Tell me are you sick of all the clichés under the sun in Hollywood action movies? You know the ones I mean, like when the good guy's about to be killed, when his mate, who you thought was dead, comes alive and saves the day. Or how about the hero walking unarmed away from a huge gunfight with not a scratch on him. It gets very tiring and once you've seen it a couple of times it's not worth watching again and again. Well you can forget about that with 'The Way of the Gun', it's all thrown out of the window and what you're left with is a fast, slick and incredibly cool intelligent action move. It will thrill you and make you think at the same time.

From the start we are confronted with the two (anti) heroes ,Parker (Phillippe, at last in a good film after finding his feet in a series of OK teen flicks) and Longbaugh (Del Toro, excellent as always), who roam on the edge of the law and aware this is the way they will live and die. They make a living from petty crime and the odd blood and sperm donation, to fund their 'on the road' lifestyles. It's upon chance, when in a sperm bank they here of the big money in surrogate pregnancies, no they don't try it, but kidnap surrogate mum to be Robin (Lewis) and set off towards Mexico. Unfortunately they've kidnapped the unborn baby of someone you don't want to mess with, the man even the Mafia are afraid, Chidduck (Wilson).

Then things get really complicated, everybody knows something about each person and more and more parties get involved, all wanting a bit of the action. So with Parker and Longbaugh on the run with a heavily pregnant Robin and all the concerned parties in pursuit with their own agendas, everything is nicely lined up for an interesting finale.

The Way of he Gun is ace, it really is a cracker of a film, it's violent and bloody, but in no way glorifies the violence because the script is intelligent and all the characters get what they deserve. Del Toro and Phillippe are a great duo, with wit, sparkle and great presence, they're criminals but they're into far and there's no way out. The final 40 minute must be seen to be believed, a gun battle in a remote Mexican hotel, with mighty fine realistic action and bullet effects, which roared from the back to the front of the screen and felt like your head was going to get blown off.

The 'Western' movie hasn't been touched for a while, and though it's not strictly a 'Western' in the old sense of Cowboys and Indians,  it has the essence, style and class of the classic Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah films, with great flamenco music and a stylish nasty edge. Go see it, it's a great film amongst the mire of terrible movies out at the moment, with a classy intelligent script and some great performances, which won't leave you disappointed.

Reservoir Dogs

The Usual Suspects

The Wild Bunch