a5c7b9f00b Set in Boston in 1978, a meeting in a deserted warehouse between two gangs turns into a shootout and a game of survival.
The first three shots from the rifles echoed throughout the cinema hall, startling everyone on our seats. It was loud. Very loud. A raw sound you don't hear daily, carving its spot behind your eye sockets, making you momentarily close your eyes. Just when the echo died out, another burst of 10 shots followed before we could prepare ourselves for it. It was deafening, exhilarating and it made us starve for more. And the film provided. <br/><br/>At first, keeping track of who was in the right for shooting and who was not, was easy. But the more the characters shot at each other, the worse the situation got and the motives got blurred. Even one of the characters reflected on this in the middle of the film with: "I forgot whose side I'm on!". This intentional chaos is seasoned with occasional black humour and witty exchanges between the characters, which provides comic relief and some time for the viewers to take a breath between the showers of bullets.<br/><br/>"Free Fire" is a 90 minutes long Mexican stand-off between characters whose aim is worse than that of the "Star Wars"' Stormtroopers. However, if all of them had great aim, the film would be over in less than 10 minutes. With its prolonged, intense action, the film makes sure we got what we paid for. Guilty pleasure in watching cheap entertainment.
In 1970s Boston, an illegal arms deal goes from bad to worse, leaving a group of low lifes with guns drawn, for an hour long shootout in an abandoned warehouse. <br/><br/>The problem with this seemingly never ending shootout, complete with guns which hold about 96 bullets, and characters who are shot multiple times, only to show no ill affects, is that it never looks real. <br/><br/>The problem with an entire film peopled with one dimensional characters is that we don't care if they survive or not.<br/><br/>The problem with the comic relief is that it isn't funny. Only about a half dozen lines made me laugh, and Armie Hammer is the only one to put in a memorable performance, with the remainder of the cast just simply * there *, occupying space.<br/><br/>According to Boxofficemojo, this $10.000.000 budgeted film only took in a horrifying $994,430 from 1070 cinemas in its opening weekend, placing it at number 17 for its first week. So, apparently, I wasn't the only person to see it in an empty cinema.
Wheatley's riotous Looney Tunes action comedy is a sporadically amusing assault on the senses, but it looks like it was more fun to make than to watch.
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