Product: Mean Guns [VHS] (1997)
Rating: 3.0
Quick, dirty, and oddly contemplative.
MEAN GUNS stars Christopher Lambert and Pyun regular Michael Halsey, and has only the merest shred of plot to propel the story: a powerful crime syndicate wants revenge on those who betrayed them, so it's set up a free-for-all in an empty prison where the condemned must fight to eliminate one another in six hours, or less. The three left standing get to walk away with some big money in their pockets.Like most Pyun films, Mean Guns doesn't stand up to intense logical scrutiny, but that's not the point. The movie ends up being oddly contemplative, as the script draws out a handful of troubled characters thrust into a grotesque situation. While the emphasis is clearly on the action -- and there's plenty of it, well-shot as usual -- there are surprising moments of quiet where the audience is allowed to get close to these "bad guys" and come to at least part of an understanding of what their lives are like, what they think and feel. Lambert and Halsey are particularly good here, as a killer who's come unhinged because of a familial tragedy and another who's lost all hope of ever walking away clean, respectively. Good stuff, marred only by a very poor full-screen presentation.