Guncrazy 10/23 Blu-ray (Rental)

Since Anita Minteer (Drew Barrymore, 50 First Dates) was nine, every man she ever met has wanted only one thing. But when she becomes pen-pals with imprisoned convict Howard Hickock (James LeGros, Drugstore Cowboy), she gains self-confidence and sees a possible escape from the torment of her everyday life.Howard's infatuation with guns drives Anita to them as well. But with this new found strength in her hands, she murders her sexually abusive guardian. Now with Howard out on parole and the police on their back, there can be no turning back. In the style of BONNIE & CLYDE, GUNCRAZY tells the story of two young lovers on the run from the law.GUNCRAZY marks the directorial debut of Tamra Davis (Crossroads, Billy Madison) with a Golden Globe® nominated performance by Drew Barrymore and an all-star supporting cast that includes Jeremy Davies (Saving Private Ryan), Rodney Harvey (My Own Private Idaho), Michael Ironside (Top Gun), Ione Skye (Say Anything...) and Billy Drago (The Untouchables) Review Set against the kind of down-at-heel trailer park rarely seen in recent American cinema, this powerful and unexpectedly good low-budgeter seems decades away from the staple wish-fulfillment fantasy of most 90s teen movies. Rooted in the ambiguously doomed 70s spirit of Badlands or Thieves Like Us, with a few Thelma & Louise licks thrown in for good measure, this has a title no doubt intentionally identical to Gun Crazy, the 1949 offering that, along with They Live By Night, inaugurated the killer couple-on-the-road movie. Anita (Barrymore), a dirt-poor schoolgirl , enters into a remarkably pure but dangerous relationship with pen-pal James Le Gros, a gun-happy and none-too-bright convict. After learning how to use a gun in preparation for her first meeting with her dream guy, Anita murders her mother's sexually abusive boyfriend (Dallesandro) almost for the practice, and when her paroled man comes to town, circumstances force them into further killing. In Bonnie And Clyde mode, the well-intentioned outlaws (when they try to rob a bar, the customers plead poverty and the pair feel obliged to give back the money) dash across country to find Anita's mother, a junkie hooker. The downbeat storyline is familiar right to the gloomy ending, but the script is tough and gritty and all the supporting cast are excellent. Michael Ironside and Billy Drago, usually seen as psycho villains, here show they can act, as a probation officer and a snake-handling preacher respectively, while lone Skye turns in another weirdly stoned cameo as Ironside's airhead daughter. Director Davis does especially good work with the pouting Barrymore, who successfully broke into the adult phase of her career. Tough and gritty, and featuring Barrymore's graduation from teen starlet to can-act movie star, Guncrazy has much to recommend it. --Kim Newman, Empire Excellent screenplay... Director Tamra Davis has made a remarkably rich melodrama with a strong narrative line and vivid characters... Very accomplished... cruelly entertaining... ''Guncrazy'' pays homage to its predecessors while also sending them up. --Vincent Canby, The New York Times