REVIEW: Free FireBy Quinn OxleyApril 21, 2017Some people ask me not if a movie is good, but if a movie is worth seeing.

Picture in your head a bunch of great actors shambling around a warehouse shooting at each other… none of them can use their legs.

Are you picturing it?  I’ll give you a minute.

That’s it.  You’ve seen Free Fire.

Was it worth it?

A spot-on lineup.  Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, Sam Riley - no one gave a half-performance.  I would name more, but at that point I would just be naming the cast.  No complaints in this area.

I’m not sure what else there is on top of that.

If you were to see a movie that takes place almost entirely in one room, you’d expect it to be almost entirely character-driven - and Free Fire is, to a certain extent.  But it’s more quantity than quality.  While superbly acted… these characters are very confusing.  This would be forgivable in any other film, but the restricted locale puts a ton of focus on the characters, and they don’t quite hold up to scrutiny.

Once the meetup devolves into a shootout, it’s extremely unclear who’s motivated by what.  Two characters’ motives are easy to pick out, and one more you can probably guess, but that leaves at least five people crawling around aimlessly.  (It doesn’t help that three characters have thick foreign accents.  Sorry, Copley.)

It is hilarious, though, how nonchalant everyone is about the situation.  It often feels like this shootout is a minor inconvenience akin to a hangnail.

The film also makes a pretty profound statement.  The characters begin tentatively, hopefully, but they’re treading in dangerous territory and things go south very quickly.  It could speak to humanity’s innate, despicable proclivity toward self-interest, bitterness, anger, and violence.  Free Fire may serve as a reminder that we must be kind to our fellow man, lest we all end up like the ill-fated barbarians of millennia past.

Or maybe it’s just about the guns.  What do I know?

Is it good?  I didn’t like it, but it’s watchable if you don’t mind a lot of confusion and language.

Rating: 4.5/10

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