Themes: Out For Revenge, Escape From Prison, Drug Trade
Main Cast: Christopher Lambert, Mario Van Peebles, Denis Leary, Patrick Stewart, Kadeem Hardison
Release Year: 1994
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
This film opens with a big fat close-up of a sweaty prisoner with a fly (on a string) crawling on his face. The prisoner quickly pops the fly in his mouth and spits it out. Then he leeringly laughs about it to the prisoner next door. Nope. This is not a bad undiscovered Sergio Leone spaghetti western. Rather it is the opening shot Deran Sarafin's Gunmen -- a brainless action film without an original thought in its head. Christopher Lambert is the fly-eater, a man named Dani Servigo, the brother of a dead smuggler and a prisoner in a South American jail, who holds the secret to the whereabouts of $400,000 in stolen drug money. The walls of the prison explode, and Cole Parker (Mario Van Pebbles) makes his entrance. Cole is a mercenary working with the DEA who is in this South American hellhole to mop up the drug traders and to avenge his father's death at the hands of the drug traders. He wants Dani to lead him to the gold. In this love-hate buddy film, the two thrown-together friends/enemies race through the Amazon jungle with ruthless assassins in pursuit, as they all gravitate towards the secret stash of money. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Sally Kirkland - Bennett; Richard Sarafian - Chief Chavez; Robert Harper - Rance; Brenda Bakke - Maria; Dr. Dre - Himself; Miguel Angel Fuentes - Manolo; Big Daddy Kane - Himself; Ed Lover - Himself; Christopher Michael - Rhodes; Andaluz Russell - Guzman's Wife; Rakim - Himself; Deran Sarafian - Bishop; Charles Stewart - Knife Grinder; Humberto Elizondo - Guzman; George Parra - Rebel Leader; Rena Riffel - Loomis' Bride; Christopher Williams - Special Appearance
Credit
Terry Liebling - Casting, John Baldecchi - Co-producer, James Gorman - Co-producer, Betsy Faith Heimann - Costume Designer, Deran Sarafian - Director, Dennis E. Dolan - Editor, Bonnie Koehler - Editor, Conrad Hool - Executive Producer, Lance Hool - Executive Producer, John Debney - Composer (Music Score), Jeanne Van Phue - Makeup, Hector Romero, Jr. - Production Designer, Michael Seymour - Production Designer, Hiro Narita - Cinematographer, "Wild" Bill Davis - Producer, John Davis - Producer, Laurence Mark - Producer, John Flock - Producer, Ian Whittaker - Set Designer, Jesus Duran - Special Effects, Julian Bucio - Stunts, Jorge Luis Corzo - Stunts, John Meier - Stunts, Chad Randall - Stunts, Mauricio Martinez - Stunts, Dwayne McGee - Stunts, Stephen Sommers - Screenwriter
Drug Baron Peter Loomis (Patrick Stewart) has his $400 million dollar drug fortune stolen in South America. Loomis sends O'Malley (Denis Leary), a ruthless killer to find his money. Cole Parker (Mario Van Peebles), a DEA Agent is on a South American mission of justice and revenge. He is sent to find his father's killer. Cole busts an eccentric smuggler (Christopher Lambert) to help Cole to find the smuggler's brother money that he has stolen from Loomis. But O'Malley wants to find the fortune for himself. In a Cat and Mouse game, Cole and the smuggler are forced to help each other to find the missing fortune trying to avoid, O'Malley and his men. Together, Servigo and Parker search for the boat.
Widescreen availability
Much like Joshua Tree, another film owned by Lions Gate, there is no home video version of Gunmen which presents the film in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Despite being shot in Panavision the film is only presented in 1.33:1.
