Top Shot Audition review

Update: Cowboy Blob has posted the final cut of Jon's Top Shot audition tape:

Cowboy Blob asks and I deliver.  After all what are friends for?

My Review:  2 bullets (out of 4):  half of a really good movie which puts it in rich company with Air America, Good Morning Vietnam, and many others.

I loved the first half with the subtle references to Gecko45, the extravagant "any weapon, anytime" references including blasters & phasers (Wardrobe really stepped up there!).  Great post-production work.  Nicely done!  The folks that worked on Sarah's flick could really learn something here.

On the other hand, the second half including depictions* of criminal acts and irresponsible gun use, well not so much.    Showing otherwise responsible gunnies doing irresponsible things is ungood in the parody setting  (Double plus ungood in serious settings).   I did get a chuckle that most of the victims wore Sun Devil shirts.  I guess that UofA/ASU rivalry burns deep!** 

The split personality between the first half depicting a mall ninja/bar braggard and second half criminal pulling driveby shootings didn't fit for me.  I would have liked to seen the mall ninja/Gecko45 character played out rather than dropping into criminal activity.  Perhaps he could have confronted just the over the top scenarios he projected and losing badly, barely escaping as the shattered trauma plates fall away to tell (and embellish) the story.

It also begs the question... what might a gang-banger audition tape look like? "Yo dog... this is my Glock Fo-Tay..." (Let your imagination fill in the rest).

I would have much preferred to see Jon in the hero role, using guns for good.  Perhaps recreating the attempted rape scene from Robocop, Mebbe the Deer Hunter russian roulette scene but taking out 3x on each bullet, mebbe ending Full Metal Jacket 45 minutes early by shooting the sniper's building with his .45 loaded with a very small tac-nuke.  (Hey we are talking over the top!).  Or instead shooting the building with the .45 just as a salvo from Big Mo's 50 cals land...  (And Jon claims credit) Again, I would have liked to see Jon in the (pseudo)hero role, rather than just committing criminal acts with a firearm.

 $.02 and this review is worth what you paid for it.

Post scripts:
This is not to say "I could have done it better" because I couldn't.  Until I saw CB's video, it would never have occurred to me to even think in this direction.  The depiction of criminal acts soured me though at the first viewing.   We are the good guys and we use weapons as tools for good!

* This is not to criticize the weapon handling, but rather the depiction of irresponsible gun handling.  I have every confidence it was filmed in complete safety and no one was ever at risk during filming.  CB simply wouldn't have it any other way.

** I studied at neither so I don't have a dog in that fight.  I have worked with graduates of both and have definite opinions on the relative quality of each!