GUN SHY

UK, 2017, 86 minutes, Colour.
Antonio Banderas, Olga Kurylenko, Ben Cura, Mark Valley, Aisling Loftis, Martin Dingle Wall, David Mitchell.
Directed by Simon West.

There are a number of blogging fans for this film, finding it amusing and funny. On the other hand, critics were not enthusiastic at all. The reviewer from Variety called it “a witless, graceless farce�.

This review is inclined to the latter.

Some people asked what possessed Antonio Banderas to take on this role. More than justified question. Here he plays an ageing rock star, a bassist in a band which got rid of him. He pretends to be British and not to understand Spanish though his character was born in Chile, where much of this film was filmed. He does nothing, drinks, bemoans his past. He has long locks which look rather unconvincing and dresses in garish robes in bright colours. He has married a former model, played by Olga Kurylenko, who, somewhat inexplicably, seems devoted to him.

They go to Chile for a holiday, winter, an abandoned hotel. She cannot persuade him to go for a tour of the mountains to see the llamas. Off she goes, finds that some of the group want to hunt and shoot the llamas and she causes some uproar. In the meantime, a group of rebels in the mountains (from respectable professions) abduct up the group. They are fans of the musician’s music and know the lyrics, delighting to find they have captured the wife and can ask a big ransom. She tries to escape but has to go along with them until she is rescued.

The singer phones his agent in London, an enjoyable cameo by David Mitchell, who sends his assistant to Chile to deal with the matter. She also has an Australian mercenary, an unpleasant character. In the meantime, the singer tries to get involved himself in rescuing his wife. Also in the meantime, an ambitious member of the American Embassy in Santiago bullies one of the local secretaries, wants to suggest that this is a terrorist abduction and to be treated as such with him going into action to the rescue.

What follows is a whole lot of shenanigans and complications. The direction is by Simon West who made such action films as Con Air, Lara Croft Tomb Raider, The General’s Daughter as well as features with Jason Statham, The Mechanic, Wild Card.