Review of Free Fire (2017) by John S — 04 May 2017

WHAT COULD GO WRONG?

Guns are hilarious. Especially when John Denver's joyful country pop hybrid is emanating sweetly from the van's 8-track. Yup, this is Quentin Tarantino territory, and director Ben Wheatley has done his homework.

Filmed in glorious western-hued yellow-brown, "Free Fire" is a tense, late night gun deal gone wrong, pitting the itchy-fingered buyers against the itchy-fingered sellers, in a dusty warehouse shootout. As plots go, this is pretty pedantic. Sure there's a nice little twist here and there, but this film succeeds on the hilarious interaction of the many quirky characters.

Everyone gets shot, often several times, and treat their wounds as irritating inconveniences. Soon the warehouse is full of crawling, bitching wounded. Plenty of stars aside, this is Sharlto Copley's movie. As the slick polyester-suited, South-African accented arms salesman, Copley's cartoonish character steals every scene. With Cillian Murphy, Brie Larson and Armie Hammer crowding the cast, that is no small feat.

"Free Fire" may not be game changing cinema, but it is a slapsticky, wickedly clever, sensory hoot, and well worth your ninety minutes.

-hipCRANK.