A Girl, Three Guys, and a Gun

Plot

Frank (Brent Florence) is a Northern California 20-year-old who has just been dumped by his girlfriend. He and his slacker buddies Joey (Kenny Luper) and Neil (Christian Leffler) want to escape their small town but lack the funds. To finance their escape, they rob the local bingo tournament, and although their haul was small, the three decide to go to the big city anyway. On the road, their car breaks down. They then take Hope (Tracy Zahoryin) and her boyfriend Dave (Josh Holland) as hostages. The group is being pursued by two bumbling cops.

Reception

The film had its world premiere screening as The Solid Ones at Cinequest in March 2000 to a standing room only audience.

Following the Cinequest screening, Variety generally panned the film. While noting June Allyson's part in the project, and finding the film's technical aspects as acceptable, they found the film's humor as quirky and lame, its otherwise serious themes feebly handled, and its leads as poor casting choices who failed to convince viewers as "local yokels". They wrote it was a "wan replay of the already derivative youthful-buddy-caper hijinx in indies like Bottle Rocket and Palookaville, Solid Ones offers tepid comedy and vague, touchy-feely dramatics, making for an inconsequential feature debut from writer-helmer-star Brent Florence. Like several preemed titles at San Jose fest, pic suggests the hype about digitally shot pics will prove hollow so long as products come off like low-end direct-to-vid fodder".

DVD Talk granted that filmmaker "Brent Florence clearly did his homework", due to the film being "just a bit more polished and streamlined than many of its ilk", but felt that the characters were not believable when writing they were "all transparent puppets for the scattershot screenplay, which wants to balance playfulness, danger, and sincerity, but fails with a disappointing consistency". Their acting was good but failed by being "in service of a half-baked plot, some fairly tired comedy schtick, and a handful of seriously over-familiar themes."

The film had its video premiere 4 December 2001 under the title A Girl, Three Guys, and a Gun.

DVD

The DVD offers anamorphic widescreen, and while not perfect it is appreciated "to see a flick presented in its original form." The audio offered no extras, but is "entirely listen-able."

DVD extras offer two audio commentaries, "one with the multi-hatted Brent Florence and music supervisor Todd Hannigan, and the other with Florence & Hannigan, cast members Kenny Luper & Christian Leffler and "creative" component Bret Haley. Also included is a 7-minute outtake reel and a handful of trailers for A Girl, 3 Guys and a Gun, Up Against Amanda, Raptor, and Hard as Nails."