Review of Free Fire (2017) by Colby J — 12 Apr 2017

I've seen this movie, and I can't believe the introduction to it at the top of its RT page. It reads: "Bold, breathless and wickedly fun, Free Fire is an electrifying action comedy." Really? The movie is terrible.

Just as the idea of Ben Wheatley's High-Rise was better than the actual movie, Free Fire is a pointless exercise in single-set gunplay. The characters often speak in gibberish, some of it incomprehensible due to harsh accents, especially lines spoken by Sharlto Copley. This actually serves to help ruin the movie.

There are a lot of ricocheting bullets, but not much tension. It's all about Irish Republican Army gunrunners in the United States and a guns for money swap that goes absurdly bonkers in an abandoned warehouse.

Nothing makes sense. The whole set-up is simply an excuse for Wheatley and his co-screenplay writing wife Amy Jump to have a dozen characters shoot at each other for more than an hour of this weak 90-minute movie. There's no urgency to see it.

Wheatley tries to do what Gareth Evans did in The Raid movies, but he fails miserably.

One more thing: Dear Armie Hammer: Will you please take some acting lessons? You are awful in almost everything, especially in this. The only movie you are believable in is "Nocturnal Animals." Probably because you had a very small role. Perhaps Tom Ford should direct all of your movies.