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In November of 1994, Marvel Comics launched an X-Men title to feature an almost all-brand-new crop of teen characters called, collectively, Generation X. The team consisted of the established X-Woman Jubilee, joined by striking superpowered high-schoolers like Chamber, Husk, Skin, Mondo, M, and Synch. The team was overseen by Banshee and the White Queen, and their adventures aimed to be hipper and edgier -- in that MTV sort of way -- than those of their adult counterparts. 

"Generation X" was a modest hit with comics readers, but not enough to stick around indefinitely. The series ended after three years and 75 issues. The characters, however, were perfect fodder for a "young 'n' hip" version of the X-Men, a fact that TV producers at Fox latched onto. In 1996, Fox executive producer Eric Blakeney, one of the writers of "21 Jump Street," felt he could take his previous show's "teens as undercover law enforcers" shtick,...

I had never heard of this comedy-thriller, and the good news is that it’s a pleasant surprise, thoroughly enjoyable. The toughest kind of filmmaking must be making comedy seem effortless, and that’s what Eric Blakeney does in this quirky, near-screwball take on the done-to-death drug deal undercover thriller. Liam Neeson is sensational, and producer Sandra Bullock is at her most charming. Even the flatulence jokes are funny.

Gun Shy

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

2000 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 101 min. / Street Date October 23, 2018 / 24.95

Starring: Liam Neeson, Sandra Bullock, Oliver Platt, José Zúñiga, Michael DeLorenzo, Andy Lauer, Richard Schiff, Paul Ben-Victor, Gregg Daniel, Ben Weber, Sandra Bullock, Mary McCormack, Michael Mantell, Mitch Pileggi, Michael Weatherly, Frank Vincent.

Cinematography: Tom Richmond

Film Editor: Pamela Martin

Original Music: Rolfe Kent

Produced by Sandra Bullock

Written and Directed by Eric Blakeney

I’d just been thinking about classic Screwball Comedies when Eric Blakeney’s Gun Shy arrived,...

Variety reports that Julianne Moore is set to co-star with Richard Gere in the thriller Without Apparent Motive for director Bille August. Moore would play a high-society femme fatale who becomes the focal point of a serial killer investigation by an L.A. detective (Gere), who comes to believe she may be a suspect in the killing of three high-profile businessmen; Eric Blakeney (Gun Shy) penned the script.

How does an addled, risk-taking, ready-to-retire DEA agent handle fear when he could die any day? Judging from the sparse turnout at its first public screening in Hollywood at General Cinema's Galaxy, there's not a big public interest in the answer to this question pitched as the miscalculated piffle that is "Gun Shy".

A Hollywood Pictures presentation way shy of achieving its goal -- adult comedy centered on the lampooning of arch criminal and big-league law-enforcement types -- "Gun Shy" is produced by supporting player Sandra Bullock and stars Liam Neeson in a bid to lighten up after his weightier big-screen duties.

Apart from a good line now and then, and a game supporting cast, writer-director Eric Blakeney's debut struggles to keep one's interest in a convoluted plot set in the transportable milieu of high-stakes money laundering. But worse than its numbing roundelay of deals and meetings and specious character development is its relentless moodiness.

Opening with a complex shot that literally swoops in on a frazzled DEA veteran Charlie (Neeson), pantless and talking to himself in an airport bathroom stall, "Gun Shy" has an ongoing text about the lead's nervous bowels. A wreck after an unusually dangerous assignment in which he almost died, Charlie's need to "share" brings a straight-arrow psychiatrist (Michael Mantell) into his life.

Easily lured into a group session, self-absorbed Charlie impresses the half-dozen men who wallow in picky complaints and phobias. Thankfully, in the early going, things move along quickly, but the setup is still dragged out. Indeed, the whole movie becomes a setup for a payoff that doesn't happen.

In brief, Charlie in a delicate undercover role acts as a go-between for a filthy rich Colombian (Jose Zuniga) looking to launder drug money and a disgruntled mob hit man Fulvio (Oliver Platt) with connections to an enthusiastic Wall Street broker (Andy Lauer). The scenario is up to something interesting -- Charlie and Fulvio, like characters in a John Woo movie, are comrades deep down -- but there's some grave miscalculations about what else to throw into the pot.

Bullock shows up as an enema-giving romantic interest for Charlie, berating the agent for "popping pills and shitting in his pants" when he should just chill out. In one gratuitous scene in a men's room, sourpuss sociopath Fulvio shoots a testicle off the other Colombian, Estuvio (Michael DeLorenzo), as they urinate. There's no explanation for the latter's subdued response to this incident -- there are many more scenes following with the three characters together that have little or no tension.

Bordering on the offensive because of its overall artless qualities mixed with glib shock tactics posing as inventive storytelling, "Gun Shy" is ultimately tedious. Late complications include Charlie's boss (Mitch Pileggi) turning out to be a rat and the lead having to slug in public one of his therapy mates (Richard Schiff) who threatens to blow his cover. Bullock's gardening lover unclogs her way into Charlie's bed, and she helps out in the endless finale. Andy Lauer, Mary McCormack and Frank Vincent are relatively successful in supporting roles.

GUN SHY

Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

Hollywood Pictures

Fortis Films

Screenwriter-director:Eric Blakeney

Producer:Sandra Bullock

Director of photography:Tom Richmond

Production designer:Maher Ahmad

Editor:Pamela Martin

Costume designer:Mary Claire Hannan

Music:Rolfe Kent

Casting:Laurel Smith

Color/stereo

Cast:

Charlie:Liam Neeson

Fulvio Nesstra:Oliver Platt

Judy Tipp:Sandra Bullock

Fidel Vaillar:Jose Zuniga

Estuvio:Michael DeLorenzo

Elliott:Richard Schiff

Jason Cane:Andy Lauer

Dr. Jeff Bleckner:Michael Mantell

Dexter Helvenshaw:Mitch Pileggi

Gloria Nesstra:Mary McCormack

Running time -- 102 minutes

MPAA rating: R...