A Tale of Two Guns

I had the opportunity to sit down and watch the 2022 Western movie "A Tale of Two Guns" from writer and director Justin Lee here in 2022. And seeing that there were indeed a handful of good actors on the cast list, of course I sat down to watch it.

However, it was obvious pretty early on in the movie that this was not really a top notch production. How so? Well, from the very first gun fight, which actually starts off the movie, you have a feeling of it being an amateurish production actually, especially in terms of cinematography and the sounds. I've never sat through a movie with guns of any kind where the gunshots sounded so pathetic as they did in "A Tale of Two Guns".

The storyline in "A Tale of Two Guns" was actually fair enough. It wasn't the most riveting and compelling of storylines, but it was sufficient enough for a single viewing.

The movie does have a good cast ensemble, with the likes of Tom Berenger, Casper Van Dien, Ed Morrone, Judd Nelson, Jeff Fahey, Griff Furst, Jake Busey and Danny Trejo among those listed. However, most of these were just in the movie for a moment or two. And the audience are treated to Casper Van Dien and Ed Morrone for the majority of the movie.

I don't understand why they opted to show the gunfight scenes in slow motion. It didn't really add any excitement to the scenes. If anything, it just served as a nuissance, especially when laced with those god awful pathetic sounds for the guns.

All in all, "A Tale of Two Guns" was watchable for a single viewing, and that was about it. This was by no means a milestone in the Western genre. Nor is it a movie that brought anything new to the genre.

My rating of writer and director Justin Lee's 2022 Western "A Tale of Two Guns" lands on a four out of ten stars.

Ed Morrone plays Artemis Hollinger, an uncorruptible and determined law enforcer hired by the legendary Marshall Terrance McTeague (Tom Berenger) to chase the cold-blood killer Abel Cruz (Casper Van Dien) in a classic "good vs. Evil" manhunt.

The mediocre sound quality of the film, the poor acting of some secondary characters, the discrepancies in timing between a bullet impact and the physical reaction of the bodies being shot at (which are in fact highlighted by slow-mo takes) are all strong reminders that this is a low budget movie.

But, if we manage to put that aside, we´re left with a nice story which reminds us that the world doesn´t always fall into the clear-cut, black-and-white model that we´d want it to fit most of the time for the sake of our peace of mind.

Chivalry, honour and ethics strugle to find a share at a place and time where those qualities maybe were rather unusual.

Despite the feeble general production of the movie, director and writer Justin Lee succesfully achieves the task of delivering a story that is worth to be told.

BTW, there is a cute redeeming post-credit scene that somehow enhances the plot twist that the whole movie ends up revolving around. Make sure you don´t miss it.

Poor make-up, poor sound quality, poor Foley artistry. The sound effects were inconsistent, the make up was like cheap Halloween make-up, and the sound was all over the place. I've seen worse, but it's been a while. I'm guessing the budget was really low or poorly spent.

I'm all in for hiring handicapped people but it doesn't work having dead sound effects team. I was so annoyed by the muffled cannon shots where any other movie maker would have had real rifle and gun shots recorded instead. I can't tell you what the last hour and eleven minutes were like because I found something else to watch instead. Maybe if the whole thing was worth watching I would have more than six hundred characters. Your review process is worse than the movie. Maybe if the whole thing was worth watching I would have more than six hundred characters. Your review process is worse than the movie.

The production is terrible. The sound is so bad.... The gun shots sound really fake like muffled cannons, all the background sound is laughable, with extra wind noise, muffled sound one minute, one minute nothing at all. I'm not sure the horses moving ever sounds right. The story is good, and Tom Berenger is ok. Everything else is just bad.... Characters even die in funny ways.