GunShy

Starring:Gunshy-Schussangst
Studio: Tla
Product Type: DVD

Customer Reviews:

Defective DVD.......2006-07-07

I've tried to get this dvd twice and the dvd was defective both times.

Damaged DVD.......2006-03-09

After attempting to order this four times and each time receiving a defective DVD, I stopped trying to purchase this item.

Great little 'noir' film in spite of the pandering ..........2005-06-24

OK first a 'neg' comment .... The tile of this film is so so wrong .... the cover blurb on the cover of a movie about 'Cold Blooded Killers' is wrong and even the picture of the two male leads holding guns is wrong too .... Whats with the gun thing here ... very little gunplay in this movie .. most of it was physical violence on torture .... So probably the producers tried to make this film seem like a ripoff of those 'Tarantino' Cold Blooded killer movies ....

This is a character study movie of a collector for the 'Irish' mob in Atlantic city befriending a down and out writer who seems to have lost his 'edginess' .....

Irrespective of the cold heartedness of the collector, the movie paints the Irish mob boss as so mean and vicious that we start to root for our hero. Seeing him walk into stores or restaurants and break legs of the people who have failed to pay almost becomes fun ....

Great great little film

Diane Lane.......2005-06-15

Diane Lane is either the character in real life or has beautiful, understated acting skills. Her performance is worlds away from acting, it is real life character. I've seen her in other films but this is truth. I enjoy subtlety and understement, she made the character sweet, sexy, accessible, and hot, the gitl accross the street from the girl next door. I am impressed.

Wincott steals show ; Aspect Ratio Warning.......2005-06-12

Wincott was great in Alien Resurrection, but had to be killed off early so Sigourney Weaver could be the strong lead. He rocks in Gunshy, while Peterson is terrible and Lane has virtually nothing to work with in this poorly written script. There are huge, gaping holes in the plot, which was apparently written for TV -- or should have been. This is a movie that survived bad dialog on the basis of reasonably good direction, quite good photography & editing, and excellent acting by the key character, Wincott. In the end, he was the only one you cared about. The DVD was cheaply made using the VHS master, thus it is merely 4:3, not widescreen, a major disappointment.

Average customer rating:

Intriguing but flawed suspense movie... a so-so DVD transfer

GunShy
Starring: Johan Leysen , Christoph Waltz , Lavinia Wilson , Axel Prahl , and Thorsten Merten
Director: Dmitriy Tsintsadze
Manufacturer: Tla
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00070EBQM
Release Date: 2005-02-15

Description

A major hit on the European film festival circuit, Ditto Tsintsadze's "poetic thriller" will keep you on the edge from the startling beginning to the jaw-dropping final shot. A young man sits alone on a bus. A beautiful young woman drops a note in his lap as she walks by. It says simply, "help me." But what help could she, a self-assured martial arts student, ever need? And how could he, a gentle pacifist who delivers meals to the elderly, ever help her? Yet as our hero follows after her, his bizarre journey begins. Does he become a rescuing knight falling in love? Or a psychotic killer descending into madness? And is there even a difference?

Customer Reviews:

Intriguing but flawed suspense movie... a so-so DVD transfer.......2005-04-26

Schussangst (Fear of Shooting) is a deliberately paced, suspenseful movie that unfortunately, will not be for all audiences. It is not a typical Hollywood thriller. In fact, to call it a thriller may be to do it a disservice by attracting the wrong crowd.

Lukas (Fabian Hinrichs) is a shy and lonely young man who because of his pacifist outlook, chooses to serve out his national service by delivering food to the elderly. One day on a tramride, a beautiful young woman (Lavinia Wilson) throws a letter into his lap. It says "Help me". Nothing more. Intrigued, he follows her off the tram, gets to know her and eventually starts dating her. She never explains the letter.

Over time, he gets infatuated with her, obsessed would be a better word. Secretly he trails her around the city. He finds her at a martial arts class practising Kendo. What would a stick-wielding martial arts expert need his help in?. Later he sneaks in after another Kendo session to find her humping away with an older man. When he questions her about it, she gives him a cryptic reply about how life is full of unfathomable pain. Only later does he find out that the man is her stepfather. Putting two and two together, he concludes that she isn't happy with the relationship she's having with her stepdad. So he hatches a hare-brained scheme to kill the stepfather, picturing himself as her valiant rescuer. He goes about buying a rifle and learns to shoot. The pacifist learns to become a killer - is he just a deluded romantic? or is he a psycho-stalker in the making?

One major drawback of the film but one arrived at by artistic choice, is the way it is shot. The film is disorientating because at many points, the camera looks at the world through Lukas' eyes. From his point of view, the world doesn't make sense and that unfortunately is what the audience also feels. Why does the girl choose him of all people? Did the girl even choose him? Why does she ignore him totally at the end? We are left in the dark because that is precisely how Lukas feels.

At the end, the movie leaves the viewer to fill in the blanks. Did the girl really set him up to kill her father? Or to kill herself? Or was it all just the overworked imaginings of his warped mind. An intriguing movie. But not to all tastes. It was the controversial winner of the Best Picture award at the 2003 San Sebastian International Film Festival. Controversial because many of the critics didn't like it.

The DVD transfer is in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Unfortunately it is letterboxed and is NON-anamorphic (not enhanced for widescreen TV). Audio is the original German 2.0 stereo. Optional english subtitles are provided. Picture quality is fair with no major concerns but nothing to boast about. Black levels are good and colors are natural. It could have been better considering that it was made in 2003 and the the DVD was released in 2005.