In 1995, Christopher McQuarrie stunned audiences with the powerful
The Usual Suspects. So now, five years later, he
has returned with
The Way of the Gun. However, there are several things that plague this new movie that have nothing to do with the movie itself. First,
The Usual Suspects was gripping and surprising, obviously showing McQuarrie at the top of his game. If that was his peak, there''s only one way to go from there. Second, it isn''t McQuarrie''s name that people think of when they recall
The Usual Suspects; in fact, they probably haven''t heard of him. So you have a story that can''t possibly be as good as
The Usual Suspects, a movie that everyone has overly high expectations for, and names that can''t draw big box office. But there''s another reason why
The Way of the Gun will never be referred to the way
The Usual Suspects is.
The Way of the Gun isn''t very good. It has some clever dialogue, a good cast, and some bloody gunfights, but there''s nothing to tie them all together.
The movie introduces us to the two "main" characters, played by Benicio Del Toro and Ryan Phillippe (he started out in teen trips like I Know What You Did Last Summer, but since then has continued to draw away from the teen base and go for more adult roles, and this one is definitely an adult role), in the very first scene, and it almost instantly looks like something from Fight Club. So is this movie going to be some sophisticated and clever film like Fight Club? People hope not, because they want to see a crime thriller with lots of twists and turns. In this first scene, The Way of the Gun also shows us how McQuarrie likes his comedy: dark. He draws laughs from his violence in almost a harmless manner, as the guys quickly beat up a couple of sharp-talking women. Later, it is funny when Phillipe lands on a bunch of broken beer bottles and is forced to pull a shard of glass out of his arm.