Common Sense Media Review
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Bloody shootouts in bizarre, spittoon-worthy Western.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 16+?
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Gunslingers
What's the Story?
In GUNSLINGERS, it's 1903 in New York. Thomas Keller (Stephen Dorff) and his brother, Robert (Jeremy Kent Jackson), are involved in a shootout that results in the death of one member of the powerful Rockefeller family. Leaving Robert for dead, Thomas takes to the hills. With a huge bounty on his head, Thomas finds himself in the town of Redemption, where everyone is a wanted criminal who's been given a second chance. Led by Jericho (Costas Mandylor), the residents of Redemption fake Thomas' death and hide him away. One day, Val (Heather Graham) and her young daughter, Grace (Ava Monroe Tadross), arrive, looking for Thomas. Val doesn't believe that Thomas is dead and insists on seeing him. Meanwhile, Robert turns up, too, demanding that Thomas return to New York with him to collect the reward money. Thomas has no choice but to stand up and fight.
Is It Any Good?
Muddled and laughable, this terrible movie lands right in the spittoon with the worst Westerns of all time. Gunslingers is so bad that even Cage cultists are likely to wince at its ineptitudes and bizarre choices. Nothing here makes any sense, starting with the town of Redemption, where wanted criminals go to hide and start over, except that everyone seems to know about it, and anyone could easily go there. Characters' motivations make no sense; they're basically just placeholders between generic, badly choreographed shootouts. The movie uses digital blood spurts for those fights, and even the color of blood seems wrong (it's too dark). The color is also wrong on the whiskeys that characters drink in the saloon; rather than golden amber, they're blackish-purple.
Most of the cast seems lost, none more so than Scarlet Rose Stallone (Sylvester's daughter), who, even though the movie is set in the Old West, says things like "no clue" and "you guys." But most head-spinning of all is Nicolas Cage, who gives easily his most bizarre performance since The Wicker Man. He plays Ben, a former gunslinger who's hung up his guns for a Bible, only to pick them up again for the final shootout. He wears glasses tinted with crosses and speaks in a wheezy, raspy drawl ("there's FAHR in hell, Mary ... HOT FAHR!") as if he were an old-timey bluesman. Even the movie's title, Gunslingers, is vague and generic (which gunslingers are we talking about?). This movie is destined to go straight to Boot Hill.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Gunslingers's violence. How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?
How does the movie demonstrate the concept of redemption (if at all)?
What's interesting about the Western genre? In what ways does it use the past to tell stories about the present?
How are drinking and smoking depicted? Are they glamorized? Are there consequences? How does the time and setting affect the way that substance use is portrayed?
Do characters demonstrate teamwork?
Movie Details
- In theaters : April 11, 2025
- On DVD or streaming : April 11, 2025
- Cast : Stephen Dorff , Heather Graham , Nicolas Cage
- Director : Brian Skiba
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Lionsgate
- Genre : Western
- Run time : 104 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : bloody violence and some language
- Last updated : April 17, 2025
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