Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane

I did not like this movie when I saw it in the theater. I basically thought it was another Quentin Tarantino rip off. But I saw it again on cable and i realized what this movie really was. It is basically a marvel of movie making. As said before, the acting and delivery is wooden, but that was what gave it it's charm. It reminded me of Mamet's House of Games. I think the director Joe Carnahan is the new Quentin Tarentino... and will be one to watch.

Either this is one genius piece of filmwork or someone owes a debt of gratitude to Oliver Stone & Quentin Tarantino. Either way, the film takes off like a super jet and you better do some serious 100 meter dashing just to keep up. With more witty dialogue than 3 Lock Stocks, 2 Trainspottings, and a Pulp Fiction in a pear tree. This little flik here is what independent filmmaking is all about. I heard they made it on only $8,000. Shoot, you give em 8 mil, turn it into a polished up mainstream remake, and you got a cult-classic that will stand the test of time A+++

Have you ever watched a VHS (remember those?) that was copied from a tape that was already a copy? If you did, you'd know the quality was really bad by that point. That's how copies work...the more generations you make, the worse it gets. That's pretty much how I'd sum up this film. It feels like a Tarantino rip off, and all but Tarantino's first couple movies are rip offs themselves (you can call it an "homage" all you want...the dude steals stuff and makes a few minor changes).

The plot is pretty basic at best. A couple of friends decide to save their failing used car dealership by taking on more than they can handle with a random assortment of bad guys. Of course by the time that happened I was already bored to tears. The writers try to make up for a tired story with some snappy dialog and succeed once or twice, but overall the whole thing is just one big failure. They should really remove the "blood" and "guts" part of the title...there's not much of the former and none of the latter. The "bullets" part is up for debate as well since there's not much in the way of gun play going on. Sadly, there's not much of anything going onat all. Period. It's just bad...even for a low budget rip off.

The teaser on the front of the movie box said, "better than The Usual Suspects!" I couldn't disagree more. This movie solely lacked any character development, was poorly acted, and had a dumb storyline. Don't waste your time.

It amazes me the impact that two movies ("Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction") can have. Quentin Tarantino has become by far the most imitated director of his generation on the strength of those two movies.

"Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane" is one in a long, long string of Tarantino ripoffs, but it's certainly not a bad one (like "Two Days in the Valley," which made me want to puke). As the title suggests, it's high-energy, high-impact, and gritty. Actual, indie-film gritty, not Hollywood faux gritty. Still, the overwhelming unoriginality of the whole affair kind of bogs it down.

Carnahan has since attained his own identity and gone on to vastly better things, though: "Narc" is perhaps the best cop movie I have ever seen.