In Way of the Gun, Ryan Phillipe and Benicio Del Toro play a couple of hapless guys who decide to kidnap a pregnant girl who is the surrogate mother for a very wealthy guy. The plan is to ransom the girl and the unborn child and make off with a considerable amount of money. That's the basic plot. Christopher McQuarrie must've felt pressured to come up with a equally great follow up to his Oscar winning screenplay for "The Usual Suspects." Unfortunately, this film doesn't live up to the previous effort. The script does have the twists and turns and surprises, but McQuarrie as director seems unsure of himself. There are some nice touches here and there, but what was really needed was a director that would be able to look at the script from a different perspective. The acting in the film is fine and as stated before, there are some nice touches. Particularly with James Caan. The shootout at the end does get your blood flowing but one can't help but see similarities to "The Wild Bunch." Christopher McQuarrie is a fine writer, but I think he needs a little more time to grow as a director.
Review of The Way of the Gun
