Free as in Speech

We queued up Free Fire (2017) partly because of director Ben Wheatley, partly because it looked like a fun little shoot-en-up. It was pretty far down on the list, but Netflix reached down, past the Long and Short Waits, past the 3-4 movies I expected to get, and sent it anyway.

It takes place in 1970s Boston, although I don't think that is specified - I got it from reading IMDB.com. It starts with two knuckleheads in a (probably stolen) RV. One was recently beat up by some guy, and asks for some aspirin - his buddy only has smack. "Talk about taking a sledgehammer to a mosquito."

They are going to meet Michael Smiley, an old-colonel type who is getting some guns for the IRA, along with Cillian Murphy and Brie Larson. They all head out to the abandoned factory that will be the setting for most of the movie.

The guns are being sold by South African Sharltoe Copley and his ex-Black Panther buddy Babou Ceesay. Showing up late is Armie Hammer, in a sharp suit and full beard. He is going to be Copley's muscle. The guns come out, Murphy loads one (ammunition is kept separately), Hammer pulls his pistol, just as a precaution. It looks like the deal will go smoothly.

Copley has some of his guys bring in a van with the guns, and that's when the junkie knucklehead notices that one of Copley's drivers is the guy who beat him up. They argue a little, fight a little and are pulled apart a little. Then the knucklehead grabs a gun and starts shooting and all hell breaks loose.

Smiley and his guys are shooting at Copley and his guys. They are shooting back. People are shooting at the knucklehead, just because he's an asshole. There's a lot of cover in the warehouse, especially if you keep low to the ground. People keep getting shot but not dying so much. It all gets confusing. One of the knuckleheads says he forgets which side he's on. Someone shots someone on their own side in the excitement. Some snipers start shooting people, and nobody knows whose side they are on.

And that's the movie. The shooting starts about 20-30 minutes in and doesn't stop until it's over. It's exciting and silly, really a sort of comedy. Except very very violent. Junkie Joe gets a particularly nasty death, with his head crushed under a van going about 1 mph. Oh, sorry, SPOILER. 

So, big, noisy action plus black comedy. Some good actors, not doing that much. The action isn't particularly ground-breaking, but it is relentless. It also isn't too long, so it's got that going for it, too.