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.

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.

I watched this Western while suffering from pseudo-COVID (y'know, you have all the symptoms but the tests show negative), so the oddly muted gunfire sounds were kind on my headache-infested skull. As some of the action scenes were also in slo-mo, I linked the softened bullet noises to the filmmakers attempting to imitate life going slower and softer in a stress situation. May be wrong, just my take.

Some dialogue was good, some was flowery, and some just superfluous. Quite liked any dialogue from the stoic Gunslinger, Artemis Hollinger (Ed Morrone). Direct, judicial use of words that offered just the right level of explanation. I found the costumes and make-up jarring for people living in a hot dust bowl. No sweat-stained shirts, dust and horse hair matted pants, hats that have seen better days or limp, discoloured bandanas. It was all stiff spotless shirts and dresses, shiny hats, whitest of white aprons and patterned vests and bandanas. Repeat shots of perfect American white chompers, women sporting contemporary eyeshadow, and lots of clean styled head and facial hair conspired to crack the illusion I was watching a Western set in the US Civil War era.

Mainly watched to see Tom Berenger again, who can forget his iconic portrayal of Sgt. Barnes in Platoon?

B+ movie, I didn't find the audio that annoying as other reviewers did.. What I did find was an enjoyable script and decent acting. A good hunt them down movie that took it's sweet time between action scene, but I didn't mind because the dialog was just so refreshing to listen to. Good simple folks, Bad guys with friends that you would play poker with.

Was the costume/wardrobe the greatest, no, but not horrible by any stretch of the imagination... Was the scenery spectacular...no...in fact not bad actually, yeah some of the buildings looked a little too new, but all in all, not bad.

Just a Western with a different slant than most today's movies take, and it made for an enjoyable view. If not for a few curse words and graphic blood scenes, this could be mistaken for a somewhat family friendly movie, since today's movies curse every other word. 8/10 (High rating for me).

Didn't go into this movie with any expectations as I was just planning on passing a couple of hours.

Unfortunately it was a poorly made, poorly acted, poorly written effort.

A lot of hammy acting and long winded monologues at key moments. The first gunfight looked like something you'd see in a school play and things didn't get any better after that.