Gunmen (1994)

15% of critics liked it
(13 reviews)
29% of users liked it
(2,005 ratings)

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… More 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, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 30 min.
Directed By: Deran Sarafian
Written By: Stephen Sommers
Genres: Action & Adventure

In Theaters: Jun 1, 1993 Wide
On DVD: Jun 22, 2001
Studio: Live Home Video

Critic Reviews

Emanuel Levy, Variety
A routine, vacuous actioner that tries to mix thrills with humor.
Caryn James, New York Times
[A] witless action movie.
David Mills, Washington Post
Gunmen, at the very least, does moviegoers the favor of instantly revealing how stupid and cheesy it is, thus sparing us the elevated expectations of fun.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Gunmen is a movie without plan, inspiration or originality - and to that list I would add coherence, except that I am not sure this movie would place much value on a plot that hangs together.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Though constrained by limited funds, it delivers the action goods with surprising style and boasts a better than average cast.
, Time Out
Sarafian is an unpretentious, easy-to-please director, with an eye for quirky character detail and a dab hand at the macho stuff.
Rob Vaux, Flipside Movie Emporium
Truly awful, though I'll never get tired of Patrick Stewart a'slummin'.
Luke Y. Thompson, New Times
Should be a whole lot of fun, but it really isn't -- Patrick Stewart using profanity is the highlight.
Scott Weinberg, eFilmCritic.com
Standard actioner with a "what were they thinking?" acting ensemble.
Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle
At its best, Gunmen is a pale imitation of other, better films. At its worst, it's instantly forgettable.
Chris Hicks, Deseret News, Salt Lake City
A dull, overly familiar example of by-the-numbers moviemaking.

Read all 11 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Al S

An absurdly fun and dementedly entertaining action-comedy. A side-splitting, massively double-crossing and wickedly enjoyable thrill-ride of a movie. Christopher Lambert and Mario Can Peebles are a wild, unpredictable and incredibly amusing team, they are having a blast with these… More
An absurdly fun and dementedly entertaining action-comedy. A side-splitting, massively double-crossing and wickedly enjoyable thrill-ride of a movie. Christopher Lambert and Mario Can Peebles are a wild, unpredictable and incredibly amusing team, they are having a blast with these characters. An unstoppably fun buddy movie. It has enough action, laughs and screw overs to have you amused through every minute.
A.D. V

A loose remake of 'The Good, The Bad and the Ugly'.