of the Gun plays like an unusually ritzy festival circuit audition film, though McQuarrie, it must be said, aces the audition." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "McQuarrie pulls, pummels and pushes us, makes his characters jump through hoops, and at the end produces carloads of 'bag men' who have no other function than to pop up and be shot at ... Enough, already." In his review for Time, Richard Corliss criticized McQuarrie for devising, "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." Peter Stack, in his review for San Francisco Chronicle, wrote, "The Way of the Gun attempts to be poetical Peckinpah, but it's a pointless exercise in gun violence with characterizations so thin they vaporize." About the movie's reception, Christopher McQuarrie said: "I'm very proud of the film. Is the film flawed, is it uneven? Certainly. But it's sincere." References External links 2000 films 2000 action thriller films 2000 crime thriller films 2000s crime action films 2000s heist films American action thriller films American crime thriller films American heist films American crime action films American pregnancy films 2000s English-language films Films directed by Christopher McQuarrie Films with screenplays by Christopher McQuarrie Artisan Entertainment films Lionsgate films Neo-Western films Films shot in Salt Lake City Films scored by Joe Kraemer 2000 directorial debut films 2000s American films