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Guns (1990) Blu-ray Review

Guns (1990) Blu-ray Review

The previous Andy Sidaris film to Guns, Savage Beach, seems to be considered one of his better efforts at making an actual “serious” film. Unfortunately, as someone who mostly watches his films for B-movie antics and cheesiness, it was definitely a bit of a let-down to me. While it still had its moments, I found it to be mostly boring even if it made much more sense than other Sidaris films. With Guns, I was hoping for a full return to his B-movie roots. It’s an improvement B-movie wise, but the repetitiveness of the “Triple B” series was really starting to show at this point in Sidaris’ filmography. Overall, it has some funny moments but none of the laugh out loud moments of past films and also not as much action. Guns is fine, just not as good as the earlier Andy Sidaris films. Check back later today though for a review of the sixth film in the “Triple B” series, which sees the series return to the B-movies I love so much.

Note: As usual with Andy Sidaris films, the review and rating I have given Guns is based on it being a B-movie and not what it would deserve if it was being reviewed as a “serious” film. Those not into B-movies can ignore the score I gave the film (at best I would give the film a 2/5 for these viewers) and should probably skip Guns as it is not a “good” film. However, as an unintentionally hilarious B-movie it may be worth a watch for some. It’s one of those “so bad, it’s good” films.

At this point, Andy Sidaris apparently had made a big enough impression in the film world that he could get actual well-known guest stars to make appearances in his movies. In this case, its Erik Estrada (in a meatier role than you would guess) as the villainous Jack of Diamonds. He’s not the only well-known actor in Guns though as Danny Trejo (Machete) is also in it in one of his earliest roles as Estrada’s henchman (though he rarely gets to talk and mostly just hands out tiny guns). Guns is also notable for being the first appearance of Roberta Vasquez as Donna’s agency partner Nicole Justin (though Vasquez played a different, smaller role in Picasso Trigger).

In Guns, Jack of Diamonds is attempting to smuggle new state of the art weapons into America through Hawaii. However, Donna and Nicole are just too good of agents that he needs to remove them from the island to help make this operation a success. To do so, he puts out hits on other members of the agency forcing the two agents to head to Las Vegas. He also has Donna’s mother (a D.A. who looks nearly the same age as her own daughter) abducted, making things personal. As usual, assassins are also on the girls’ tails ready to take them out. Basically, Guns is a prototypical Sidaris film though one that is billed as a spoof of License to Kill, which came out two years prior. As its been almost a decade since I’ve seen that film, I honestly have no idea how close of a spoof it is though.

I liked Guns a bit more than Savage Beach but I really don’t have a lot to write about it. It doesn’t help that these “Triple B” series films are starting to get so similar that it is hard to keep each of them straight. It’s an Andy Sidaris film that makes more sense than most but also doesn’t have the laugh out loud moments of his prior movies. It does however have many more laughs than Savage Beach, and since I grade Andy Sidaris films by how good of a B-movie they are, it means Guns is the better of the two films. I would say Guns is actually a mix of semi-competent filmmaking and B-movie antics that may somewhat satisfy both audiences, though not as much as Savage Beach (for “serious” film fans) or Hard Ticket to Hawaii (for B-movie buffs).

Guns doesn’t have the standout moments of past films, and its signature scene is probably one of the weakest so far (but still funny). However, there is still a solid amount of unintentional comedy here. Funny moments include the male assassins dressing like women for absolutely no reason (other than Sidaris being obsessed with including cross-dressers in as many of his films as possible) and while trying to get away, making time to change back to regular clothes in the restrooms right next door. Hilariously, a person actually buys them as being women when I swear even a blind person could tell they are men in drag. Other moments that got us to laugh include some hilarious overacting by a helicopter pilot, the line “Hi-yah my ass,” the ridiculous and stereotypical ninja assassins, and an establishment bragging about not just having one pool table but two of them. Like usual in Andy Sidaris films though, the signature moment involves a random contraption/weapon, this time a remote control beer delivery boat.

Guns sees more changes than usual for a Sidaris film (mainly cast changes) but yet it still seems so familiar. Many of the plot points and action sequences have been in one or more of the past films in this series. The biggest change is Roberta Vasquez taking over the secondary “badass” agent role. Personally, I don’t think much is lost going from Taryn to Nicole (she’s equally gorgeous if not even more so) but Vasquez isn’t really given much to do in this film. Donna has always been the lead character with Taryn being overshadowed by her, but Nicole gets even less time which I think was a mistake. This film also finally puts a stop to the endless stream of new Abilene characters, as for once an Abilene returns for a second film (the pretty boring Shane Abilene from Savage Beach).

I have been surprised by the video quality on these Andy Sidaris Blu-ray releases as they all have been pretty low budget films and are also getting up there in age (most of them are approximately thirty years old at this point). Like all of the rest of Mill Creek’s releases in this series, Guns looks very good to great on Blu-ray with only a few noticeable blemishes here or there. As usual, the film had been restored on 4K prior to release and the care shown to the restoration pays off with some nice looking video quality (especially for such a low budget film from the early ’90s). Most of Guns takes place in the Las Vegas area, so if you are interested in seeing late ’80s Vegas, that could be a plus. Sidaris does have a good eye for cinematography and once again Guns has some surprisingly stylish scenes. The main one that stands out to me is a sex scene taking place on a motorcycle against a gorgeous sunset.

Bonus features for Guns are the usual introduction by Andy Sidaris, audio commentary, behind the scenes featurette, and trailers. The film also comes with a digital code for Mill Creek Entertainment’s movieSPREE service.

As a B-movie fan, Guns is an improvement over the prior Andy Sidaris film (Savage Beach), at least to me. I know that Savage Beach is probably the most competently made Sidaris film of the first six but I prefer his films with some extra cheese. Unfortunately, Guns doesn’t quite make it back to the glory days of the first three Sidaris films (though check back later today for another review of a title that does). Guns is watchable but not an essential Sidaris film that absolutely needs to be seen. It’s just too similar to past releases and doesn’t have the laugh out loud moments that they have. Recommended, but only for hardcore Sidaris and B-movie fans.

Guns and Do or Die were released on Blu-ray on September 17, 2019.

Buy Guns and/or Do or Die on Amazon: Guns, Do or Die

We would like to thank Mill Creek Entertainment for the review copy of  Guns used for this review. Other than receiving the review copy we at Geeky Hobbies received no other compensation. Receiving the review copy had no impact on the content of this review or the final score.