Review of Free Fire (2017) by Shane S — 23 Apr 2017

Free fire is a surprisingly successful dark action comedy. The whole movie is a sort of self-aware action film joke that seems to be equal parts nostalgia and parody of the genre.

The characters are a ragtag group of deplorable outlaws who go out of their way to oversell their dominate personality trait be it smarmy, smug, dimwitted or hot-tempered. The entire film is sort of like watching Alec Baldwin and William Shatner engaging in an overacting contest, and I cannot stop reveling in that madness. There are a lot of hits and misses in the dialogue, but some of the hits were just excellent.

I particularly enjoyed Armie Hammer and Jack Reynor's over the top characters. I found, sadly, Brie Larson to be one of the weaker points of the film. I think she either did not embrace the insanity enough or did not hold back enough. If her character was supposed to be the dramatic center, it fell a little short, and she was also not as engagingly silly as most of the rest of the cast.

The action is interesting and absurd. For a group of arms traders, these people are the worst shots in cinematic history - even storm troopers might fare better. The wry dialogue and what I can only describe as "gentlemanly onslaught" of violence is interesting to watch. The choice of the 1970s set also worked very well. The clownish suits and style choices added to the overall bombastic fun of the film.

The weaker part of the movie is that this whistling aimless shot-em-up does drag a bit by the third act. The film emulates, in many ways, a Tarantino flick, but lacks the suspenseful dialogue and magnetic characters that allows Tarantino to seamlessly weave between brutal action and tense lively dialogue. The suspense building here does not come to that masterful level so the shtick of the film gets overplayed.

All-in-all a worthwhile, thoroughly adult, action comedy. A fun foray into pure spectacle.