FREE FIRE REVIEWED
“Free Fire” showcases everything great and bad about Ben Wheatley’s movies. The director is a man of ideas and he makes the plotting of such plans work in his films. It’s just everything from dialogue to interpersonal relationships and pacing fall to garbage over a set run time. More than anything, this film remains of a modern play that wants to compete with other attention grabbing entertainment. A fixed locale is manipulated into a means of being exciting, while staying true to its desire to be deep.
It’s just that “Free Fire” isn’t deep. Whether it’s a dime store novel or A24 trying to diversify its portfolio, you’ve seen this story before. The cool and natural use of setting the film in Boston circa 1978 doesn’t hold up with logic. It’s a means of hiding contrived plot tweaks through the power of chronal limitations. If it doesn’t work in 2017, then the 1970s lack of anything handy could cover up issues with plot devices. Does it matter? Not really.
The film is far funnier than I expected and that helped to keep me in the mix. Pick it up, if you’re curious.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Commentary
- Featurette
A/V STATS
- 2.39:1 1080p transfer
- DTS-HD 5.1 master audio track