An assassin betrays her employers to save a little
girl, and must face the consequences of her actions. ACTION/CRIME
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Gunpowder Milkshake (2021)Directed by Navot Papushado
Written by Navot Papushado and Ehud Lavski Starring Karen Gillan, Lena Headey, Chloe Coleman, Carla Gugino, Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh, Paul Giamatti, Ralph Ineson |
There are two things happening in the film industry right now which are starting to grate on my nerves. The first is the continued release of John Wick clone action films due to the insane success of the Keanu Reeves films. The second is Netflix’s continued commitment to focus on quantity over quality. In the case of the former, it usually yields me movies where the action is stylized, but the story is a complete slog to get through. Almost like the studios thinks it’s the action alone which made the film a huge success. In the latter, it just means another film which will be filled with tropes, a great cast, and instantly forgotten about once the weekend is over. Gunpowder Milkshake just happens to fall under both of these categories.
Before I go into what didn’t work for me, I’ll start with what did. The cast is actually pretty good and deliver committed performances. Each of the female leads also get a pretty cool chance to shine in the climatic final scene which was a joy to watch. Also, some of the action scenes are pretty good. Specifically, the one at a bowling alley and right after when our main character’s arm are paralyzed so she has to get creative. And that’s it. That’s all I got for good. Besides those two things, the rest of the action is surprisingly lacking and not exactly the most fun to watch. It also doesn’t help that this film features some of the most underdeveloped and boring villains I’ve witnessed in an action film. This seriously wastes the talents of both Paul Giamatti and Ralph Ineson as the villains by having them disappear for a large chunk of the runtime. The latter in particular who literally gets one scene at the beginning and then doesn’t appear again until the end. Therefore, I never once felt the stakes of what was happening. Aside from a couple of standout action scenes and our female leads, this is a mess of an action film. Other than the two scenes I mentioned earlier, the rest of the action scenes are incredibly boring, and the villains aren’t given anything to make me care for what is happening to our leads. Netflix, please start focusing on quality. Studios, realize why audiences fell in love with the John Wick films. Stop copying what you think worked and hoping for the best. |
Why is it that every assassin-themed action flick from the past ten years starring a woman follows the exact same template with occasional deviations? Atomic Blonde, Lucy, Proud Mary, and many others all feel like the same movie with a different actress playing some variation of the female assassin who is betrayed by her people or by an agent friend, and the movie spends its entire runtime reminding the audience that women can kick ass too. And I'm not saying they can't. There's plenty of female-led action films that work (Kill Bill, Wanted, Charlie's Angels 2000, etc.), and they work because they never act like they're making a bold statement about gender equality, somehow forgetting that it's not the first film to do so. It's just something that bugs me, and every other genre does it too with various other social issues, but I think it happens more in action than anywhere else.
Gunpowder Milkshake feels like a gender-swapped clone of John Wick in many ways. You've got the shadowy assassin league (The Firm instead of The High Table), you've got the neutral location where weapons are outlawed (The Diner instead of The Continental), and you've got the tongue-in-cheek weapons clerks who refer to guns as mundane items (The librarians instead of the sommelier). It's all very lazy, and the plot is like an action thriller Mad Lib. Karen Gillan is Sam, a talented assassin who was abandoned by her assassin mother (Headey) years earlier. One day, on a job, Sam is betrayed and excommunicated from The Firm, which means she's no longer protected. So she seeks help from her old friends who help her go to war with the killers who are after her (John Wick 3, anyone?). Netflix original films are a coin toss. They'll greenlight anything with a script, so you gotta go in with low expectations. Gunpowder Milkshake is a misshapen clone of better films that wastes a talented ensemble, never gives us a decent villain, and has a tone that's all over the map. It never finds itself, and it expects the audience to just go with it. I think you'll have more fun, and a similar experience, if you just get two TV's and watch John Wick and Kill Bill at the same time. |