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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
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 arrives 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
Product Description
No-budget thriller involves two used car dealers in serious financial trouble who agree to allow a vintage Pontiac convertible on their lot for a large sum of money. Little do they know that the FBI is looking for the car, which has its trunk wired to a bomb and has been associated with a score of dead bodies. Joe Carnahan, Dan Leis and Dan Harlan star. 87 min. Widescreen; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital Surround; theatrical trailer.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
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.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
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.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
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.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Worthy Effort & Highly Entertaining
For a fast-talking, humorous, gunfight-fest action movie today, it is difficult NOT to take lessons from Scorsese, Tarantino or Guy Ritchie. Read more
Published on April 26, 2010 by Robert J. Kendziorski
A Fun B Movie
How my ratings work:
5 - I really liked/loved it
4 - I liked it
3 - Could've been better/worth a look
2 - Just didn't live up to the potential
1 - Simply... Read more
5 - I really liked/loved it
4 - I liked it
3 - Could've been better/worth a look
2 - Just didn't live up to the potential
1 - Simply... Read more
Published on September 8, 2008 by Marty Kingsley
Ambitious debut
I've immensely enjoyed Joe Carnahan's other works, particularly Narc and Smokin' Aces, and count Narc as one of the very best crime dramas in recent memory. Read more
Published on May 17, 2007 by ESP
Fun movie
For an indie pic, this movie was a lot of fun. There's not a lot of production value and some of the acting could be described as wooden, if you're being generous. Read more
Published on May 3, 2007 by M. Kuffler
100 Words on "Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane"
"Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane" is a small, independent film full of guns, drugs, money and mystery that tries with all its might to be clever and hip. It doesn't succeed. Read more
Published on August 9, 2006 by John Weagly
Fabulous Tarentino knockoff
Oh, the long arm of Quentin Tarentino! How far and deep into the bowels of cinema does the mighty Tarentino reach? As far as the eye can see. Read more
Published on July 11, 2005 by Jeffrey Leach
What are you people thinking?
This was one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. It isn't "clever" dialogue that cracks me up but rather the horrendous film making. Read more
Published on November 29, 2004 by Sergei M. Eisenstein
the blood, the guts, the bullets and the octane fall dead
I was expecting bigger and better things from writer and director Joe Carnahan because he did infact write and direct NARC! Read more
Published on July 12, 2004 by Michael Bolts
A Forgotten Comedy Classic!!!
This comedy is undoubtedly a forgotten comedy classic about two used car salesmen who get into mischeif when they keeep a certain car on their lot.It's a must see!!
Published on December 26, 2003
Great Movie!
Loved the smart and witty dialogue. I recommend this to anyone who likes an off-the-beaten path type of movie. A little odd and a lot great.
Published on July 19, 2002 by Katy Danielson
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