Mean Guns

In a sick, sadistic game of death 100 criminals have been put in a prison and told 3 can be free to split a suitcase full of loot. When they are given weapons, mayhem ensures. Blood, baseball bats and blond hair mix and merge to the sound of gunfire and screams of pain. Old scores are settled, older friends are crossed and a game of cat of mouse is acted out.

The 90s saw an explosion of three different type of action film fare. We had the high end, big budget films of the studios that had excess bang for your buck. They also often had bullet fests and blood splashes, with swift one liners and charisma in abundance. Then you had the indie films that were solidly scripted and slick but with a tinge of blood in many a battle. These were far more gritty in tone and far less witty in word and deed. Finally you had the third type of film, often filmed on a low budget or made in a television style that was cheap. These films tried for the big bang, bullet fests inspired by Hong Kong works of John Woo but added some mediocre comedy, effects and styling. These films dreamed of being studio fare or at least dreamed of being picked up by studios. They often instead became cult classics as they were ambitious but equally also diabolical.

Albert Pyun is the sort of director that divides less tastes or opinions and more ideals. You see some people see cinema as a tool of entertainment and as such they see it as being driven by what they feel entertainment should be. These are the sort of people you work with, who tell you that the latest Adam Sandler film or say a dire DVD populist film is a ‘must have’. These are taste driven and would possibly hate Pyun films as cheap and violent. They are also using their excuse for taste to define what is good but doing so without any justified reason other than they have an opinion. But you see actually they are seeing ideals and fearing them. His films are cheap, set piece ridden and violent. He also plays with genre and convention.

Fearing that someone else might wish to do or see something that they are scared of shows true lack of a stable IQ. If you are scared of what others think do and say it is not them but you who is at fault. It is more intelligent than their ‘google’ search allows them to be or their search on the worlds dire web can inform them (in truth you find what you are looking for and nothing much more). Films can challenge or leave you cold but do not sneer unless you know what you are talking about. Mean guns is not a great film or a film that will remain in the critical mass. It is a film to pass the night and to pass the time. Pyun is no great film maker nor I feel does he want to be.