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Hollywood is a machine. Every week, every month and every year countless films are released into theatres and not every one is as successful as the studio heads would hope. Sometimes the publicity machine was askew, sometimes the movie targeted an odd demographic, sometimes the release was steamrolled by a much larger movie and occasionally the movie is flat out bad.

But Hollywood's loss is our gain. There is a veritable treasure trove of film out there that you may not have seen. I will be your guide to this veritable wilderness of unwatched film. It will be my job to steer you towards the action, adventure, drama and comedy that may have eluded you, and at the same time, steer you away from some truly unwatchable dreck.

Hopefully we'll stumble across some entertainment that may have slid under your radar. Wish us luck.

The Way of the Gun (2000)

It can be a pain in the butt doing this column. I'm limited from reviewing the ‘big' movies that have come down the pipe as our admitted reason for existence is to dig up the movies that were overlooked or ignored to see if there was an injustice committed. Frequently, there isn't. Sometimes the movies I look at are funny or amusing or violent but there's usually a reason why these films didn't get that much attention.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have our first outlier. The Way of the Gun is an outstanding film. This film only made $6.1 million in release and I have no idea why. It should have made $60 million at least.

The Way of the Gun stars Ryan Phillippe as Mr. Parker, Benicio del Toro, Juliette Lewis as Robin, Taye Diggs as Jeffers and James Caan as "The Bagman" Joe Sarno. The cast is actually more extensive, but if I list everyone of note, we're going to be here all day.

The premise is this. An underworld financier and his lovely young trophy wife are having difficulty conceiving a child. To resolve that little problem, they have hired an outcast doctor and a surrogate mother (Robin) to bear a child for them. If you're going to have kids, have buckets of money and really aren't into little things like stretch marks or labor pains, this is clearly the way to go.

Unfortunately, two low level hoods looking to make their big score (Parker and Longbaugh) figure out what's going on and move in to kidnap the surrogate and hold the baby for ransom. Longbaugh and Parker are icy cold customers, chillingly professional, travelling very light and are as ruthless, smart and efficient as bad guys get. They know they're at the bottom of the food chain and want to move up at any cost.

Of course, when you're a rich and powerful guy working for even more rich and powerful people you have a security team protecting you and your property. The team includes Jeffers and Sarno playing for the home squad, and they also are effective, efficient professional badasses.

With the opposing teams set up, it becomes abundantly clear that the last place anyone wants to be is between these guys. Collateral damage is apparently not a high priority for anyone. The things that are high priority are surprising, as just about everyone in this little battle of wills has a stake in what is going on. Some of them are quite unexpected. Pay particular attention to the gun battle that occurs halfway through the film. If you ever wanted to see a gun battle that feels like a chess match, this is your movie. It's brilliant and original work.

With all the elements in place for a tightly spun crime thriller, the movie starts off with a bang and doesn't really let up from there. Parker and Longbaugh are tactical geniuses and they use everything at their disposal to back up their play. Jeffers and his partner counter their moves with equal ferocity and when things go wrong Sarno shows up to motivate them both with imminent and painful death if the situation isn't rectified. At the same time he's doing that, he's calmly negotiating with both Parker and Longbaugh to see if this can be resolved as a simple business dispute. The conversation that Sarno has with Longbaugh about two thirds of the way through this film is as captivating as anything that has ever been shown on screen. It's an eye opening discussion between two professional criminals without rancor, sarcasm or ill will. The closest thing I have seen to this in any other movie would be the De Niro and Pacino conversation in Heat, but this is far more compelling.

The climax rolls in as expected at the end of the film, and there is gunplay and violence galore. However, the filmmakers aren't done messing with you yet, and honestly, you really don't want them to. The film does an excellent job of building up everyone as malevolent badasses fighting over the life of a pregnant woman and an unborn child, so when the final battle begins, you don't even really have a clue who to cheer for. The producers resolve that with one final and completely unexpected twist at the end of the film, and you're absolutely thankful that they did.

The Way of the Gun is a taut, violent, character driven film paired with a well-designed, well-executed plot. It moves at a brisk pace and it demands that you keep up. Make sure that you do because this is a movie worth watching.