
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 5, 1994                   TAG: 9402050117
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: C7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

`GUNMEN' DOESN'T DO MUCH FOR ACTION FANS

"Gunmen" is an unexceptional exercise in mindless comic book violence that's punctuated by a few moments of coarse humor and enough overacting for a dozen movies.

The setting is a fictional Central American country where the local drug lord (Patrick Stewart) has misplaced $400 million. He dispatches his semi-loyal henchpersons Dennis Leary and Brenda Bakke to get it back.

On the other side are a moonlighting DEA agent, Mario Van Peebles, and a convict, Christopher Lambert, who's described in press material as a Bulgarian smuggler, though there's no mention of that in the movie itself.

But who cares? You see, Mario knows the name of the boat the money's hidden on, and Christopher knows the name of the harbor the boat is in. Yes, the plot is borrowed from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," and so was the hip-hop tinged theme song, but any similarity ends there.

Though there are a couple of dozen violent deaths on screen, by far the most disgusting moment comes when Lambert eats a bug and then talks with his mouth full. Overall, director Deran Sarafian keeps things moving and handles big scenes well enough, but there's nothing here that action fans haven't seen before. Gunmen ++

A Miramax release playing at the Salem Valley 8. 96 min. Rated R for violence, strong language, sexual content, brief nudity.

by CNB