Review of Free Fire (2017) by Grantd243 — 31 May 2018

Free Fire is one that I heard a lot of buzz about when the first trailer for it was released, and then it seemed like it got a fairly muted response when the review embargo lifted. And I don't really see why.

In a sense, it reminds me of something that Quentin Tarantino might make. It's unique in that the entire film (outside of the first five minutes or so) takes place in a warehouse. Two groups enter the warehouse to make a firearms deal.

It inevitably goes south, the two groups turn on each other, and the remaining hour or so it just them tossing insults at each other and trying to kill each other. It's a pretty fun time. The gunplay is also fairly realistic, and the stakes are real.

Any character can die at any time, and as a result I found myself rooting for certain characters to survive or die. And to me, that's always a sign that it's accomplishing its goal as a movie: to be entertaining.

Unfortunately, despite having some very fun moments, it does reach a slow point in the middle that takes a little too long to pass by. That, ultimately, is what kept it from receiving a much higher score from me.

It's fun when it's fun, but it's obvious towards the middle that they struggled to stretch this idea to reach the 90 minute run time. Take out the dip it has in the middle, and it's a great movie to watch when you just want to have a good time watching a movie.