Gun Shy Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.0

Gun Shy Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 6, 2017

Johnny Depp “did” Keith Richards in his portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow in the original Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy and subsequent Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Gun Shy offers the intermittently amusing sight of Antonio Banderas “doing” Johnny Depp doing Keith Richards, with a similarly “xeroxed” feeling to a lot of the screenplay which seems sewn together from bits stolen from films like Snatched, efforts which few would hardly call masterpieces and therefore perhaps arguably not the best things to be stealing from. There’s a lot of noise and fury relentlessly filling the often quite colorful frame in Gun Shy, but it does in fact signify nothing, or at least next to nothing, with a game if perhaps desperate cast camping it up in a tale of a supermodel named Sheila (Olga Kurylenko) married to a former Rock God named Turk (Antonio Banderas), who ends up being taken hostage in the back woods of Chile, ostensibly Turk’s home country, though he insists he’s English and also insists he doesn’t speak Spanish. This is a film that tries to wring comedy from the mere sight of Banderas wrapped in gypsy scarves and sporting hippie length hair (not to mention Sparrow- and/or Richards-esque mascara), but which only sporadically provides giggles, let alone any guffaws.

This is the kind of film that begins with Turk watching one of those music documentary series like VH1 Behind the Music, which in this instance is of course doing an exposé on what happened to Turk. The episode makes Sheila out to be a “new, improved” Yoko Ono, but in just one of the film’s many illogical presentations, Sheila actually turns out to be the adult in the relationship, trying to coax her husband to get out of the house and back to his native country, where he’s still considered a megastar and where she hopes the adulation will reignite Turk’s ability to write Top 10 hits. (A salient example of the lowbrow, unambitious humor that Gun Shy attempts to exploit comes courtesy of the name of one of Turk's former Top 10 hits from his heyday: "Teenage Ass Patrol". Hilarious.)

Turk is initially confused when they get to Chile why their resort is completely empty and why it’s so frigid outside in the middle of July, until Sheila explains a little thing called the Southern Hemisphere to him. Meanwhile, Turk has befriended a sweet little kid who delivers beer and makes the poolside area seem a better bet than a hike in the Chilean woods. That leads to the main plot conceit, where a bunch of brigands (who of course turn out to be major fans of Turk’s “Teenage Ass Patrol” era work) kidnap a bunch of tourists, including Sheila, ultimately attempting to ransom her for a cool million. In yet another “meanwhile”, a nerdy, officious embassy guy named Ben Hardin (Mark Valley) gets involved, though instead of helping retrieve Sheila, he keeps putting up roadblocks. It’s all incredibly overblown, with virtually everyone playing to the veritable second balcony and thereby undermining what actual comedic content (which is not substantial, mind you) is there in the first place.

When the film isn’t virtually brow beating the audience into submission (I guess like any good metal act), there are some sweet asides that do occasionally land in the “gentle smile” category, if not laugh out loud territory. Some of the more cartoonish, even lunatic, elements, like a brief vignette involving "killer llamas", are so silly that they almost automatically guarantee a "pity laugh" or two, but even this scene ends with such a bizarrely shocking "joke" that the humor just kind of stops before it ever really gets going. It’s actually fun to see Banderas playing such a spoiled, unprepared fop attempting to rescue his gorgeous wife, but there are so many subplots stuffed into this outing that it just ultimately kind of collapses under its own weight.

Gun Shy Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Gun Shy is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The closing credits mention Arri Rentals, which may or may not indicate those cameras were actually used for the shoot, but this has a generally appealing and often incredibly colorful looking transfer, one with overall excellent detail levels, especially when bright, outdoor lighting regimens allow. Fine detail on elements like some of the Rococo patterns on fabrics Turk wears is typically precise looking, and similarly the palette on some of the costuming choices pops extremely well. There are some passing deficits with shadow detail in some of the kidnap scenes once Sheila is sequestered in shadowy environments, but even here there are moments of nice looking fine detail, as in a burlap sack that's placed over one of the hostage's heads.

Gun Shy Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Gun Shy features a nicely boisterous DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that benefits from supposed "soundtrack" offerings by Turk's Metal Assassin band, but which also derives quite a bit of good surround activity in the outdoor scenes once Sheila has been abducted. The film is kind of relentlessly noisy, even in supposedly "quiet" dialogue scenes, but fidelity remains excellent throughout the presentation and prioritization is also surprisingly well handled despite some of the raucous tendencies of the sound design.

Gun Shy Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Rock Star, the Pirate and the Cast of Gun Shy (1080i; 8:49) is standard issue EPK fare, but does have decent interview snippets and some fun behind the scenes stills.


• "Just Who I Can Be" Music Montage (1080i; 2:49)

Gun Shy Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There is actually a quite winning premise at the core of Gun Shy, and the cast certainly seems willing to dig into this fitfully amusing material with a lot of energy, but unfortunately the writing is simply never very funny, or at least as funny as it should be. Fans of Banderas may well get a kick out of seeing him essay such a goofy role, but even those fans may wonder why Gun Shy never really hits the bullseye. Technical merits are very strong for those considering a purchase.