Review of Free Fire (2017) by Reuben M — 05 Nov 2018

In many ways, this was really a two-star movie for me. I was watching it at home around 8:00 pm (prime viewing time) and I actually drifted off to sleep briefly once or twice. And this is a movie that is essentially one long action film. At least, that's how it is described. A shoot-out that goes on the duration of the film.

That sounded very cool to me. Set in the '70s, so nothing high tech to be seen. Just handguns, shotguns and rifles. In a warehouse full of junk to hide behind. Lots of shooting. Lots of cool actors having fun. Great opportunity for some action choreography. Lots of tongue in cheek. Sign me up!

Well, I now know that over an hour of a bunch of morons shooting at each other isn't really all that interesting. Yes, there were moments of humor. Yes, there were certainly a few pretty cool action moments. But there was lots of guns going off with no idea who was aiming at who. Lots of unintelligible yelling (take thick accents that are already challenging enough, and then YELL them in an echo filled room with gunshots going off all around...and you've got a recipe for not knowing what a character is saying). It all really ended up being quite tedious when it was all said and done. Moments that were supposed to be ironic were just "ho-hum, who cares." Whirling, carefully thought-out camera work was ultimately not helpful in giving the viewer a sense of who was where in relationship to everyone else. Stock characters doing noisy but predictable things actually did not result in more than the sum of its parts...which is what the filmmakers were going for, I think. AND what I had hoped for as a viewer.

I give this film 3 stars instead of 2 because it was a noble failure. And it had a cool cast. I enjoy Brie Larson in everything, and this was really a different role for her. After GREAT performances in little films like SHORT TERM 12 and ROOM, I'm sure this was a blast for her. Sharlto Copley is always a welcome dose of crazy. Cillian Murphy is a cool actor, and Armie Hammer gets to have some fun. But in the end, the actors probably had more fun filming this than I had viewing it.

I sure was disappointed.