By the Gun (2014) Reviews

• Dirge!

  scrabo39-143-168502014-12-07

  Watched this last night, hoping to see something along the lines of, well, good acting. I was bitterly disappointed. To call the lead wooden, would be an insult to trees. Awful script. Awful direction. Awful acting. Awful..........just awful. Harvey Keitel does his best, but he must have known this was going to be a Krimbo turkey from day one. Painful to watch, and I can only hope whoever cast this recovers quickly.Low budget boredom from start to finish, with unbelievable dialogue. Wrong Turn at Tahoe, makes this film look like what it is, a cheap, no thrills D movie.I implore you, gentle film viewer, to give this one a wide, wide berth. To sum up, do not waste your precious time!

• a tale of the expected

  tiggersuk2014-12-30

  i watched this earlier today, its fairly well filmed, realistic locations etc but to be honest is was clear after 30 mins or so that i was really wasting my time, even so i decided to see it through to its bitter clichéd predictable end, it amazes me how actors of the calibre of both Toby Jones and Harvey Keitel ended up in this movie all be it playing bit parts... maybe they 'had to do a little favour for someone' by being in this very average clichéd seen it all before type film... a familiar tale of protection rackets, strip clubs, hits going wrong, family loyalty, revenge and of course no one gets away clean! including the audience! 4/10

• Boasts a good cast in desperate need of a good story.

  trublu2152015-03-16

  "You watched the first half of Goodfellas like a thousand times." That is an actual line from this film that feels more like a critique of itself. By the Gun is a Scorsese wannabe film that has terrible dialog and even worse accents. The only thing worse than being a Scorsese wannabe is being a Scorsese rip-off and while By the Gun does have moments of blatant plagiarism, it does quite fully embrace it. The dialog and screenplay feels like they are excerpts from better films in the same genre. It never quite gels coming out of any of these actors outside of Slaine and Harvey Keitel. The best part about this film is Slaine, he turns in a good performance but his character feels more and more like Jackie Boy from Mean Streets going into the third act. Harvey Keitel is...well, he's Harvey Keitel, this guy created the tough guy so he gets a pass just because he plays this part in his sleep. Leighton Meester does her best here and it is nowhere near enough to salvage the cast from being a complete disaster. My last and final complaint about the cast is more a question than anything, but what in the hell is Toby Jones doing in this film and what the hell was that accent? Furthermore, the film is too bright and vibrant. What we're seeing isn't doing the moments of grit any justice, they're glossy, crisp and hardly the vibe it wants to be going for. But, setting aside a terrible cast and poor cinematography, what is most important here is that this film isn't entertaining. It isn't interesting, it falls in line with being another poorly done mob film that was lucky enough to get picked up by a distributor.

• Could have been a much better film

  nickan20002014-12-09

  Here is the thing, mafia films are more or less dead. This film had a good storyline, locations used gave the film a very convincing feel. You had a mix of very well known names and known names. The rhythm of the film was good as well. It had all the right ingredients for a excellent film. But unfortunately whoever wrote the dialogues and casted people surely didn't consult each other. Most of the very intense moments of the film had long dialogues and the characters playing the roles could not bring any intensity to the situation. And once again a good at heart stuck in the criminal world is not really ideal either. All the old mafia films were good because they went all the way good at heart or not. They generated that feel and compassion that they want to a part of mafia. This is a mafia chick flick at the best. Anyways with some shorter dialogue in hyped up scenes would have done the justice to the talent in the film. Or a better cast with the same dialogues and a bit bold director, who wasn't scared of leaving the good guy routine behind, could have made this film work. Just my opinion.

• Bored "By the Gun"

  zardoz-132015-02-03

  The apathetic R-rated mafia movie "By the Gun" generates minimal velocity, and the foul-mouthed characters don't curse half as much as they should. If you're itching for something like either "Goodfellas" or "Killing Them Softly," you're going to be sorely disappointed. The urban action meanders aimlessly for little more than a half-hour before our handsome but ineffectual hero finds himself face to face with his big contract kill. Sadly, Nick cannot summon the nerve to pull the trigger. Instead, his obnoxious buddy George (Slaine of "The Town") takes care of Nick's business for him. Niccolo Emilio Tortano (Ben Barnes of "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian"), who dreamed about being a 'made man' in the Italian mob, gets his opportunity about 41 minutes into the slow-burn action as his boss Salvatore Vitaglia (Harvey Keitel of "Mean Streets") administers the omerta oath. Trouble is killing isn't in Nick's blood. Nick's father Vincent wants nothing to do with either him or the mob. Nick also has his eyes on a female bartender, Ali (Leighton Meester of "Country Strong"), and likes to give her flowers. As it turns out, Ali's father is scummy mafia chieftain Tony Matazano (Ritchie Coaster of "Blackhat"), and Nick's friend George takes Tony hostage and beats him within an inch of his life. George threatens to blab off to everybody about what he did for Nick. Tony tells Nicky repeatedly to kill George, and suddenly Nick blows Tony's head off. This prompts Sal to take a contract out of Nick. Indeed, Nick gets to sleep with Ali who abhorred her own father, but by then Nick's days are numbered. When Sal's shooter Jerry (Toby Jones of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier") comes gunning for Nick, he finds Ali alone in bed and ices her. Nick manages to shoot Jerry with the same silenced automatic with which Jerry rubbed out Ali. Finally, Nick musters some guts and goes after Sal. Sophomore director James Motten of "Trucker" and rookie scenarist Emilio Mauro delay the inevitable for what seems an eternity. More characters bite the dust in the last ten minutes than the previous 100 minutes. Leading man Ben Barnes drums up little charisma. He isn't sympathetic for a mafia protagonist who allows situations to manipulate him. Motton and Mauro deliver a double whammy surprise at fade-out, but it is too late to salvage this mediocre melodrama. The locations appear realistic enough, and the budget seems more than adequate. Nevertheless, "By the Gun" emerges as a forgettable fiasco.