The Way of the Gun (2000, Ryan Phillippe, Benicio Del Toro) – Classic Film Review 963

Writer-director Christopher McQuarrie’s 2000 vicious, scalding thriller stars Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro as young petty crooks who kidnap a young woman (Juliette Lewis) and hold her for ransom.

But various deadly low-lives are on their trail as they head for Mexico. And then they make the dangerous discovery that the woman’s being paid $1million to be a surrogate mother and her unborn child is intended for a ruthless gangster and his wife.

McQuarrie’s clever and exciting, if very violent, thriller is a heart-pounding modern Western, a welcome and unexpected item from the writer of The Usual Suspects. McQuarrie takes care of the quality control, and ensures that the movie is lovingly crafted and edge-of-seat stuff.

Phillippe and Del Toro are extremely good value, and James Caan is excellent as the chilly Mob representative Joe Sarno, and there’s a role too for Juliette Lewis’s real-life dad, Geoffrey Lewis, as Abner Mercer.

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(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 963 derekwinnert.com