Saturday, January 30, 2016

Jane Got a Gun

The only reason I even knew about this movie is because I saw the trailer a handful of times before a few movies. As has been the case lately it seems, none of the other new releases looked interesting to me so I decided to check this out. Mainly to support Joel Edgerton, Natalie Portman, and director Gavin O'Connor, all of whom I'm a big fan of. It's been getting a lot of negative reviews but I really can't agree with them. While the movie does have some MAJOR issues, I don't think it's nearly as bad as people are saying. I actually kind of liked it.

Jane Got a Gun (Which is probably one of the worst titles I've ever heard of. I know naming a movie isn't easy but seriously? That's the best you can come up with?) is about a woman named Jane Hammond (Natalie Portman) who enlists the help of her ex-fiancee Dan Frost (Joel Edgerton) to save her husband Bill (Noah Emmerich) from a gang, lead by Colin McCann (Ewan McGregor) out to kill him.

This was filmed about three years ago and is only just now getting released. It went through so much hell before, during, and after production it's crazy. Someone else was originally suppose to direct this but, due to an argument with a producer, she never showed up the day they were scheduled to begin filming. The next day they were able to get Gavin O'Connor to sign on and try to salvage this. He's an amazing director mainly known for his sports dramas, including one of my favorite movies- Warrior. I think he does a good job with this considering the mess he had to work with.

The movie does have a direct to DVD feel at times, just with a slightly bigger budget and some nice cinematography. It's only about an hour and a half long but boy does that first hour move SO slowly. It's not until the last maybe 30 minutes that it starts to get interesting, even though the final showdown with the main villain was disappointing.

The real saving grace of the movie for me was Joel Edgerton and Natalie Portman. They had really good chemistry and you could tell they cared about their performances. I enjoyed their scenes together, Very touching. Joel Edgerton also did some rewrites on the script and while I don't know for sure, I'm guessing it included those wonderful scenes.

Jane Got a Gun is not something I would recommend seeing in theaters, but still check it out if you're into these types of movies. I definitely don't regret seeing this. However, I probably won't be buying it when it comes out on Blu-ray (unless it's on sale). But if I happen to see it on Netflix sure, I'll watch it again.

My Rating: 7/10

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