Gunslingers

• Written, Produced, Directed, and Edited by Brian Skiba
• April 11, 2025

A reformed gunslinger’s newfound peace is challenged by violence and revenge.

Ever go into a movie expecting entertainment but instead you get crap. Such was the case for me with Gunslingers. The premise sounded weirdly excellent even if I expected Cage to outshine EVERYBODY in the movie. Yet with flaws in logic, poor casting, and character decisions that make no sense I was left irritated.

A town filled with deadly shootists in the Old West. That is at the core of Gunslingers, a movie that was marketed around the (tangential) presence of Nicolas Cage but as a film features much more Stephen Dorff. Cage is a presence in this, but he’s not a central character and there are significant stretches without him involved doing his weird voice. Showing him so heavily in what advertisements I saw and then being nothing but a supporting character felt like a cheat.

Cage plays Ben who operates a camera and reads the Bible in the town of Redemption. Not sure if he is the undertaker though. What I can’t understand is why he is doing that voice. Not because you shouldn’t do voices because when in character, but he is very hard to understand. You need subtitles.

Heather Graham plays Val who shows up with a child and she strikes me as a little bit too old to have a kid in the Wild West. Graham is in her mid-50s these days. That puts her out of modern childbearing years and those of the day in which this movie is set as well. Not the first movie I’ve viewed in the past few months where they cast someone(s) a little too old for a part in some attempt at star power.

Val is looking for gunslinger Thomas Keller (Stephen Dorff) who is one of three characters that get a full name. Some are referred to by last names, nicknames, and names that could be first or last. Thomas shot a Rockefeller for, well, reasons never quite explained a few years prior and has made his way to the town of Redemption where so many other killers are. Rockefellers were obscenely powerful at one point so it does give a good excuse why the threat of the story can and does move heaven and Earth.

How Thomas found out about the town I do not know. It would be easy to believe it’s some kind of secret known only to a handful of the lawless. Maybe people get invited. On the other hand, when Robert (Jeremy Kent Jackson) and his posse show up it sounds widely known. Robert is looking to not only collect on the bounty on Thomas (among a few other things) but collect on all bounties he can there. After that revelation it stands to reason others would do the same so why is this assault a surprise to the residents? Maybe Val knowing how everybody in town is wanted is the answer.

Some explanation of why this town has been avoided by law enforcement was necessary. Instead writer, producer, director, and editor Brian Skiba pulled a JJ Abrams and tried to inundate the senses while skipping development of the story. Even your dumbest movie needs to think a smidge.

Thomas and Robert are brothers. In the opener Thomas catches Robert on fire in their struggle. He puts the fire out and skedaddles yet swears up and down later he tried to help the guy. He put out the flames and then ran. We do not see aid attempted beyond putting the fire out on an individual with serious third-degree burns. More so because those burns occurred in the 1800s and the medical technology of today was not available then.  Just do the cliché thing and show Thomas bumping into somebody and telling them to get a doctor.

Cigars and cigarettes are puffed upon in this movie. Neither is an issue unless you’re using modern cigarettes with the paper that identifies where the filter is. That’s a pretty modern thing. That annoys me. Spend a couple of bucks and get the paper and tobacco to roll your own. It may not be 100% historically accurate but it does look a lot better than something you bought at the gas station just before filming. 

It should come as no surprise that Thomas was sleeping with Robert’s wife Val and the brother knew about it. How dysfunctional is your family if that happens? But anyway, even worse of a surprise is that the daughter that accompanies the old mother of Heather Graham is actually fugitive brother’s daughter.

During the assault the town holds up in the saloon which does make sense since it would be one of the bigger buildings The problem is they have an escape tunnel in it where at least one of the one fugitives sneaks out when they’re under siege to go and talk to the villain of the movie to make a deal as is often the case. Why don’t they all sneak out and flee? Or at the minimum sneak out and ambush the people that were surrounding them? If it was just a basement to hide goods that’s one thing but there’s an exit!

While Cage is always good, Dorff and Graham are so past their prime I kinda forgot about them until this. Tzi Ma has a supporting role as Lin who is in town after some murderous revenge and is probably the second best in the movie but his character matters little. The rest of the cast is filled with refugees from Disney, Nickelodeon, and other assorted outlets where strong ability is not needed. You just need to forget you went to Julliard and be okay playing one of several wacky supporting characters.

The action scenes I greeted with a shrug. Maybe because once the logic fell apart completely not even the odd choices of Cage could help elevate things. With actors far too old and decisions that make no sense, you just tune out to the point of watching a series of pictures drift by before you realize that you have not really been watching.

Skiba does create an atmosphere with the occasional use of rain that seems to miss the actors standing in it. Seriously. I swear in one scene the guy is dry yet it is clearly raining. The production values are quite nice in comparison to other films. Good job there.

I really wanted to like Gunslingers, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. With age-inappropriate actors and elements that just don’t make sense and too little Nick Cage it didn’t live up to its potential. I kind of feel like I wasted my time.