Free Fire
01/04/17 Filed in: Cinema
A bonus trip to the cinema this week while I was waiting for some work to be done on the car at Bury St Edmunds. I had seen the trailer for Free Fire, which showed a shoot-out in a derelict factory. What I didn't expect was that said shoot-out would be the whole film! Amazing as it may seem, this hour and a half film depicts one gun battle in the form of a black comedy.
Set in 1978, Justine (Brie Larson) and Ord (Armie Hammer) have set up an arms deal between some IRA men and a gun dealer. Frank and Chris are the IRA chaps, who are meeting Vernon, a South African dressed in a loud 'Saville Row' suit. Each side have their helpers. Frank has Stevo, a zoned-out druggie, and Bernie. Things are going reasonably smoothly, despite the weapons not being as expected. "I'm not a pizza delivery service" says Vernon, when told that the rifles weren't the ones ordered. The money has been counted by Vernon's efficient sidekick, Martin, and everything is go, but then Harry, one of Vernon's team, recognises Stevo as the person he had fought with the previous evening, and all hell breaks loose.
The one-liners in this film come thick and fast, with the natural Irish humour mixed in with Vernon's equally funny retorts. But the 'little disagreement' between the two guys, thought to have been calmed, takes on a more serious aspect when shots are fired. And so the fire fight starts, with everybody drawing weapons and seemingly shooting at everybody else. To add to the mayhem, Martin, by way of insurance, has two more shooters outside, who subsequently arrive and start adding to the outright confusion.
People are shot, and shot again, but nobody actually dies, well not immediately at any rate. People are dragging themselves around the floor while continuously exchanging hilarious jibes at one another. Martin is the most seriously injured in the initial exchange of fire, but a bit later he 'returns to life', albeit not really knowing where he is or what he's doing there.
And so the mayhem continues with only Ord avoiding serious injury, while Justine becomes one of the floor-crawling brigade. A phone is heard ringing in an upstairs office, so the race between the two parties is on to get to it to summon assistance. Frank and Vernon take on the challenge and end up facing off. Vernon's suit doesn't come out of the exchange very well, but then neither does Vernon: nor Frank for that matter.
Over time the mortality rate increases until we have Chris and Ord as the survivors suggesting they should go for a beer. But their optimism is misplaced.
This film is absolutely hilarious. Daft, maybe, but it's worth seeing just for the laughs.
And so the mayhem continues with only Ord avoiding serious injury, while Justine becomes one of the floor-crawling brigade. A phone is heard ringing in an upstairs office, so the race between the two parties is on to get to it to summon assistance. Frank and Vernon take on the challenge and end up facing off. Vernon's suit doesn't come out of the exchange very well, but then neither does Vernon: nor Frank for that matter.
Over time the mortality rate increases until we have Chris and Ord as the survivors suggesting they should go for a beer. But their optimism is misplaced.
This film is absolutely hilarious. Daft, maybe, but it's worth seeing just for the laughs.