Free Fire
(2016)A gun trade goes hilariously wrong in this ‘70s-set, one-room, guns-a-blazing comedy from director Ben Wheatley (High-Rise).... More
Massachusetts, late '70s. Justine (Oscar-winner Brie Larson) has brokered a meeting in a deserted warehouse between two Irishmen (Cillian Murphy, Michael Smiley) and a gang led by Vernon (Sharlto Copley) and Ord (Armie Hammer) who are selling them a stash of guns. But when shots are fired in the handover, a heart stopping game of survival ensues. Produced by our lord and saviour Martin Scorsese.Hide
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Directed by Ben Wheatley ('High-Rise', 'Sightseers', 'Kill List')
Starring Brie Larson, Armie Hammer, Cillian Murphy, Sharlto Copley, Jack Reynor, Babou Ceesay, Enzo Cilenti, Sam Riley
Written by Ben Wheatley, Amy Jump
Produced by Martin Scorsese ('Goodfellas', 'Shutter Island', 'The Wolf of Wall Street')
Out Now (On-Demand,
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Free Fire
BY fairbrother lister
This is definitely intended as a pulpy B-pic for the cheering punters, but if you pay close attention to the structuring, choreography, and editing you'll realize there's some serious filmic craft at work here. Free Fire makes six rather nifty little movies in a row for husband-wife duo Ben Wheatley (who directs) and Amy Jump (who writes and edits with him). They specialize in artful, sometimes subversive, but never-pretentious genre riffs: here it's a One Room Action movie. They precisely draw out their "single" action scene into a miniature-epic so absurdly violent and cynically amoral that it's often scary and funny for the very same reasons. It's sort of like Sam Peckinpah played for horror-comedy, carefully balanced between visceral authenticity and cartoonish exaggeration, and it's quite a blast. I laughed, gasped, and squirmed the whole way through.Hide
The Press Reviews
Alas, for all its stellar talent, Free Fire is a scattershot exercise in genre homage that ultimately misses the target. Full Review
Crosses the irreverent cheekiness of Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" with the ruthless spirit of 1970s B-movies... Full Review
Ben Wheatley shouldn't settle for becoming the next Guy Ritchie. For some reason, he'd like to. Full Review
"Free Fire" is not Wheatley's best film, but it is a rollicking good time and, more important, an inadvertent skeleton key to thinking about and understanding the rest of his films. Full Review
Mr. Wheatley's "High-Rise" was a highlight of 2016, and again he shows that he's a technically virtuosic director whose humour has a bracingly nasty side. He's also no dummy. Full Review
A smug knockoff of Quentin Tarantino's brand of ironic violence, at several degenerations' remove. Full Review
Loud, ripe, violent, bloody and blackly funny, Free Fire cocks its gun right in your face. See it – and bring earplugs. Full Review
This is seriously cool, stuffed with great dialogue and riddled with bullets. Full Review
Far more than his previous films, which tend to unfold in a dream-like daze, Free Fire is a mad contraption, bristling with bravado and black, sardonic wit. Full Review
Part of the fun is the highwire act as the filmmakers try to outwit or outrun expectations... Full Review
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