Is Mean Guns one of the better films in the expansive oeuvre of late VHS schlock auteur Albert Pyun? I guess that depends on what you’re looking for when you’re craving something cheap and silly at midnight on a Sunday morning. The film lacks the maniacal genre creativity of The Sword and the Sorcerer, Dollman or Radioactive Dreams. It isn’t as successful as an action film as Kickboxer 2 or Nemesis. But to its credit, the cost-cutting corners cut aren’t as obvious as the Nemesis sequels or many of Pyun’s other films. If anything, raw efficiency is the name of the game with Mean Guns, which delivers a threadbare plot, competent style and an excessive amount of gun violence in a tight 90-minute package.
Christopher Lambert stars as Lou, one of 100 professional killers and criminals trapped in a high-tech prison by Vincent Moon (Ice-T), who represents a vast criminal syndicate determined to wipe out everyone in the building for slights to their organization. The rules are simple: The final three survivors can walk away with their lives and a cool $10 million. If the timer runs out and more than three contestants remain, however, everyone dies.
It’s a solid pulp premise, and Pyun takes advantage of the simplicity to keep his story moving. It’s a mid-90s post-Pulp Fiction film, so naturally every character has a colorful backstory and poppy dialogue to sell themselves to the audience. Character names like Barbie, Blondie and Slick populate the picture. None of the characters are especially memorable, but they get the job done, which mostly consists of walking into rooms and firing guns.
There didn’t seem to be any budget for squib work, so most of the actual hits are off-camera; no matter how many guns are fired, we rarely actually see the shots connect. There’s an imaginative goofiness on display that only really works because it’s Pyun behind the camera, and his infectious enthusiasm for filmmaking means the movie never stops long enough to feel entirely stupid.
Of course, it is still pretty ridiculous, and that extends to the soundtrack, filled inexplicably with mambo music at the strangest times. Sure, the score occasionally also lapses into knockoff Morricone when the standoffs turn face-to-face, but that only makes the score feel even more offbeat.
As someone relatively new to watching Pyun en masse, Mean Guns isn’t one of my favorites. But it still delivers the nostalgic charm of the sort of cinema that once filled video stores between more famous releases, just waiting for the dedicated renter to stumble upon it after burning through everything else available. It’s violent and cool enough to have made an impression on, say, whatever 14-year-olds probably rented it under their parents’ inattentive eyes. Speaking from experience, I rented plenty of shit like Mean Guns at that age. It’s the sort of film now destined to live on through programs like the MVD Rewind Collection — a series dedicated to collectors my age and a little above who desperately wish we could feel the way we did back then, even if for one fleeting moment in the witching hour.
Special Features
- 1080p HD presentation in 2.35:1 aspect ratio
- LPCM 2.0 Stereo audio
- Optional English, Spanish and French subtitles
- Audio commentary from Pyun
- Introduction by Pyun
- Interview with producer Gary Schmoeller
- Interview with executive producer Paul Rosenblum
- Interview with composer Anthony Riparetti
- Original theatrical trailer
- Reversible artwork
- Collectible mini-poster
- Limited-edition slipcover (first pressing only)