THE MOVIE

Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson in Gun.

The first thing that got me interested in this movie was the name; Gun. It's pretty direct in which this movie is about, and there's certainly no shortage of guns in the film. The second thing that struck me was the star of the movie; rapper Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson. Not quite the A-List actor by anyones standards, but he is focusing on his acting career with several movies due out over the next year or so. Gun was released in 2010 and one of his first big starring roles. The final thing that got our interest was the supporting cast; Val Kilmer, Danny Trejo, James Remar, and John Larroquette. Impressive isn't it? Now how about the movie itself then...

In the face of rising crime rates and gun violence, the Detroit Metro Police department, with the cooperation of the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, is launching a full-scale war against gun runners. Their target is charismatic criminal Rich (Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson) and his crew. Angel (Val Kilmer), a down and out ex-con, and Rich go way back. Angel was the one who helped Rich avoid a long prison stint years earlier. When Rich offers Angel a job, to go with him on a gun exchange, and the exchange goes bad, Rich's associates become wary of Angel. As the heat draws closer and Angel gets deeper into the business, the more paranoid Rich and his partners become.

Val Kilmer in Gun.

One of the big questions which many of you must be asking is; Can Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson act? Admittedly the material here isn't fantastic, but I can't say that he's horrible as an actor. Screen presence is there, and there's generally solid delivery of the lines. It will be interesting to see how he matures in his upcoming films. The supporting cast are there with Val Kilmer looking a little worse for wear - perhaps it suits this character, but he looks pretty similar in many roles of late. The cameo roles hold the most interest, but don't look for any Academy Award performances here.

As an actual movie there isn't much here we haven't seen done many times over, and often much better. There aren't too many twists and turns and while there are a couple of action sequences including the closing act, there isn't any real jaw-dropping moments. The story is fairly predictable too, you should see the outcome a mile out.

Ultimately Gun is a movie that has a couple of decent moments but its strength comes from the cast which is almost universally underutilized. It will never win any awards, and is unlikely to be remembered by many, but if you've having a guys night with a few drinks this could provide some fun.

Gun's Blu-Ray transfer is quite superb.

VIDEO
One thing I was fairly surprised by was the transfer in this film which certainly exceeds expectations. Eagle Entertainment have provided teh movie with an AVC MPEG-4 codec transfer at 1.78:1 which will fill most widescreen TV's. We're not sure what the films original aspect ratio was presented in but seeing as next to no one saw this film theatrically in the States, and as far as we can it was never released in theatres outside that territory.

This transfer is quite gorgeous to look at with plenty of very fine detail, from the opening moments you can see every little scratch and mark on the close-ups of the guns, and during the film there are plenty of scenes where the fine detail shines. Skintones look natural and while there is very occasional lack of detail in the darker areas, this is still a pretty exceptional transfer that far exceeds the $US10 million budget of the film, and the expectations we have from a company such as Eagle Entertainment. I'm not digging them, its just that their resources certainly aren't up to the major studios.

AUDIO
While the video quality in Gun on Blu-Ray is impressive the audio possibly takes it up a notch further. The disc includes a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (24-bit/48Khz) which sounds a treat with clear dialogue for the most part, there were a few lines we struggled with, but some fantastic sound effects from the gunshots and some pumping music from artists including, as expected, 50 Cent.

Even Danny Trejo cameos in Gun.

This disc also includes a Dolby Digital 5.1 track encoded at 640kbps which is fairly decent for a lossy audio track but lacks the clarity and punch of the lossless audio track. Still if you can't play the lossless track this should still sound pretty good on a decent audio setup.

There is only one English subtitle track which, from the sampling we did at various points in the movie, is accurate to the on-screen dialogue.

EXTRAS
Sadly this disc is pretty devoid of extras with only some trailers for other Eagle Entertainment movies, and nothing related to this film. Anyway, this is what you can expect...

Trailers: Trailers for the LFL (1:56), Transylmania (2:22), Odysseus: Voyage to the Underworld (3:00), Brotherhood (2:25), By The Will Of Genghis Kahn (1:56), and Champion (2:04). The last trailer shows a great looking documentary which details actor Danny Trejo's troubled past.

Gun, starring 50 Cent, is on Blu-Ray now.

Image Gallery (HD): Fifty-eight images are presented here for viewing, many of which are taken from the film, or alternate angles from shots in the film.

OVERALL
I'm not going to profess this as a great action movie, not even a very good one, but it has it's moments which action fans should get a kick out of, not least of which due to the pretty gorgeous transfer on Blu-Ray. Sadly the disc lacks any decent extras but this is probably worth a rental if you've got a couple of mates over for a few drinks and a movie.

Review By: Dave Warner

THE MOVIE	5/10
THE VIDEO	8/10
THE AUDIO	8/10
THE EXTRAS	2/10
OVERALL	5.5/10