Guncrazy

Drew Barrymore plays a nympho trailer-trash high-school girl who has sex with random people, and is frequently raped by her wicked stepfather.

A homework assignment leads her into a correspondence with a lonely young prisoner inmate, whose letters stir up dormant desires for violence and guns. She buys a gun, convinces her stepfather to teach her how to use it, then shoots him to death and hides the body. She then connives to get her pen pal out of jail, and persuades him to join her in a violent crime spree.

It stars Joe Dallesandro, formerly the designated penis in the Warhol/Morrissey films, and James LeGros as the convict who uses guns as a surrogate for his own non-functional designated penis. Drew doesn't care about the limp dick thing. By the time LeGros shows up, she has determined that guns are far more fun than fuckin'.

Oddball stuff, all but forgotten, but quite well acted. Barrymore is quite credible. Billy Drago is on hand in an odd turn as minister of a religious cult which features snake handling.

The film was the first one directed by Tamra Davis. Many predicted fame for her after this competent debut. She did some lowbrow comedies like Half Baked and Billy Madison, then later made one terrific movie, Skipped Parts. Unfortunately, she followed Skipped Parts (6.9/10 at IMDb) with the Britney Spears suckathon, Crossroads (2.7/10 at IMDb, and angling for the "bottom 100").

DVD info from Amazon.

Full-screen format
no features

The Critics Vote

Berardinelli 2/4

Drew Barrymore was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV

The People Vote ...

IMDB summary. IMDb voters score it 5.4/10

with their dollars: made for $800,000 and first shown on cable TV, it had a brief theatrical release in which it grossed $114,000

IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C-. Competent, but predictable and neither very entertaining nor very meaningful.