Sid (Joe Carnahan) and Bob (Dan Leis) are a couple of fast-talking but nonetheless incompetent car salesmen who are in debt up to their necks and have just been served a notice evicting them from their lot. Salvation arriv... more »es in the form of a burgundy Pontiac Le Mans convertible; all they have to do is watch it for two days and they'll get paid $250,000. But once they have the car on their hands, the whole thing starts to smell like a setup, and they get second thoughts. Blood, Guts, Bullets & Octane owes a sizable debt to Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction) and David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross, House of Games), which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Made on the cheap--the visual quality varies and half the crew is also in the cast, including writer-director-editor Carnahan)--Blood, Guts, Bullets & Octane cuts back and forth in time with energy, shifting between crooks blowing each other away and methodical FBI agents tracking them down. Scenes are framed by titles like "White Trash Trigger" and "Coldblooded Hotheads." In the end it amounts to little more than a lurid shaggy dog story, but fans of gunplay and pop-culture quips will have a good time along the way. --Bret Fetzer« less
"I think this is a dynamite movie from start to finish. It has everything: action, suspense, very good acting, style, a comic sensibility and IT MOVES which to me is the ultimate test of a film like this. I particularly liked the perfect balance of fresh indy-type spontaneity & originality with total professionalism on the part of the actors and director. Joe Carnahan is a director with a fantastic future in film."
Some Movies are Worth Seeing More than Once
Stephen Cannon | Yokohama, Japan | 06/11/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"While comparisons with movies directed by Tarantino are justified, I really felt that this flick stood on its own and was not excessively derivative. The filmmakers did an excellent job of creating two realistic leading characters and giving them a plausible world to inhabit. The movie is by no means short of action, but does not use fist fights and car chases as a end in and of themselves, but rather uses them to advance the plot. Roger Ebert roundly criticized the ending of this film, I believe using the expression, "An exercise in desperation," but I felt that the ending was both entirely appropriate for the setup leading up to it and original.Blood Guts Bullets & Octane is an exciting movie that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys smart action movies."
Goes a Long Way
S. McHale | Costa Mesa, CA USA | 07/12/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This is a good example of how someone can take a tiny budget, a fun idea, a skeletal story and a cast/crew of unknowns and whip together something fun and exciting. It's better than a lot of other action movies out there (although there are no typical ugly special affects, e.g., pyrotechnics, bullets bursting through bodies, etc.) The banter between the protagonists is a mixture of Quentin Tarrentino meets caffienated salesmen. I don't know any of the cast, but most of them have lots of charisma.Some may grouse that this movie was too self-conciously indie, too derivative of Resevoir Dogs or is just an ambitious person's calling card - but in my mind, it puts a lot of big movies to shame. It's certainly better than anything that goes direct to video.If you wanted to improve this movie (remember, we're dealing with newbies here), the FBI personnel were used to tell the story. Their role as the storytellers was a little wooden, too obvious and not all that necessary - so I would trim their parts down."
Little Phenom
Albert D. Razenmunch | College Station, Pennsylvania | 03/18/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Not much there in the way of budget and it shows, but boy does this little movie pack a wallop! The DVD is clean and grain-free and it helps when you can hear all of Carnahan's rude, abrasive, gut-busting dialogue. This one is a must for Indie film fans, a true breakout cult film, maybe the best since Repo Man."
Butter Baby!
Albert D. Razenmunch | College Station, Pennsylvania | 02/09/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I see this movie listed as one of the best of indie-film for'99. I never heard of it, so I track it down, watch it and amsummarily blown away. Top-notch acting and directing (especially good is G-man Ken Rudulph and harried lemon-lot hustler Dan Leis as Bob) Strong recommendations from somebody who sees a lot of bad videos, this one is a rare bird, and great! END"