Review of Free Fire (2017) by Nick C — 19 Jun 2017

There are two things I can guarantee you if you decide to see this film: 1) there will be a lot of cursing, and 2) there will be a lot of shooting. Beyond that, nothing really. This Ben Wheatley-directed flick starring Sharlto Copley, Brie Larson, Armie Hammer, and Cillian Murphy is about two Boston gangs exchanging guns for cash in an abandoned warehouse in 1978, and besides a brief setup, most of its 90-minute runtime is consumed by an extended shootout. Nothing else, really.

There are no real characters. No real plot. No real reason to care about what is going on. The setup is strong enough; the acting is sufficient and so is the dialogue, and the colorful 70's costumes and music sets the tone just right. Unfortunately, once the shooting begins, there is nothing. Believe me, I'm not exaggerating. The gangs inevitably get into a quarrel, and then each spend the better part of an hour and a half doing nothing by hiding behind various crates, barrels, and vans, shooting and getting shot at. It's like watching someone playing a video game. Video games are fun to play for obvious reasons; you get to be in control, but in films, where the audience is simply letting the film happen to them, it must offer them something else: entertainment. Movies like this are made specifically for entertainment, and Free Fire fails on every level.

Quentin Tarantino, one of my favorite directors (but then again, for who is he not one of their favorites?), is obvious inspiration for this film, specifically Reservoir Dogs. The difference is Reservoir Dogs offers so much more. The audience has no idea where the film is going to go, and the characters are colorful and interesting enough that we are genuinely intrigued to see where it does go. In this film, we know exactely where it is going to go. Of course the two gangs are going to get into a gun brawl; we learn that from the film's premise. The inevitable conclusion is, obviously, that almost every man (and one woman) in the warehouse gets picked off until there are only a couple of survivors. Did I spoil the movie for you? Only if you think that it will end with all of the gangbangers holding hands and waltzing off into the sunset. In a way, I wish that would have been the conclusion. At least it would have been more unpredictable.

But, you I'm sure are well aware, that does not happen; this is an extremely predictable movie that follows a linear plot with no wrinkles or folds whatsoever. Which brings me to its other difference with Reservoir Dogs. Not only are the events predictable, but because of their blatant predictability, we never get really intrigued or interested in the plot. The characters act more as props; their cardboard cutouts that, as I said earlier in this review, shoot and get shot at. Reservoir Dogs was centered on its characters; it was the focus of the film. In that movie, the guns were the props, not the stars.

It is obviously unfair to criticize a film for not being what another (far superior) film was, but for a film that so obviously imitates that other film, such comparisons are necessary. This movie takes the guns and warehouse setting that Tarantino used, but leaves behind everything that made it good; the style, charisma, characters, plot; everything that wasn't a prop, pretty much. It makes laughable attempts at style with a few 70' songs, but they feel placed in the movie robotically, unlike a director like Tarantino who is always able to perfectly marry action with music.

In the end, I was left extremely unsatisfied by this film, as I'm sure you are well aware by now. Despite it's very short 90-minute runtime, it felt longer than most movies I see, which is never a good thing. I will grant that the linear narrative arch attempted to throw in a few plot twists to spice things up, usually involving a character getting shot who we didn't expect to get shot. But, unfortunately, these twists have no real effect when we don't care about the characters. If you've seen the trailer for this movie, you've seen the movie, but better: the trailer offers just as much character and plot, except we are granted about 89 minutes less mindless shooting. For a movie that is really just any old shootout in your standard action flick extended to a feature-length film, this is a blessing.

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Rating: 1.5/4.