“The original Mambo king… makes you want to dance…”
On video store shelves, I confused the cover of Mean Guns (1997) with another direct-to-video Christopher Lambert action movie, Gun Men, though the former would have been released during the transition to DVD. Becoming more and more part of the auteurist following to director Albert Pyun, I had always heard good things about Mean Guns. To be a fan of Albert Pyun is knowing that none of his movies are perfect, either taken out of his hands and re-edited, or suffering low budgets and production issues, yet still pulling off something that is visually striking and entertaining in spite of and even because of its limitations.
For example, Mean Guns is set in a new LA prison complex set to be open but taken over for one day by powerful gangster Moon (Ice-T). As a way of cleaning house for “The Syndicate” that Moon works for, he invites fifty or so criminals and gangsters who have all either cheated, betrayed or dishonoured the organisation. Unknowingly, as they enter the empty prison, everyone is signing up for a death game – the three who remain standing will take a suitcase of $10 million dollars to split between them, and will be able to walk out with their lives. As hundreds of guns and thousands of bullets rain down upon the collected players – including blonde wild card Lou (Lambert), quiet hitman Marcus (Michael Halsey), glamorous assassin D (Kimberly Warren), and a lawyer turning state’s evidence, Cam (Deborah Van Valkenburgh) – everyone grabs a weapon and begins to shoot each other. Pyun and his collaborators were able to film in a newly opened prison, and yet couldn’t damage or mark the property, hence why the multiple bullets fired don’t result in blood pack squibs or bullet holes in the wall. Despite this limitation, the movie is still entertaining for a post-Tarantino crime flick with ponderous, “poetic” dialogue, Hong Kong influenced action sequences and Spaghetti western inspired showdowns.
Long-time Pyun collaborator musician Anthony Riparetti infuses the action with a John Carpenter bass synth throb at times, but the main musical signifer is… Mambo, which is heard throughout the movie as much as gunfire, often both, adding to the movie’s strange, alternate universe feel (a precursor to the type of John Wick world-building). I had fun with Mean Guns as it keeps moving with shoot-outs, team-ups and double-crosses, particularly driven by Lambert doing his thing with an intense stare breaking into a raspy laugh, Ice-T chewing the scenery with his silver teeth-grill, and nice moments for actors like Van Valkenburgh (from The Warriors and Streets Of Fire) and Halsey’s British Lee Van Cleef energy. I watched the Director’s Cut on YouTube. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 