I have been watching a lot of Pedro Almodovar films, which has given me a whole new appreciation for Antonio Banderas as an actor. Unfortunately a negative side effect is that it made me vulnerable to watching Banderas’ movies, which made me put Gun Shy in my queue. Learn from my mistakes, do better and do not watch it!
Gun Shy is about a has been, hair metal rock star played by Banderas who left drugs, sex and rock and roll to live a better life with his wife, but instead he became an eccentric, couch potato recluse mourning the loss of fame. His wife, played by Olga Kuylenko, tries to jumpstart his life by bringing him to his hometown in Chile, which does not work. He just brings his sedentary routine to the hotel until he finds a reason to live again: to rescue his wife from kidnappers.
Gun Shy tries to be an action comedy, but the action is tepid at best, and the jokes are theoretically funny, but fall short and rarely land. I’m sad for everyone involved in this movie because I don’t get the sense that they were just doing it for a paycheck and knew that it was bad. They seem to be consistently giving their all, but it is all for nothing. Only a post credit scene involving an umbrella made me laugh. There is a blink and you will miss it scene where dude dresses like a lady, which Banderas nailed, but the filmmakers never got the rhythm of the movie right and rush right past it. The villain’s plan never made sense, and when the violence began to have consequences for major characters after one hour and four minutes, what little humor existed simply evaporated. I think that it was aiming for McG’s Charlie’s Angels funny, but never firmly established the rules of this world for the viewer so utterly failed at communicating whatever the filmmakers were trying to communicate other than don’t mess with llamas and make music for the right reasons.
I like Kuylenko so I’m particularly sad that she landed in this mess. She gives her all in such mediocre to dreadful films as the original live action Hitman, Quantum of Solace, and Vampire Academy and the rare solid film that she appeared in such as Oblivion. This trend is unfortunate, and I think that she needs to ask Milla Jovovich to be her mentor because even though she is a better actor, casting directors clearly are stopped by the hotness and keep sliding her into action films, but she needs to get in better ones. Someone please help her.
Gun Shy succeeded at doing one thing. It made me appreciate Thor: Ragnarok more.