 2014 and didn't stop starring in direct-to-video films until 2017. Many wondered why Cage was damaging his image in this way, but I think he was quick to admit that he was doing it to pay the bills—bills with a lot of zeros. It seemed like he was on his way to starting a new era by appearing in projects like Mandy, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and Pig. And in a way, he did. Today, while he appears in hugely popular IPs like The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Dream Scenario, and Longlegs, he still pops up in titles like Gunslingers. So, yeah, let's talk about it; both his and the film's.
Brian Skiba's Gunslingers begins in New York in 1903, where brothers Thomas and Robert Keller are fighting with a gang over an artifact, possibly a map. Robert suffers horrific burns in the process, and Thomas, believing Robert to be dead, escapes with the object everyone is apparently after. Four years later, Thomas arrives in Kentucky and, after thwarting a group of trigger-happy idiots, arrives in a town called Redemption.
Director: Brian Skiba
Writer: Brian Skiba
Stars: Stephen Dorff, Heather Graham, Nicolas Cage
After delivering the map to Jericho, who appears to be the town's boss, Thomas is hanged and then buried. Except he's very much alive, as the concept of Redemption is to be a safe haven for those wanted by the law and bounty hunters. In theory, these criminals are dead, but in reality, they live a life of joy and fun. All of this is jeopardized when Valerie Keller, along with her daughter Grace and a wounded (physically and psychologically) Robert, comes looking for them and discovers there's a lot of money to be made in Redemption, along with a healthy dose of revenge.
To be honest, I really like the premise of Gunslingers. I'm no Western expert, but of all the movies I've seen, even those outside the genre, I don't think I've ever encountered a story like this. Sure, I've seen outlaws, convicts, and all sorts of criminals roaming the Wild West. But a town called Redemption, where people accused, rightly or wrongly, of a serious crime are given a second chance and fight tooth and nail for it because a genius wants to collect the reward offered to them, is so interesting! It opens the door to many philosophical conversations and ethical questions about human nature, self-correction, greed, religion, and more. However, Skiba isn't really interested in all of that, or perhaps he's not ready to delve into those complex issues. Everything in the plot serves as an excuse for him to start a shootout, which is fine because, after all, it's his movie. However, since the stakes are so low and the plot twists are incredibly few, these shootouts quickly become repetitive.
I think Skiba's ambition for Gunslingers is commendable. The amount of fake ammo, fire-based stunts, regular stunts, wire-based stunts, broken windows, breakable furniture, horses, high-volume sprinklers, and many other gimmicks and devices employed to make this relentless battle between criminals and bounty hunters feel believable is insane. Sure, there's no sense of geography, emotional weight, or anything else that would be synonymous with a memorable gunfight. But you have to give Skiba and his team credit for trying. All that said, what's truly unforgivable about the film is the use of generative AI. It's in the very first shot of the film! And the strange thing is that Skiba doesn't use that "technology" again in the film, or at least I didn't notice, which makes you wonder why he used it at all. I mean, a film like Weapon (Sathyaraj's) has copious amounts of generative AI. So, you can criticize him for laziness. However, in Skiba's case, he went to a lot of effort to shoot live action sequences and such. So why resort to that reviled, anti-art software just for an establishing shot? It seems like a small thing, but if you've seen how eager major studios are to sideline artists and embrace generative AI, then you know that these small cuts can result in something horrendous.
As for the acting, I think the Gunslingers cast is fine. Stephen Dorff, Heather Graham, Tzi Ma, William McNamara, and Costas Mandylor are veterans in the business. Sure, they know they're not going to win any awards with this film, but they don't settle for their roles; they commit, and that's impressive. Jeremy Kent Jackson, as the film's big bad, is pretty scary. Randall Batinkoff, Cooper Barnes, Scarlet Rose Stallone (yes, that's Sly Stallone's daughter), Bre Blair, Forrest Wilder, Laurie Love, and the rest of the supporting cast are fine.
But, of course, no one gets the chance to shine like Nicolas Cage in the film. To be clear, Cage's work as Ben is a glorified cameo. However, he makes sure to give his all to the cast, crew, and audience. By now, you know that if you don't rein him in, he's going to go all out. Does that make him predictable? Yes and no. Yes, you know he's going to do something wild, but you can't anticipate how wild it will be. I guess he was told his character was on the spectrum, period; and then he just ran with that basic idea. His sunglasses are cool, and I want them.
If you can ignore the generative AI, the color grading, the action choreography, the editing, and the general lack of budget, Gunslingers is worth watching. I mean, at the very least, Tzi Ma's wig and Nicolas Cage's eccentric performance will give you a few laughs. Jokes aside, I really want to know why Tzi Ma and Nicolas Cage still need to make movies like this. Tzi Ma has been in Invincible, Interior Chinatown, Kung Fu, The Kid Detective, Mulan, Wu Killers, Veep, and The Farewell. In addition to the aforementioned projects, Nicolas Cage has starred in Renfield, The Croods: A New Age, Color Out of Space, and Teen Titans GO! To the Movies, and is set to appear in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse and Spider-Noir.
Nah, this movie is total shit. Nic character is total cringe.
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