The Way Of The Gun

By RICHARD CORLISS

"I can promise you a day of reckoning that you will not live long enough to never forget," says the aged tough guy (James Caan) to two punks (Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro). They've kidnapped a young woman (Juliette Lewis) pregnant with a baby she is carrying for the sleazy rich man who employs Caan as enforcer. Got it? McQuarrie, who managed suspense quite smartly in his script for The Usual Suspects, here devises a two-hour gunfight interrupted by questions of paternity. But he's not so hot as a director, so what aims at being terrifying is just loud and goofy.

--By Richard Corliss