# Gun Shy (2000)

### reviewed by
Steve Rhodes

    GUN SHY
    A film review by Steve Rhodes
    Copyright 2000 Steve Rhodes
    RATING (0 TO ****):  * 1/2

How fast can a film with a killer cast die?

    In its very first scene.

GUN SHY, starring Liam Neeson, Oliver Platt and Sandra Bullock, opens in an airport restroom stall, as Neeson is forced into an embarrassingly bad routine as an undercover DEA agent known only as Charlie. As Charlie sits on the floor with his pants off, whining away, he scares the janitor and the audience, albeit for different reasons. The former because the janitor thinks Charlie must be a psycho on the loose and the latter because they fear, correctly as it turns out, that they've stumbled into a deadly awful movie.

GUN SHY, written and directed with an awkward obviousness by Eric Blakeney, is a comedy that's never funny. Even if some of the script might have sounded humorous on paper, on the big screen it is presented so lifelessly that you'll want to take a gun and put it out of its misery.

A nail-biting, pill-popping, booze-guzzling, chain-smoking, insecure DEA agent, Charlie has more problems than being involved in a sting operation that's going awry. He's also got some serious bowel trouble -- now that's a great unplumbed comedic source. This allows him to meet sadistic nurse Judy Tipp (Bullock), who gives him a barium enema while taunting him with "Think happy thoughts!"

Oliver Platt, notably embarrassed to be part of such a production -- watch him rolling his eyes as a clue to his fans -- plays Mafioso Fulvio Nesstra. When we first meet Fulvio, he is in the process of chopping his neighbor's hand off, Saudi Arabian style, for the crime of stealing Fulvio's newspaper. Fulvio, who'd rather be a gardener, doesn't like his lifestyle or his sloppy wife. One night he uses a toothbrush to clean every part of their little kitchen so that the linoleum and the Formica shine as bright as one of the mob's shiny chrome guns.

The film's coldly antiseptic look will probably match your reaction to this peculiar, would-be comedy. Charlie falls asleep during the middle of a big drug deal -- a problem you will likely have as well while watching it.

"Fun is overrated," Fulvio tells us at one point. "Where is it?" Charlie asks at another. "Where is it? Where is that happy feeling?" One thing's for sure, it's not in this anything-but-fun film. Arguably the worst picture that Sandra Bullock has ever been in, the movie was made by her own production company, so she has only herself to blame.

GUN SHY runs 1:41. It is rated R for violence, language and some brief nudity and would be acceptable for most teenagers.

Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com

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