Cheap A Gun, A Car, A Blonde (DVD) (Stefani Ames) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of A Gun, A Car, A Blonde

Not too bad, Thompson's a knockout; Lenz holds up well
This movie, featuring scenes in black and white and colo[u]r, is part detective story, part inner struggle, for the man who spends his time in a wheelchair, griping about life. That is, until his friend (played by the late John Ritter) tells him about a means of creating a fantasy life for himself. He does that, which is what leads to the "detective" part of the story. He (Metzler) plays a detective named "Stone", and he's visited by a blonde; played by the stunning looking Andrea Thompson (who reveals quite a bit more than she did on NYPD Blue-WOW! [unfortunately, the scene is in black and white, but she still looks good, in any case]). Kay Lenz, who still has it "going on", and has held up well body wise, if she's not had anything done, as his whiny sister is good. With Billy Bob Thornton and the aforementioned late Mr. Ritter [who all play dual roles] it's not too bad. Not a classic but not bad [especially if you want to see what Ms. Thompson was hiding under those "detective" clothes on NYPD Blue]. Features include the theatrical trailer and credits and a synopsis of the story. [Problem is the "cast" part only mentions the three actors, Thornton, Metzler, and Ritter.] Still a fairly reasonable movie, for the most part. (I got it for cheap, but I won't say where, as it would be competition for Amazon.)

---

3* = average of 4* B&W, 2* color
This 1997 film has many scenes that alternate between color and black-and-white (B&W). The premise of the movie is that a person with the reality (i.e., in color) of spinal cancer can obtain significant relief by a complete delving into a world of fantasy (in B&W), which takes place in a 1957 film-noir setting. As a big fan of the black-and-white film-noir movies of the 1940s and 1950s, I found this film quite appealing. Although it probably was not meant this way, the film is an effective parody of the film-noir genre, complete with its stylized settings and simplistic dialog. The B&W components are well photographed with noir motifs (the classic venation blind effect, for instance), and the color scenes segue effectively and often cleverly into the B&W scenes, such as when hands on the wheel of a wheel chair transition into hands on the steering wheel of a car. Many events (as the tossing of a fortune cookie), lines, and of course characters from the color parts are reused in the B&W parts. In the at times tedious color part concerned with the modern world the unsympathetic cancer victim and his obnoxious sister and her boyfriend, who have some laughable lines, are admittedly quite off-putting. Neither color part nor B&W part stands alone, but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The jazz score of the movie is very appealing.

---

Better than others have indicated
I just finished watching this movie on my computer and was moved enough to get on Amazon and see about buying it.

If you enjoyed Demme's Something Wild, then you might like this film as well as I think Something Wild is great and I enjoyed this film. The film mixes a story set in "present-day reality" with a story set in a noir-day dream in a way that cleverly presents the principle that analyzing and interpreting our dreams can guide us in our daily lives. Not a principle I necessarily agree with, but I respect the way that principle is used as a theme in this movie. If you view it in this light the last 5 minutes or so are absolutely unnecessary, but they do serve to provide a pat resolution of all loose ends. I think the soundtrack is quite good also and that also prompted me to head to Amazon. Tom is someone with waay too much time on his hands (495 reviews and counting!) and while some of his reviews appear to be thoughtful I think in this instance he went in expecting a straight noir-film and was disappointed. So be warned, it's not all hard-boiled private dicks and rich, frisky dames, but it's entertaining in its own way.