****
When an arms deal goes wrong in an abandoned warehouse, gang allegiances and friendships are tested in a shoot out for survival.
How often does the gunfight in the finale of a film end up being the best bit? Well, pretty often actually. So director Ben Wheatley (and long-time writing partner Amy Jump) decided to create a film where the gun fight was the story - a stripped back 'shoot 'em up' with a host of untrustworthy characters at the centre. And it works! For the best part of ninety minutes, a strange set of individuals take aim at one another in what is a gory, funny, engaging movie about an arms deal that goes terribly wrong.
The premise and tensions are quickly established (from Sharlto Copley's Vernon bringing the wrong guns to Sam Riley's Stevo and Jack Reynor's Harry violent hatred of one another), and then the first bullet is fired. All hell quickly breaks loose as it becomes apparent that each participant has bought their own weapon to the deal, and they're not afraid to use them. What follows is a hilariously quirky survival story, awash with blood, dirt and bad language. Shartlo Copley is gifted with some of the best lines in the script, triggering laugh-out-loud moment after laugh-out-loud moment with barely a breath in between. Refreshingly, there are no epic, impossible stunts where people dual in slow-mo - these are just ordinary people, all injured and desperately searching for a way out. Punctuated by a rock 'n' roll soundtrack and choreographed down to a 'T', it's clear a lot of hard work when into the planning of this, essentially very simple, film.
There are some parts in which the film falls down, however. The appearance of three extra characters adds nothing extra to the story, and the almost continuous swearing becomes somewhat tiresome after a while. Similarly, some characters are all but looked over (Babou Ceesay's Martin being one of them), whilst others enjoy a fair chunk of screen time and development. Also, I would argue that the ending is perhaps a little too predictable, although this hardly impacted upon my enjoyment of the film overall.
Blackly comic, bloody and littered with bad language, Free Fire is a far cry from the glossy exterior of Ben Wheatley's last film, High-Rise. Often hilarious, this unashamedly sweary shoot 'em up never outstays its welcome, making for a rip-roaring ninety minutes with plenty to enjoy.
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