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Another winning release from TLA Video. 

The influences of early Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino live on in Danish director Shaky Gonzalez.  Born in Chile, Shaky now spends his days in Copenhagen making movies.  His Latino heritage blends well with the Scandinavian way of life.  Pistoleros is a high energy shoot ‘em up flick that were a dime a dozen 15 years ago.  The low budget film is filled with gun fights, several double crosses, fancy camera work and flashbacks within flashbacks all crammed into an Old West motif. 

Embodying a modern day spaghetti western, Pistoleros is about two filmmakers who sit down in a bar with a rough looking man named Crazy Uffe (Dennis Haladyn).  They’ve purchased the rights to his story so they can make it into a movie.  Uffe regales them with the story of about his part in a heist gone wrong and the five million Danish crowns that are still missing.  Frank Lowies (Erik Holmey, who looks like a more weathered version of Mickey Rourke) planned a great crime with several cohorts that would make all of them millionaires several times over.  As you would imagine, it all goes to pot and Frank ends up hiding the money and the only clues to the money are three tattoos on three different people.  Once word gets out about the tattoos and the hidden money, it becomes a race to the end to find out where it is and who can find it first.  Along the way, there is a host of unsavory characters, gun battles and double crosses.

Writer/director Shaky Gonzales knows how to tell a story and thanks to some clever plot devices, keeps Pistoleros from becoming a complete mess, which could happen at any minute especially after Krelle (Thure Lindhardt) shows up to tell how the robbery got bungled in the first place halfway through Uffe’s flashback.  Neither Uffe nor Krelle are very reliable narrators and you have to take what they say with a grain of salt. Some of the parts may be embellished and some of it might be a downright lie including the fact that there may or may not be any hidden money.

This was definitely shot on a shoestring budget but it shows that with a talented group of individuals, that doesn’t have to become a liability.  Some of the bits of business don’t work (most of the stripper stuff) but the film pulls off the action and humor with great flair.  Shaky wraps everything up in a spaghetti western style complete with sepia tones and Sergio Leone style standoff gun battles.  Just when you think you’ve got it all figured out at the end, the credits role and there is some home footage that throws everything off. 

TLA has released Pistoleros on the Danger After Dark imprint and so far they’ve released some quality titles.  Sadly the only extras you’ll find are trailers.  Regardless of lack of features, the film stands on its own and is a solid rental and worthy of a purchase.  If you’re tired of all the formula action films that have come out lately, put this in your NetFlix queue and get ready for some fun.

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