Hot Guys with Guns (2013) Online

I saw this at the Palm Springs Gay Film Festival (aka Cinema Diverse) and I'm giving this an 8 because it was a refreshing departure from the usual paint-by-the-numbers gay film. Better still, it doesn't try to be a gay police procedural, as the lead characters are not cops, detectives or PIs.

Marc Anthony Samuel as Danny Lohman carries most of the film as an action hero actor wannabe who's taking a night course in how to be a PI. It's impossible to understand what he sees in his smarmy boyfriend Pip Armstrong (played woodenly by Brian McArdle). Jimmy Peppicelli is the ex-PI teaching the class, brilliantly played by Alan Blumenfeld.

It's a decent whodunit, although I figured it out too early. Like so many of these low budget, first time films, it gets bogged down with too many characters and pointless detours from the main story. For example, too much time is wasted on Armstrong's unfunny mother and Lohman's day job as a waiter.

A its best, it's a light, frothy gay date film to enjoy with a big bowl of popcorn. But if you want to see a much better made gay detective thriller, check out one of the Donald Strachey films starring Chad Allen.

Last night Charles and I attended the FilmOut San Diego screening of Hot Guys with Guns, a special event at the Birch North Park Theatre advertised as an action movie for the Gay male audience, a sort of spoof of the James Bond mythos that judging from the advance publicity was going to be a film about a super-spy attempting to foil some horrendous international crime scheme and – this being aimed at a Gay male audience – in the process bedding an assortment of "Bond boys" instead of "Bond girls." Actually the film turned out to be considerably better than that, owing quite a bit less to James Bond and more to the 1960's TV series I Spy, particularly in the pairing of a white and a Black character as the leads and the rather diffident relationship between the two – the white guy more impulsive and daring, the Black guy more reasoned and "cool."

After a marvelous credits sequence using Warren's song under a set of visuals cribbed from the 1960's Bond movies, the original I Spy credits and just about every other 1960's film in the genre, the opening scene turned out to be a decent-looking but decidedly not hot middle-aged man awakening from a drugged stupor with a lot of younger and hotter but similarly indisposed bodies draped across his bed. It turns out his stupor wasn't his idea; he threw a sex party but it was crashed by two interlopers, one dressed in a black hoodie and a death's-head mask and the other more or less au naturel, who entered it and set off an aerosol bomb containing a mixture of party drugs and anesthetics to put the entire crowd under so they could rob them. The principals turn out to be Danny Lohman (Marc Anthony Samuel), a Black Gay actor who's taking a course on how to be a private detective – not because he wants to do that for a living but because he's up for a part as a P.I. in a TV series called Crime and Punishment; and his ex-partner Patrick "Pip" Armstrong (Brian McArdle, whose other main credit on IMDb.com is a voice-over narration for a documentary called It Is No Dream about Theodor Herzl, founder of Zionism), a spoiled rich white kid who lives with his mother Patricia (a wonderful bitch-goddess performance by Joan Ryan) and dumped Danny for another aspiring actor, Robin (Trey McCurley), who's hot-looking but is enough of an airhead we in the audience definitely get the impression he's trading down. When Pip is a guest at the next sex party that gets hit by the mystery bandits with their drug bomb, and his Rolex watch (important to him because it's the only legacy left to him by his father, who abandoned the family for reasons we're never told) and his car are stolen (and the car is recovered, stripped and covered with anti-Gay graffiti), Danny decides they should use the skills he's learning in detective class and solve the crime themselves.

Despite saddling it with the silly title that makes it sound like a hard-core porn film, Spearman manages to pull off something that's eluded a lot of more prestigious and better-known directors: he manages to fuse comedy and drama so the mystery and the satire reinforce each other instead of clashing. There's also a marvelously funny sequence in which, staking out the home of one of the victims, Danny starts delivering a voice-over narration in the persona of the P.I. character he's auditioning to play on TV – and the dialogue is a perfectly turned parody of Raymond Chandler's prose, particularly his penchant for blender-mixed metaphors. "Hot Guys with Guns" is a quite capably produced and written mystery, well acted by a strong ensemble cast, though Marc Anthony Samuel in the lead stands out. With Denzel Washington already having aged out of the Black juvenile category and Will Smith rapidly following suit, Samuel, playing a part Spearman wrote for himself but at the last minute realized he was too old for, looks like a good candidate to take over these parts.

Another typical gay movie, drawing an audience only because as gays, we hope it might be good and we should see it. To get the 8/10 posted here, those associated with the film must pushed every person they knew to make a favorable review.

Seriously, we saw this as part of the LGBT film fest at Lincoln Center in NY and couldn't believe it was selected for viewing. Its just Noah's Ark with guns and a bad crime plot. And in response to their superficial lure of "Hot Guys," well, no, not really. There must be SOOO many other films more worthy of selection. Major disappointment!

On the upside, other films in this fest have been very good.

I bought this movie because I liked the trailer, which I saw as an extry in another movie's DVD. It actually seemed really interesting and funny, and with a hot guy in it, and it had quite a different plot for a gay movie, so I decided to buy it. The movie drags on, it's not entertaining enough. There are a number of very funny scenes, especially the last one, very reminiscent of classic cop movies, the mother, etc but these are not even well made and just make you yearn for the originals. I could not wait for it to be over. It's really pretty boring. One special note: the lighting is horrible. For instance the very first scene at Pip's, it looks like there was no lighting at all for a movie and they were relying on the (bad) spot lighting in the room. It could have been better. PS: how on earth are there so many stellar reviews on here??

Although I enjoyed Noah's Arc on LOGO- (Spearman and Stephens) that was low budget cable TV -this is film, which is supposed to be a step above cable TV.

The premise is cute and does have a different twist than a typical boy- meets-boy gay film which I admire but doesn't deliver. It's kind of like watching a reject episode of a gay Charlie's Angles. It's campy but it doesn't mean to be campy -that is the rub and why it fails.

I'm all for gay film and when I lived in L.A., I used to got to a lot of indie film screenings but this one misses the mark. I give it an A for effort but it still feels very low budge....

The movie was great ! It had a lot of suspense , as well as irony . The guys are very good looking . In fact one reminded me of a prince !! I also loved the mother in the film , she was hilarious !my most fav was when the mother walks in while her son and his date were in bed wanting a Xanex .. I laughed so hard !! Also I think the professor may have had some gay tendencies especially at the end of the movie . One of the cool things about this movie is that gives you a snap shot of being gay and a starving actor . I can appreciate that . For example , working in a restaurant . I like the relationship with Danny and Pip . Even though they are not together they always have each other's back . Twice in a peralis moments they professed their love to one another , but never acted on it . I would recommend this movie !

"Hot Guys With Guns" is a must see movie. From the title I didn't really know what to expect. The first 5 minutes of watching this film you will get hooked. I've never seen a film that made me laugh one minute, and then had me at the edge of my seat trying to solve the mystery. Not only was I at the edge of my seat, but my wife was too. She was even talking to the screen as she was unsuccessfully trying to figure out the mystery. I have to say Doug Spearman did a wonderful job directing and writing this film. Mr. Spearman captured the true essence of Los Angeles with a twist. If you're looking for a great date night movie look no further. Oh!!! Did I forget to mention how beautiful the cast was? Especially Marc Anthony Samuel. I loved his character Danny.

I loved this film! I adore a good detective story. Every scene was presented so beautifully. It was a perfect portrayal of certain aspects of Gay Los Angeles. I liked that race, sex, drugs and social wealth status were interwoven throughout the film, yet the film was still light. I also liked the way the film dealt with some serious topics yet had humor at times. Loved Loved Loved the character Danny. It takes a lot to have me watch a full movie all the way through without drifting but I stayed up way past my bedtime despite being super sleepy because I was so captivated. I also always guess the plot in movies and there is a perfect little twist in this plot that I did not expect. I liked that the portrayals were real without any Hollywood style redemption. I want a sequel. Bravo Doug Spearman!

This was a fun movie. I'm not going to pretend I'm some movie reviewer and comment on the acting or the cinematography - that's so pompous. I watch a lot of gay movies and I know what I like, and I definitely liked this one! It made me laugh, it was sexy at times, and most of all it kept me interested. The two lead actors had good chemistry together and it was fun to root for them to get back together. For some reason, there are so many dark and depressing gay films, so it was refreshing to watch this rom-com- "thriller". Check it out! Unless you've got a major stick up your backside (like some reviewers on here) you'll love it!