To me, this movie is perfection.

Pretty Good

best movie i've ever seen.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The film looks at the impact of guns and their violence in 3 settings- through the impact on the mother (Marcia Gay Harden) and brother of a Columbine High type shooter in Oregon, a frustrated school principal (Forrest Whittaker) in inner city Chicago, and in a gun store in Charlottesville Virginia with grandfather-owner (Donald Sutherland) and his granddaughter (Linda Cardinelli from ER). This movie is slow, dull, flat and disorganized. It makes no coherent points. Don't waste an hour and a half with it. The first effort for this director is a waste of everyone's time. The 2002 version with James Coburn is infinitely more lively and interesting.

American Gun is a poorly titled film about how hard life is, and how people cope with tragic events. Parts are a take off of the Columbine massacre and details the lives of people involved before and after a similar event. The alcoholic mother and the brother of one of the killers, a cop that was first on the scene of the event and suffers PTSD. The vengeance oriented psychosis of the poorly equipped neighbors of the killer's family and the general public. A gun store owner and his grand daughter who is uncomfortable around guns but forced (somehow) to work at the gun store, a school principle living in a bad part of town working in a troubled school, some school kids that pass through a bad part of town as part of their daily life. The movie fails miserably trying to blame the lunacy of child killers and violent crime on the availability of guns. Violent and troubled people who want to kill are not logical thinkers; they see only the opportunity for violence and take it whether they use a gun, knife, car, or any other weapon. Not given the opportunity to get a gun, these people will inevitably resort to other methods of killing.

Character study interweaves different American's particular situations dealing with guns, and although there are some heartfelt moments and subtle touches of authenticity, this movie generally wastes the majority of it's time trying to get viewers involved with characters that are inadequately portrayed, with direction that is competent at best. While there are moments of surprising observation and relevance, throughout the movie most of these character's barely make a register on the viewers emotions due to the detached approach the filmmaker choose, I suppose as an attempt to emulate realism and lend the film some depth. Unfortunately, this backfires, as Avelino simply does not have the ammunition suitable to deliver the riveting drama he attempts here. While a few of the stories retain slight interest, no doubt due to the sometimes worthwhile cast, at least half of the plot here veers off to a tangent that really has no substance in dealing with the topic at hand, or the characters underlying emotions. Sutherland's chapter in particular seemed like a total throwaway for this movie, and completely under-utilizes the actor's immense talent. All and all, this is not a terrible movie. It addresses at least a few painful gun related issues lingering around the American psyche, but unfortunately it addresses these issues in a completely flat and unengaging way.

Amazing performances. Chris Marquette, Marcia Gay Harden, Forest Whitaker, Tony Goldwyn all turn in arguably career-best performances.But all of the acting is great! At times gut-wrenching to watch. ..When Tony Goldwyn (Frank) breaks down in his cop car, you can't help but feel the pain he is portraying right along with him. Arlen Escarpeta (Jay) is brilliant at displaying the struggle of a young intelligent man trying to grow up in a place where everything is set against him. Far from being anti-gun propaganda, it is a balanced portrayal of how guns affect the daily lives of Americans. You might even find yourself asking "Should I purchase a gun for protection?" Of course that leads to the debate: "If nobody had a gun, would I need protection?" See it with a friend and you will be discussing the pros and cons of guns in America for hours. All in all a film very worthy of attention.