When contract assassin Sam kills the wrong person, she is cut loose by her organization. But she immediately finds a cause beyond just "staying alive"; she's protecting an eight-year-old girl (eight-and-three-quarters), refusing to abandon the child as she feels she was abandoned by her own mother. Wild, bloody action ensues.
Gunpowder Milkshake is a milkshake itself, consisting of three ingredients: John Wick, Guy Ritchie films, and "women who kick ass." The more of those things you like, the more chance that you will like this movie. I don't mean to say that this movie is only an imitation of those other things, because it does have one very relevant component to differentiate itself: the presence of that young child throughout the movie does change things up. And yet... the movie is pretty derivative.
Perhaps it's more that the movie is interested in including only what it sees as "the good parts" and doesn't much care whether they make sense. We get a lot of goons in this movie, and half of them inexplicably don't carry guns. Why? Because it will look cool to have a fight involving a sledge hammer. There's are lots of locations where you're supposedly not allowed to carry weapons. Why? So that we can do "found objects" combat... and a vague idea of "sanctuary" was enough for the John Wick franchise wasn't it?
Except the world of Gunpowder Milkshake feels all style and no substance. The rules are either undefined, or not really respected when they are defined. The allegiances shift so easily that it's unclear what they were ever truly based on in the first place. You're forced to disengage your brain to watch the movie, because nothing in it will stand up to even the mildest scrutiny.
But assuming you can do that, there are some pretty good action sequences throughout. The cast is perfect for this sort of confection. Karen Gillan proved herself a capable action star on the edges of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and gets to be front and center here as Sam. Lena Headey is most known for verbal battles after Game of Thrones, but if you remember back to Dredd or The Sarah Connor Chronicles, you know she'll be fun here. Carla Gugino has this sort of thing on her resume from Karen Sisco to Spy Kids. Michelle Yeoh has never played a role where she didn't literally kick ass. And while Angela Bassett isn't known for action roles, she does always project a regal strength that's going still going to work in this environment.
Do any of them actually get to act? No, not really. It's not that kind of movie, and never pretends to be. But like I said, most of the action is pretty good. Indeed, two sequences in particular are The Reason to Watch -- both revolve around the conceit that the protagonist can't use her hands, and what ensues is clever, novel, and fun to watch.
Overall, though? It's all kinda dumb. And it could be 20 minutes shorter at least if you cut out all the sequences of slow-motion walking (or 10 minutes shorter if you just played them at normal speed). If you're the sort of action movie fan for whom one good sequence makes the experience worthwhile, then I'd say check it out. For me, though, I'd call Gunpowder Milkshake a C overall.
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