"The Gunny"

Rating: 10/10 (6 August 2007)

What makes a good film is honesty. What makes honesty is reality... believability. This film is one of those in which you can say... "That COULD happen." It is an adventure flick so you have to stretch it, but it is there within grasp. According to the tech expert they hired for all things guns, a shot from about a mile is possible, but with results more severe than we see in this film: And that is all that can be said without making it a spoiler.
An example of this kind of film is "Seven Men from Now" by Budd Beotticher, we believe the Randolph Scott character: That he is lightning fast, although this is not shown, just the effect. In this picture, we believe in the Swagger character. How did they do that, endear him to the viewer? Well, with a simple thing called HOMAGE.
For guys who like depictions of sergeants yelling loudly, what does the word GUNNY mean to us?
It took me 2 viewings to obtain the significance of Mark Wahlberg's characters NAME: Bobby Lee Swagger. Not that Wahlberg yells loud at anyone in this film... It is what he represents. In the scene where Wahlberg and Pena meet the Levon Helm character, Helm calls Wahlberg "Gunny." Although The real Gunny's first name is Ronald, we got a guy that could BE a younger version of "The Gunny" shooting his way through the flick. At what time did I start thinking about R Lee Ermy? I don't know, but it happened twice. So I figure that this was intentional Homage to The Gunny, who is great at shooting watermelons- So I had to believe that there was an intentional connection there.
This man that Wahlberg is portraying does not look like R Lee Ermy, but he is "The Gunny" and like his namesake, is a master of all guns and sniping scenarios and there is just enough tech in the film to allow us to believe what we see.
What we have to believe is that Swagger is a sharp operator: Thinking several moves ahead, covering himself and dealing with it when fat Philly cops get the drop on him. The way this is filmed, what we see as viewers is what Bobby Lee sees. We see things that could be significant, we just don't know what the significance is. And where Fuqua kicks us soundly in the ass is that we see all the things that Wahlberg sees, but the card-house collapses so rapidly that all we can do is watch Wahlberg surviving and then later wreaking vengeance.
I liked this almost as much as that remake of The Italian Job- Same kind of vengeance tale, except that I hated the bad guys in this flick much more than Edward Norton, who is hard pressed nowadays to play evil guys- He had better luck in The Score playing a heartless M-Fer. The guys in this film make Norton's crooks look like Weenie Roast MC's.. These are well you have to use the word that starts with F. These guys are just F_____D, not to cause anyone to be offended by the word, but just as definitive descriptions of these guys.
what makes this film refreshing on top of the complete vileness of the crooks, is the level and amount of practical effects used. Not up to Tony Scott's level with exploding barges, Antoine Fuqua is on his way with this style of film-making. And this director leaves his stamp on us- Give him some scripts like the ones Scott has done well with and this guy could do a lot.
The cast in this is pretty choice, especially Danny Glover and Ned Beatty... But the best shock is out of the blue, Elias Koteas, with a receding hairline... playing the crook of crooks, and we are satisfied when he is dealt with. actually, I was surprised to even see the guy... so far from the guy with the hockey stick in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or even the cripple from "Almost an Angel"
I always rate these things by how much my butt was kicked the first time I saw it... And although there are a few little things in the flick which bother me after the 4th viewing, overall, I was convinced, even the 3rd time I saw it. Lately, if a film stands up to at least three subsequent viewings, it is one that goes in the movie collection. That's is why I can recommend to anyone who likes explosions, this film is worth the investment of a couple of your hours. Especially for the last thing I have to say about it: Kate Mara. I don't know where she came from, but if I see her name on something else, I'll watch it for certain.