Gunpowder Milkshake
To protect an 8-year-old girl, a dangerous assassin reunites with her mother and her lethal associates to take down a ruthless crime syndicate and its army of henchmen.
- Released: 2021-07-14
- Runtime: 114 minutes
- Genre: Action, Crime, Thrillers
- Stars: Karen Gillan, Lena Headey, Chloe Coleman, Carla Gugino, Michelle Yeoh, Angela Bassett, Paul Giamatti, Ralph Ineson, Adam Nagaitis, Michael Smiley, Joanna Bobin, Freya Allan, Ed Birch, David Zimmerschied, Samuel Anderson, Mai Duong Kieu, Jack Bandeira, David Burnell IV, Ivan Kaye, Anita Olatunji, Matthias Dittmer, Joshua Grothe, Hannes Pastor, Billy Buff, Lee Huang, Luka Omoto, Jonathan Failla, Mike Möller, Maik Müller
- Director: Navot Papushado
Comments
- Pat100 - 9 January 2023
Silly but Fun!
Karen Gillian successfully blends Eve's psychopathic nemesis with The Bride's uniform and Jason Stratham's action to create a dark comedy with a touch of violence.
Being faced by an overwhelming horde of murderous thugs only caused a momentary brow-furrowing for her poker-faced character.
I found the plot confusing at first.
Then, it didn't matter.
The armless fight scene was cleverly amusing though slightly preposterous.
The movie seemed like a series of stylish scenes, well-shot and well-acted, but awkwardly linked.
Rather than a coherent whole.
(I'm glad that Lena Headey only had a cameo part as I fixated on her lower lip.) - jethrojohn - 4 August 2022
Wasted Potential
This movie is really trying to be the next John Wick... and it fails terribly.
It has the general premise down. Secret society of assassins and a whole world that exists just under the surface of ours. A lead that no one should cross. Add in some huge family themes and you could have something great.
It's just that none of these elements are done well.
The writing is one of the worst offenders. It's trying really hard to be cool and edgy and deep. Instead, it's stilted, unfunny, and try-hard.
An incredible lead cast is left with nothing to work with. Not even Angela Bassett or Michelle Yeoh can do anything with the awful, awkward dialogue. Bassett's introduction comes off as cringeworthy instead of cool because the dialogue is so bad.
Three thugs getting high on laughing gas is supposed to be funny. A gag scene that should have the audience chuckling. It doesn't. It was actually painful to watch. Like watching a stand-up comedian bomb on-stage.
Then we have something that makes John Wick so good. The fights. In the Wick series, the fights are well choreographed and carried out by trained martial artists giving their all. I don't think anyone was trained here.
This could be an issue with prep time or budget, but Gillan obviously isn't a very good fighter. And to compensate for this, her fight scenes are sped up, overly-staged, and silly. You can see everyone do a move, hold a second, then hit the next mark. Then thr editor tried to fix it in post with some speeding up. It makes it look even worse.
The bowling alley fight - the film's first set piece - is so poorly done it resembles a very poor quality 80s/90s DTV action film like Hawkeye (1988). At one point Gillan does a spin with a briefcase that comes off as laughable.
It isn't her fault, either. Because these fight scenes are obviously underdone. Something went wrong with the choreo or maybe they ran out of time on a tight schedule.
It's a terrible shame too, cause this could have been such fun. The combination of bad writing, bad choreography, and bad editing sink a promising picture.
All I'm left wondering is how the writers and director could get such a stellar cast and waste it in such an incredible fashion?
