Unfortunately for God's Gun that is not meant in a good way. God's Gun is not an awful film but at best it's mediocre, with talented people on board and some great ideas on paper it could have been a good film but the potential is not properly used.
God's Gun has its merits with the film having some gorgeous scenery and well-tailored costumes(Lee Van Cleef's wig is just atrocious though). The music score is derivative of Ennio Morricone somewhat but it's a clever, atmospheric one that suits the film well. A few performances are decent, the best being from a charismatic and intensely steely Lee Van Cleef in a double role. Sybil Danning doesn't have much to do but she does bring compassion and heart to her character and to the film. Apart from acting like he was drunk in the final scene, Jack Palance is an entertaining villain, he does bring a menace to the role but an enjoyable hamminess too.
Most of the acting however is very weak. Leif Garrett's Johnny really fails to engage, in some scenes he overdoes it and in others he appears completely disengaged, while the secondary and extra roles look under-rehearsed. But in the acting stakes the biggest disappointment was the complete waste of Richard Boone, his character is barely in the film and Boone sleepwalks his way through it. The amateurish dubbing doesn't help, for most of the actors dubbed the voices do not fit the actors or the characters, the worst offenders being for Boone and in the church scene towards the end, it's even out of sync with the mouth movements and in a sloppy way. Nor do the uninteresting caricatures that passes for characters(only Van Cleef's vengeful brother character intrigues a little) or the stilted script which also has a lot of padding and corny melodrama. There were some great ideas in God's Gun but not much interesting is done with them in the storytelling, a lot of it having a muddled and trying-to-do-too-much effect, with an embarrassingly overwrought ending and overlong, unneeded and overdone rape scenes(especially the one in the saloon). God's Gun is stodgily paced and apart from the scenery it does look as though it was made on the cheap, the camera work was distractingly bad with jerky movements and shots that are too wide and too long in places, at its worst at the end which was enough to make one sea-sick.
Overall, not awful but strange and rather mediocre. 4/10 Bethany Cox
God's Gun has its merits with the film having some gorgeous scenery and well-tailored costumes(Lee Van Cleef's wig is just atrocious though). The music score is derivative of Ennio Morricone somewhat but it's a clever, atmospheric one that suits the film well. A few performances are decent, the best being from a charismatic and intensely steely Lee Van Cleef in a double role. Sybil Danning doesn't have much to do but she does bring compassion and heart to her character and to the film. Apart from acting like he was drunk in the final scene, Jack Palance is an entertaining villain, he does bring a menace to the role but an enjoyable hamminess too.
Most of the acting however is very weak. Leif Garrett's Johnny really fails to engage, in some scenes he overdoes it and in others he appears completely disengaged, while the secondary and extra roles look under-rehearsed. But in the acting stakes the biggest disappointment was the complete waste of Richard Boone, his character is barely in the film and Boone sleepwalks his way through it. The amateurish dubbing doesn't help, for most of the actors dubbed the voices do not fit the actors or the characters, the worst offenders being for Boone and in the church scene towards the end, it's even out of sync with the mouth movements and in a sloppy way. Nor do the uninteresting caricatures that passes for characters(only Van Cleef's vengeful brother character intrigues a little) or the stilted script which also has a lot of padding and corny melodrama. There were some great ideas in God's Gun but not much interesting is done with them in the storytelling, a lot of it having a muddled and trying-to-do-too-much effect, with an embarrassingly overwrought ending and overlong, unneeded and overdone rape scenes(especially the one in the saloon). God's Gun is stodgily paced and apart from the scenery it does look as though it was made on the cheap, the camera work was distractingly bad with jerky movements and shots that are too wide and too long in places, at its worst at the end which was enough to make one sea-sick.
Overall, not awful but strange and rather mediocre. 4/10 Bethany Cox