Guns for Hire (2015) User Reviews

Missing the mark entirely

[quincytheodore · 3/10 · 21 January 2016]

There's an attempt to create a smart exchange of wit and bullets here, although the material lacks the depth for assembly of rogue gallery. Sadly, it doesn't deliver in term of style as well, since it spends too much time portraying the struggle with overreaching extravagance. Furthering the awkward nature is the dubious script which sounds like poor interpretation of Mexican low grade action movies' one liner.

It follows the strange lead female as she's thrown in noir web of assassination and conspiracy, the only consistent part is next subplot will be more ridiculous than before. For most parts, acting is mediocre, the actors can't cover the silliness of it all. Their dialogues are highly surreal, not in preferable over-the-top manner either. At one point, they really appear to be throwing rejected catchphrases from 80s to each other.

The surprising thing is the movie manages to present Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Orlando Jones. However, they can't carry the movie with the material given to them, it's not that one or two decent performances could overcome the campy unrealistic nature anyway. The movie also tries to shoehorn some fanservice, but this just makes the entire scheme more muddled as it tries to produce level of polish it can't afford.

Action department is also subpar. In some other movies like Smokin' Aces or Shoot 'Em Up, they do all sorts of ridiculous stunts, this movie barely has anything resembling high octane choreography. Perhaps, the whole thing is more intended to be a parody, yet the shifting tone is jarring. Not to mention, it's not exactly humorous.

With a mess of awful logic in the plot, shifty acting and lack of solid direction, this one is not a decent hire.

Some great ideas, fails in execution

[imdb-38015 · 3/10 · 17 September 2016]

The good: This movie has some really quirky/original plot ideas. A female tow-truck driver who moonlights as an assassin gets hired by another woman who wants to be killed.

Sounds good eh?

The bad: Aside from a few short cameos by some of my favourite actors, this film basically consists of static shots where two women argue with each other. It is obvious that the scenes were meant to be witty and funny however they fail completely in that regard. The dialogue is clumsy and the characters are unlikeable.

This is one of the few films I've not been able to sit through (and I sat through The Return of the Lobster Man From Mars!) The only reason I'm giving this 3 stars instead of 1 is because I really do believe the concept of the movie could have worked

Only thing worth seeing in this movie is Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

[emmalisejohansson · 3/10 · 15 February 2022]

This movie is like a long episode of one of your average 90's tv shows. Maybe Sunset Beach or any of those dussin for a dine shows. It's all sjot in a studio with bad lighting and it's a mystery to me that the movie could gather up any kind of budget. The actors are flat. The one sticking out to me though , is JDM who shows some of the qualities we see in n Negan.

Waste of time and money! 2/10

[leonblackwood · 2/10 · 6 February 2016]

Review: What a boring, uninteresting movie! The movie seemed cheap and the storyline was awful. With a title like, Guns For Hire, I was expecting some form of action, especially as Jeffrey Dean Morgan is holding a gun on the cover but there's no action at all. Its about a suicidal blonde, Athena (Ever Carradine), who hires a tow truck driver/assassin, Beatle (Michele Hicks) to kill her. As Athena has no money, she signs over an insurance policy to Beatle, which will pay for the assassination. While there waiting for the paperwork to come through, Athena moves in with Beatle and they start to become close, even though the situation is slightly warped. Beatle regularly sees a psychiatrist, Dr. Vanderark (Orlando Jones), who thinks that her whole assassin story is in her mind and she has a strange relationship with a hooker/stripper, Carla (Sarah Shahi), who actually has feelings for her. They also have a brutal hit-man on there tail, Bruce (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who is hired by Athena's crooked previous employer, Kyle (Ben Mendelsohn). On top of that, Detective Holt, Raffaello Degruttola is following Athena and Beatles every move and he builds a case to try and stop Beatle in her tracks. Sounds exciting but it really wasn't. Most of the footage is about Athena and Beatles relationship, which is quite boring but the major twist at the end was surprising. I personally did lose interest after a while and the acting was quite bad from the two leading characters. I was expecting more from Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Ben Mendelsohn, who usually put in decent performances but the awful script didn't bring the best out of them. I couldn't really see the comedy side of the movie because there wasn't any wit in the script at all but I did stick with the plot because I really couldn't see were the film was going. When all was revealed I still wasn't that impressed so it has to get the thumbs down from me. Disappointing! 

Round-Up: This is the first and only movie directed and written by Donna Robinson, who really didn't do a good job with this film. There's a few unnecessary lesbian scenes and there wasn't much depth to any of the characters, which made if feel like this movie was made without much thought. There were some good actors on board, who really got wasted because of the awful storyline, so it has to go down as a bad day at the office.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their drama/thriller/comedies starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Ben Mendelsohn, Tony Shalhoub, Orlando Jones, Ever Carradine, Michele Hicks, Sarah Shahi and Ivvana Milicevic. 2/10

Votes For Hire... I mean Guns For Hire... Or do I?

[Seth_Rogue_One · 2/10 · 24 January 2017]

Considering a somewhat acceptable rating of 5.4/10 and how absolutely awful and embarrassment of a movie this is to everyone involved, I can only come to the conclusion that the higher ratings were from either people directly involved or people that were paid to fix the rating (their are legitamite businesses that specialises in that).

I don't know what got somewhat respectable actors like Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Orlando Jones and Tony Shalhoub to appear in this tired crapfest, and based on their performances (which are their worst of their careers by far) I can only suspect that they were dared into making appearances in it or something.

The reason I gave it a 2 instead of a 1 is because I have to be honest, I stopped watching halfway through, there was literally nothing that was remotely interesting. Not even the terribly constructed cheesy lesbian sex-scenes (which starts already by the startcredits of the film) could keep my interest.

Oh yeah the movie was filmed 10 years ago, but no company wanted to release it. Then Jeffrey Dean Morgan got signed on for a role on the biggest TV show on earth THE WALKING DEAD, and what do you know all of a sudden there was interest enough to release it and so it was in the last week of 2015. But he's not the lead for the record and again, truly terrible.

Quite seriously pathetic

[paxdriver · 2/10 · 11 January 2016]

Wow.

From awkward over gesturing not matching emphasis or tone, to children's diagrams in the background of the detective office (like you need a diagram to visually map out the relationships between 3 people), to the poorly worded phrases like "in your infinitely wise logic that i'm too cabbage headed to grasp..." and peppered over a lesbian undertone for absolutely no reason.

This is quite possibly one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It is actually bad enough to be funny if you're in good company and the right mood enhancers...

Sorry

[albrechtcm · 1/10 · 30 December 2015]

Unfortunately, although this film tries to be very clever, and it first it does seem to be, it quickly deteriorates into a sorry mess. A woman who advertises herself as a tow truck service cum assassin, waits patiently in a local park for the principal to show up, drop a paper bag of presumably money into a wastebasket and move on. The hit woman than goes and gets the money, takes it home and stashes the bag in a hole she has made beneath the floorboards under her bed. During this time she strikes up an erotic relationship with a woman who wants the hit woman to kill her. The acting throughout this film is worse than sophomoric. The only good (even outstanding) performance is by Jeffery Dean Morgan. I can't imagine how this fine actor got talked into this film. Orlando Jones too has a small role, but doesn't get a chance to do much of anything. Okay, all the above is amateurish and we can all forgive a Top Ramen budget, but the real killer is the end when we realize we've been made the butt of a big joke. Everything we've just watched was nothing but the figment of a madman's hallucinations. Hah hah. This is insulting to me, and it's highly unoriginal, the first such film case going back at least to 1920. At the time it was considered unique and clever. Now, ninety-five years later, it's really blah.

IMDb's current 5+ score is generously high

[iantrader · 3/10 · 29 September 2016]

Beware of writer/directors. Makes you wonder how people get finance. But that's the movie business, folks!

The title is a total misnomer although the original title, The Adventures of Beatle, is no better. There's no action, just some gratuitous lesbian sex and torture scenes, although not at the same time.

The disjointed 'story/plot' is told in flashback and, yes, you might want to know how the characters and their relationship pan out but you'll never know. There is a very subtle hint (although it could go either way) at the end but you'll have probably walked out or switched off before you get that far.

Although if you do stay the course - brave soul - you won't see the ending coming - it's so far left field - but it does nothing to bring any of the story threads to a conclusion.

IMDb's current 5+ score is generously high.

Of course it's silly and ridiculous . . . and quite fun

[charles000 · 7/10 · 3 August 2016]

Of course it's silly and ridiculous . . . and quite fun

OK, some of the reviewers here might be over thinking this just a bit, maybe?

C'mon, we're not talking "Gone With the Wind" here . . .

No, this isn't spectacular drama with intensely portrayed characters and deep probing plot lines.

Sometimes, you just have to dive in with no specific expectations and go with it.

And in this case, it works.

Well, I'll admit to having just a bit of a crush on Michele Hicks.

I mean, really, what could be more lovable than a way out on the fringe edgy tow truck driver and assassin with mysterious behavioral traits?

So, about the aforementioned plot lines (sketchy as such may be).

No spoilers, so not much detail offered here, except to say that the ending may be simplistically disappointing to some, and cleverly contrived to others.

But that's not really the point, at least in my opinion.

The meandering moment to moment scenarios are more like a series comedic vignettes loosely woven together to form a sort of quasi- quilt of an emergent story.

The concept is to simply enjoy the delightfully bizarre nature of this entire production, and just go with it.

Is this a 10? No, hardly . . . but as a low budget indie dark comedy with some kinky twists, I'll give it a solid 7.

Just my opinion.

enjoyable

[smhcustomwooddesigns · 8/10 · 26 January 2016]

This is definitely an indie film. It doesn't have any bells or whistles and it has some production quality issues that go along with low budget films. The cast is stellar. While this is not the best film I have ever seen, it made a cold winter's day pass entertainingly. It's clearly a tongue in check dark comedy, which other might have missed or will miss. For what it's worth it kept me entertained and is pretty short. The story while confusing at times came together for me at the end. Jeffrey Morgan was great, though not in it as much as I would have liked. I am guessing this will be one of those films that people will either get and like or not and hate. for me I liked it.

Weird indie

[cooperr-59344 · 7/10 · 25 January 2017]

I was looking for something to stream. This popped up with a decent cast, I thought I would give it a watch. Let's be clear, this is a low budget film. Even though it says Sony and the cast, it is a low budget indie. It was weird, but not bad. If you know what you are getting, it is entertaining. I understand some others being brutal with their reviews as they probably fell for the non stop action label. It is not an action film. There is little action. Not sure why they went that route as it is sure to make some mad. If you know this going in, it will not disappoint. They should have pushed it as an odd indie and then probably would have gotten better feedback. Anyway, it starts off a little slow, but it kept my interest, again it is weird. The ending you will love or hate for sure. I liked it, but understand how someone might get angry with it. It's a good watch for an afternoon as long as you know what you are getting....a low budget odd film. I truly think this is one you will either like or totally hate. thus the varying reviews.

A Dark Comedy Well Worth A View

[sportsbros808 · 8/10 · 29 January 2016]

First this first: a lot of people are under the impression that Guns For Hire is an action film. It is not. While there is some action sequences in it, it is really a dark comedy, and a fairly witty one at that.

As a small budget indie film the production is very good. Orlando Jones and Tony Shalhoub originally drew me to this title but it was a pleasant surprise to see Sarah Shahi in the cast as well. I have been a fan of hers since I first saw her in Sleeper Cell.

Without giving too much away, the story moves along nicely without too much padding or unnecessary exposition. The dialog does seem a little overwrought at times but the entire cast does an excellent job. There are some very funny lines in this film, mostly delivered by Jeffery Dean Morgan, that make is clear you are watching a very smart, dark comedy.

Athena (played by Ever Carradine) hires Beatle (Michelle Hicks) to kill her. However, Athena is already being stalked by a killer thanks to some dealings in her past. And that is the set up for the rest of the story. Normally I can pretty much tell how a film like this is going to end but I was pleasantly surprised at this ending. The payoff at the end was worth the wait.

The romance between Athena and Beatle develops naturally and does not seemed rushed or shoehorned in like so many other movies out today. I'm sure there will be some that object to any same sex relationships in films but this one does not seem to be gratuitous of there only for shock value.

With some witty dialogue, solid performances, surprising plot twists and just enough action to keep the story moving Guns For Hire deserves a look.

IF YOU WANT TO GET KILLED, DO THAT AGAIN

[nogodnomasters · 8/10 · 23 May 2018]

This is an odd quirky twisty indy style film that keeps the viewer engaged. Beatle Boyin (Michele Hicks) is being interrogated by Detective Randy Holt (Raffaello Degruttola). She is cool, calm, and quiet during his story telling which makes up the bulk of the film. Beatle is an assassin for hire. She has made a video and has a card advertising her assassination skill and towing service. There is also the printed brochure. Carla (Sarah Shahi) is a stripper/prostitute who Beatle hooks up with once a week. She also visits a "shrink" (Orlando Jones) who thinks her hitman persona is a fantasy. She meets Athena (Ever Carradine), a prospective client, and their relationship becomes complicated.

I had to keep watching the film as a quirky mystery with few characters. The humor is dry. The ending was unexpected.

Guide: F-bomb. FF sex. Brief nudity (Sarah Shahi, Michele Hicks)

A Nice Surprise

[geraldyelverton · 9/10 · 8 June 2016]

I recently had the pleasure of viewing Guns For Hire. Before watching I had never heard of the film before, so I was a bit skeptical with low expectations. I was pleasantly surprised when the film exceeded every expectation I could have had. The movie was an absolute treat to watch. The writing was superb. Often little known films have a slew a problems which all start with the writing. The story easily flowed and the plot unfolded naturally. The characters were fully developed and seemed more like genuine individuals instead of plot devices. The dialogue was naturalistic and the verbiage was contemporary. The acting was top notch. The cinematography was stylistic and the direction was fluid.

I definitely recommend this film to anyone who is a movie fan. You will not be disappointed as it is an easy watch.