I must say that I'm a bit let down by this one. It is by no means a bad movie and in the end is fine, but going off of the very funny and fast paced trailers for "Free Fire" I was expecting a film that was going to be much more than simply "fine". To be fair, this could be a case where expectations tanked my perspective and slightly ruined my experience with this movie, but I still believe that this could have been something really spectacular.
The plot, if you are not aware, is that two small groups of criminals get together to make a gun deal in an abandoned warehouse when it turns out one member from each side have a banter that resorts to a deadly shootout for all parties. From the start of the hysteria there is a lot of gun fire winding up in some humorous injuries and even deaths as they all seem to go down one by one.
Although I can't say that I was ever irritated or even all that bored during the run time, I just was hoping for somewhat of a rapid fire pace with some humorous and witty dialog. This movie is a lot slower than I originally anticipated with the majority of the dialog resorting to the characters simply yelling "F*ck you" to one another in the middle of shooting, which grows relatively old after a while. Even though the film doesn't do anything inherently wrong at all, the material never rises above just being "okay". And that's fine for a movie to be...well...fine. But when I see a trailer that promises a hilarious comedy with high-octane action for 90 minutes only to deliver on a somewhat humorous and mildly entertaining quarrels with repetitive action, I can't help but feel let down; especially with the ending going with a disappointing resolve.
"Free Fire" for all its faults is alright. It did the job it was meant to by giving me some entertainment for an hour and a half, but ceases to go beyond that in any way. I will say it probably won't anger anyone who watches it, but it also won't be something that'll stick with viewers much either. All the actors do a fine job; the standouts for me being Armie Hammer, Sharlto Copely and Cillian Murphy doing what they can in order to give colorful enough characters to follow. Everyone else does well enough, but the material doesn't give anyone much to really work with. The story has a promising concept that's reminiscent of older works by Quentin Tarrantino or Guy Ritchie, but never fully lives up to that potential. The editing and camera work was fine, although it had trouble correlating where all the characters were in relation to each other through much of the movie; after a while I just gave up and accepted that they were shooting at each other even if they looked like they were shooting in the wrong direction. If you're looking for a movie to pass the time this certainly will do the job adequately enough.
The plot, if you are not aware, is that two small groups of criminals get together to make a gun deal in an abandoned warehouse when it turns out one member from each side have a banter that resorts to a deadly shootout for all parties. From the start of the hysteria there is a lot of gun fire winding up in some humorous injuries and even deaths as they all seem to go down one by one.
Although I can't say that I was ever irritated or even all that bored during the run time, I just was hoping for somewhat of a rapid fire pace with some humorous and witty dialog. This movie is a lot slower than I originally anticipated with the majority of the dialog resorting to the characters simply yelling "F*ck you" to one another in the middle of shooting, which grows relatively old after a while. Even though the film doesn't do anything inherently wrong at all, the material never rises above just being "okay". And that's fine for a movie to be...well...fine. But when I see a trailer that promises a hilarious comedy with high-octane action for 90 minutes only to deliver on a somewhat humorous and mildly entertaining quarrels with repetitive action, I can't help but feel let down; especially with the ending going with a disappointing resolve.
"Free Fire" for all its faults is alright. It did the job it was meant to by giving me some entertainment for an hour and a half, but ceases to go beyond that in any way. I will say it probably won't anger anyone who watches it, but it also won't be something that'll stick with viewers much either. All the actors do a fine job; the standouts for me being Armie Hammer, Sharlto Copely and Cillian Murphy doing what they can in order to give colorful enough characters to follow. Everyone else does well enough, but the material doesn't give anyone much to really work with. The story has a promising concept that's reminiscent of older works by Quentin Tarrantino or Guy Ritchie, but never fully lives up to that potential. The editing and camera work was fine, although it had trouble correlating where all the characters were in relation to each other through much of the movie; after a while I just gave up and accepted that they were shooting at each other even if they looked like they were shooting in the wrong direction. If you're looking for a movie to pass the time this certainly will do the job adequately enough.