Director: Navot Papushado
Starring: Karen Gillan, Lena Headey, Chloe Coleman, Carla Gugino, Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh, Ralph Ineson and Paul Giamatti
Gunpowder Milkshake is a new film that features a group of strong women fighting a bunch of men with an excellent soundtrack and amazing shot choices that really draws you into the action – sounds like a winning combination but was is it?
Sam (played by Karen Gillan) was abandoned by her mother when she only 12 years old, thus Sam was raised by The Firm, which happens to be a ruthless criminal organisation.
Now 15 years later, Sam like her mother, has grown up into a hit-woman.
However, a high-risk job goes wrong Sam has a choice to make, does she go ahead with The Firm’s orders or protect the life of an innocent 8-year-old girl called Emily (Chloe Coleman).
Sam has a target on her back and must reunite with her mother and some of her old associates known as The Librarians.
These women learn to trust one another while taking on The Firm and their army of henchmen, while also taking a stand against those who try to taking everything away from them.
KAREN GILLAN TAKES CENTRE STAGE IN GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE
Credit: Studio Canal
Read more: Nebula Actress Karen Gillan Being Eyed To Play A Female Version Of The Mask In New Spinoff
This film is defiantly about women standing up against men and showing that not all women can be pushed around.
Karen Gillan stars as our main assassin in this film, known as Sam.
This character is tough as she was brought up in The Firm so all she has ever known is that kind of life.
Both Sam and her mother Scarlet (Lena Headey) have killed the wrong person and The Firm have come after them.
Sam takes charge; she may be a very ruthless character but she does have morals and empathy.
She feels bad for what she has done and wants to make up for it.
Gillian does well in this role but at times I wonder if she was the right choice.
I enjoyed her performance but I’m not completely convinced by her portrayal of her character.
Sam has never forgiven her mother for abandoning her and it shows through Gillan and Headey performance.
The mother-daughter relationship is fractured but seems to be healed very quickly.
Headey performance as Scarlet is good.
All the performances are good but I feel like the dialogue lets them down in parts, so some dialogue isn’t convincing and believable.
THE LIBERIANS ARE LIKE FAIRIES OF VIOLENCE
Credit: Studio Canal
Read more: Karen Gillan Reveals She Wants To Direct And Star In A Batgirl Movie
The Liberians known as Florence (Michelle Yeoh), Anna May (Angela Bassett), and Madeleine (Carla Gugino) are a great team.
They are all very different which is good but they work really well together.
Some viewers have noticed how each one of them wears the colours of the Faires in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty – Florence in blue, Anna May in green and Madeleine in red.
Instead of giving nice gifts, they give gifts of violence such as bullets and guns.
These characters are a great addition to the cast and their fight scenes are some of the best scenes in the entire film but their dialogue is quite poor and that really lets these characters down.
All these women just want a simple life but they want things their way.
Yet what brings these women together is a sense of family, they only have each other but they support one another to the end.
Looking back that is my favourite thing about this film, is how these characters who all come from different backgrounds and have made mistakes, come together and create a family who supports and care for one another.
PREPARE FOR SOME GOREY FIGHT SCENES IN GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE
Credit: Studio Canal
Read more: Karen Gillan Has Confirmed She’s Returning A Nebula In Thor: Love And Thunder
Gunpowder Milkshake is an assassin hunting down the assassins who are hunting her.
This is a very gory film.
The effects show exactly how someone dies, basically, there is a lot of blood and some decapitated heads.
It does feel as if elements in this film are a bit over the top and overperformed.
For example, in the fight scene in the bowling alley with Sam, the fighting looked quite fake at times and stylised.
The fight was interesting to watch but at times you could see it was really fake which made the scene a little less enjoyable to watch.
Compared to the other fight scenes where they didn’t look as fake but still look stylised, but were still enjoyable to watch.
Overall, the fight scenes were good to watch but I think that is more to do with the shot choices and the editing than the actors fighting.
They were good but I do think that certain elements could have been better.
A BEAUTIFUL LOOKING FILM BUT THE PLOT IS A BIT VAGUE IN SOME AREAS
Credit: Studio Canal
Read more: Cineworld Shareholders Continue To Revolt
The plot is a bit vague in some areas, we understand that we are against The Firm but then we are also fighting the Russians.
This element feels a bit stereotypical and we aren’t given any real-time or context about why them.
Mr Big (Ralph Ineson) loses his son which is Sam’s fault and they go after her but I feel that fighting The Firm and The Russians is just a bit too much.
The intensity within the film isn’t raised enough to think that Sam and the other woman really have nowhere to go, it all just feels a bit vague.
With that being said the look of this film is beautiful, every set and location looks perfect and draws you into this world that Papushado is trying to create.
The library is my favourite set as everything has been thought about to the last detail.
Even the books chosen to hide guns and money etc has been thought about.
At times this film gives me huge Edgar Wright vibes with the way it has been shot and edited.
The cinematography is very bright and striking, considering this film looks at dark subjects.
GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE SHARES SIMILARITIES WITH BLACK WIDOW
Credit: Studio Canal
Read more: Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s Rian Johnson Will Be Heading Up A New Star Wars Trilogy
This film does share some similarities to Marvel’s Black Widow which has also been released recently.
Both are about women whose life has revolved around the violence and the woman must be deadlier than the men to survive.
This film has a strange empowerment message but neither really gets given time to really think about the consequences of training girls to become killers, except for just the trauma it produces.
Gunpowder Milkshake isn’t supposed to portray reality, it is trying to be like a comic book.
Very bright settings, over the top fight scenes and a simple plot where not a lot is really explained.
This film won’t be for everyone, you may watch this film because of the actors in it.
All the actors put on a good performance so you won’t be disappointed in that area but there is room for improvement.
What do you make of this review of Gunpowder Milkshake?
Have you seen the movie yet?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
What do you make of this story? Let us know in the comments below or on our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages! And if you enjoy listening to film podcasts, why not check out our podcasts, Small Screen Stories and Small Screen Film Club wherever you get your podcasts!
There are no comments
Add yours