Gunless (2010)

Director: William Phillips

Writer: William Phillips

Composer: Greg Keelor

Starring: Paul Gross, Sienna Guillory, Dustin Milligan, Tyler Mane, Callum Keith Rennie, Graham Greene, Jay Brazeau, Michael Eklund, Alex Zahara, Jody Racicot, Shawn Campbell, Paul Coeur, Melody B. Choi, Tseng Chang

More info:  IMDb

Tagline: Fastest draw in the North... kinda.

Plot: A hardened American gunslinger is repeatedly thwarted in his attempts to mount a showdown in a friendly town in Canada where no one seems to understand or appreciate the brutal code of the American Wild West.

 My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes

 

 

Well this was refreshingly fun!  The tone is set as soon as The Montana Kid opens his mouth.  He sounds menacing and talks the tough talk but it's when no one around him gives a shit that he's disarmed of being a badass.  Brilliant!  The cast does a fine job all the way around, especially Gross.

 

So who is this guy?  I'd never heard of him but he's charismatic, likable and fun.  Looking at his credits I didn't see but one thing I recognized and that's the 90s show, DUE SOUTH.  I remember it being a thing 25 years ago but I never saw it.  Now I'll have to and just because of him.  He's wonderful.  

Writer/director William Phillips does a wonderful job with the characters and their dialogue.  The scenes flow together nicely and there didn't seem to be any fat on the bone.  It's a lean story the nicely sees The Kid transform from his gruff, killer persona to where he ends up.  I would've liked the villain of the picture, Ben Cutter (Rennie), to be something more than a stock bad guy who does mean things to animals and people to show us in as little time as possible that he's a bad man and must be stopped.  

 

Boo, hiss!

The romance between The Kid and Jane (Guillory) is nicely handled without much of the romance-y crap that sometimes bogs down these pictures.  It's not subtle by any stretch but it's also not a drag on the story by focusing too much time on it.  I really appreciated that.  The picture feels like it slows down a bit during the social dance but it gives a lot of the characters moments to flesh themselves out enough to make a difference to the picture as a whole which is a good thing.  There aren't too many Western comedies that work for me but this one does and in a big way.  I'm so glad I took the time out to give it a shot.

 

And starring a cast of about a dozen.