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Gays with guns; now thats a new twist

G. Balmes | westport, washington United States | 09/09/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Paul & Josh are about to adopt Nikki; the son of a friend of Paul who died of cancer and willed, that Paul and Josh, a gay couple, raise her son; but her mother,(Nikkies grandmother) is challenging the will and attempting to thart the adoption and raise the boy herself.
A court in New Jersey has set a date in three days for the adoption hearing; and on his way home from work Josh witnesses a mob hit in a deli and then flees home in terror. Now the mob is after Josh and wants to rub him out so as not to rat out the hitman. Afraid to upset his partner Paul and to jeopardize the adoption of Nikki, Josh refrains from telling his partner and reporting the incident to the police. The mob send the son of the mob boss to "silence" Josh; a scuffle occurs in Joshes apartment and Josh pushes the assasin out the window and is killed from the fall. Now the mob boss wants revenge and has Paul kidna pped in an effort to lure Josh into an ambushed. theres a twist in the plot, and so I dont want to reveal the entire movie as not to spoil the ending, but Paul and Josh servive a shoot out and win custody of Nikki in the end.
The screenplay has potental, but didn't seem believable. this is due in part, at least, in my opnion, because it was written, produced, directed, and edited, by the same individual; and this causes a lack of dimension. What I did like is that Paul is an older man who is overweight and Josh is the younger good looking partner; this seemed to add more realism to the story; compared to say a couple of fit and trim hollywood pretty boys as lovers.
The movie was made in 1997; but the cinematopraphy appeared to be made from the 1970's and this distracts from the quality of this production; and the plot begs to be written in a more sophfisticated manner. The acting was good, but you get the feeling that the whole film needed a little more work; but by no means was it a failure.
The film promoters claims this as the first openly gay action adventure story. It is a genre worth developing.

Thanks for reading my review; I hope it was of some help to you.
Jerry Balmes"