(Movie Review) Free Fire - A Ton of Bullets and A Lot of Laughs

Free Fire (2017)

Action, Crime, Comedy

Directed By: Ben Wheatley

With franchise culture at an all-time high, and every movie seemingly having to connect to something else, it feels wonderful to see a movie that is just simple. No crazy plot twists, no overcrowding, no complex story beats, just pure and simple fun. That is exactly what Free Fire, the latest from Ben Wheatley is. What could have easily been some highbrow crime movie is instead a ninety-minute action packed laugh riot that stars one of the most impressive casts of the year.

It's 1978 and two gangs arrive at an abandoned warehouse in Boston to make a deal. The Irish want guns for their war back home and the sellers simply want to get rich. The deal doesn't go over as smooth as they'd hoped, however, and before they know what's happening they find themselves in a bloody shootout for the guns and the cash. It is an hour and a half of dirty, bloody, violent, hilarious action that feels more authentic than most movies of its kind.

Wheatley's style is unique making all of his films divisive, it seems film geeks either love him or hate him. This should be no different, though it is his movie that most appeals to general audiences, its simplicity may turn away some of his older fans. He's not trying to do anything profound here, he just brought together an incredible cast, gave them a simple story, and let the bullets do the rest.

Armie Hammer, Sam Riley, and Jack Reynor are stand-outs here. Though the rest of the cast is impressive in its own right with great performances from the likes of Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, and Michael Smiley, it's these three that make the movie as entertaining as it is. Armie Hammer has more swagger in this movie than a pimp on a Saturday night and his interactions with most of the other characters are wildly funny. Sam Riley plays a pivotal role as Stevo, a junkie with a big mouth and man does he play a wonderful piece of shit. 

Jack Reynor was my personal favorite, I found his character to be the only one in this scenario that you could feel bad for in anyway, thus putting me on his side right out of the gate. He's also funny as hell and strikes great chemistry with Armie Hammer, give these guys a buddy movie! They all spend most of the film in the dirt, covered in bullet wounds yet each of them manages to find a way to be remembered. 

Often times when a film tries to do "period piece on a budget" they forget that aesthetic isn't the only key to telling a decade's old tale. These characters have to walk and more importantly talk like they are from the times the are portraying. This is something that struck me early on in this flick, not only do they all look wonderfully 70's in their fashion, but they are scripted just as they should be. The entire story takes place in an abandoned warehouse, yet it is undeniably a 70's set movie.

Free Fire is hardly the first movie we have seen of its kind, good old fashioned "shoot em' ups" have been around since the days of the classic western, but he infuses it with an attitude and kind of humor that makes it feel fresh. Though the violence is often and brutal, he's not showing us anything new or even that audacious, but he continually surprises us with the humor. Take for example a scene between Armie Hammer and Jack Reynor's characters where they get into a fight. It's an expected turn in the story at that point, but Wheatley finishes it in the last way you'd think. It's a brilliant, hilarious moment that is a perfect embodiment of what he is trying to do here.

With the social landscape rapidly changing bullet heavy movies like this have come under some scrutiny for potentially "fetishizing" gun culture. I personally don't think a film where a bunch of people who are trying to buy guns and end up being picked off one by one with said guns to be anything more than a cautionary tale. Bullets hurt and this movie wants you to not only know that but feel it as well while these people are continually crawling through the dirt only be shot, again and again, its agonizing. 

I'll always applaud a movie for getting right into it without wasting way too much time on setup and character introduction. Free Fire gets all of that out of the way in the first ten minutes and from there continues to be a non-stop piece of action cinema. It may not be as profound as his previous work but it also offers up more pure entertainment value than any of it as well. This a simple movie made for us to spend ninety minutes having a blast in the theater, embrace it. 

As always, thanks for reading and I am Zach Who Watches Movies. You can find me anytime on twitter @ZachWWMovies, smell ya later!

MOVIE REVIEW: Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)

Adventure, Comedy, Drama

Directed By: Taika Waititi

Film is often at its best when you can tell the cast and crew had as much fun making the thing as we as an audience did watching it. That is constantly the case with the work of writer/director Taika Waititi, who is making some of the most entertaining, fun, and straight up lovable movies today. The New Zealand native has a knack for telling authentic human stories in a goofy, heartwarming setting and his latest is certainly no exception. 

Hunt for the Wilderpeople tells the story of a young orphan named Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) who has bounced from foster home to foster home due to his bad attitude and reckless behavior. His troubled path leads him to his last hope before juvenile prison, a loving foster parent name Bella (Rima Te Wiata) and her rugged husband Hec (Sam Neill). Bella's untimely death threatens to send Ricky back into foster care however so he makes the insane decision to fake his death and run away into the New Zealand bush.  Hec chases him in and when an unfortunate accident immobilizes him they find themselves stuck in the bush for the next six weeks. A massive manhunt ensues while the two slowly find their way out of the wilderness. 

It's a clever plot and the way it all unfolds is a true testament to the writing powers of Waititi but the movie finds its true purpose in the character interactions between Ricky and his new foster parents Bella and Hec. Bella gets Ricky to come out of his shell in the first act of the film so we can see how much of a goof he is and the way they interact will melt your heart. The performance of Rima Te Wiata as Bella sells their entire relationship early on and the few major scenes she's in make a big splash.

The story really opens up in the second half when Ricky and Hec are stuck in the bush, before then the only real interactions we saw between the two were Hec telling Ricky to leave him alone. But once they are stuck in the wilderness together Hec is forced to learn who Ricky actually is and by the time his ankle has healed the two are seemingly great pals. So much so that Ricky is able to convince him to let him stay out there with him instead of going back to foster care.

This relationship is almost entirely sold by the performances of the two main actors. We all already know Sam Neill is a powerhouse talent but we haven't seen much like this from him before. It is a much more understated performance with significantly less dialogue than we are used to seeing from him. He is playing an uneducated man with a dark past and he makes us feel it in his performance. 

Then there is Ricky, played by the young and wonderfully talented Julian Dennison, who is the crutch of it all. He is hilarious, loveable, and sort of a bastard but it all feels real because of Dennison. This could have easily turned into a one-note cartoon character who constantly gets them into difficult situations but instead is an authentically troubled child with a lot to unravel beneath his colorful outfits. 

Though Waititi is telling a fairly serious story revolving around a missing child with legitimate issues, it never gets too heavy in its approach. He is known for making light-hearted, mostly comedic films and that certainly isn't lost here. To lighten the mood, for example, he turns the child services worker that is on the hunt for Ricky into a highly over exaggerated character who treats the manhunt, and her job, like a life or death scenario at all times. 

It's the little quirks and slight character adjustments like these that turn any one of his films into something wildly different than what you'd expect it to be. He manages to make each piece of his work a little slice of his home country as well, constantly showing us sides of New Zealand we weren't aware of and making us all fall in love with the place without ever having been there. 

Though they typically lean more towards the comedic side, his films are able to take us through the entire gamut of emotions so by the end of the story you have taken a truly satisfying ride through his mind. It may sound cliched but at the end of the day Hunt for the Wilderpeople will make you laugh hysterically, it will make you cry tears of both joy and sadness, and it will actually make you feel good about humanity, if only for a little while. In a crazy year such as this one, it is the exact kind of feel-good movie we all need to help forget about life for a while. 

As always, thanks for reading and I am Zach Who Watches Movies. Find me anytime on twitter @ZachWWMovies, smell ya later!