Review: Die in a Gunfight

Diego Boneta plays the spoiled ne’er do well son of a TV magnate who seems to see getting into violent incidents as some kind of romantically heroic ideal…even though he always ends up on the losing end. The title refers to Boneta’s supposedly ideal way of going out of this life. Speaking of romance, Boneta’s main squeeze is Alexandra Daddario, daughter of his father’s biggest rival (John Ralston). Or at least, she was his main squeeze. Dad saw fit to ship Daddario off to Paris years ago and the flame seemingly died out. That is, until Daddario returns from Paris. Unfortunately, Boneta now has a rival for her affections in Justin Chatwin, who was employed by Ralston to chaperone Daddario in Paris and who now has a romantic obsession with her. Daddario doesn’t feel the same, but when Ralston needs a whistle-blower rubbed out, he employs Chatwin for the job. Chatwin sees fit to suggest he’ll do the gig in exchange for his daughter’s hand in marriage. However, Ralston has already employed the services of stoner Aussie assassin Travis Fimmel, who has an encounter with Boneta at one point and strikes up a sort of weird friendship. Emmanuelle Chriqui plays the love of Fimmel’s life, whilst Wade Allain-Marcus plays Boneta’s best friend.

 

Stupid, obnoxious 2021 film from director Collin Schiffli (who previously directed a film called “Animals”) is full of mostly unlikeable characters, with lead Diego Boneta playing perhaps the least charming of all. Justin Chatwin is effectively sleazy and Aussie-born Travis Fimmel is surprisingly entertaining in a very, very weird performance. Buxom Alexandra Daddario is fine in a not very interesting role. The rest is the pits, with talented people like Billy Crudup (narrating) and John Ralston woefully underused.

 

Dumb and tedious, with a main character whom I simply didn’t give two shits about. A waste of time, though Travis Fimmel is terrifically loopy and unpredictable. The screenplay is by Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari (who both scripted “Ant-Man and the Wasp”), poorly mixing stoner/slacker film, soap opera, “Romeo and Juliet”, and “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”.

 

Rating: D

 

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