What would you get if you mixed some KILL BILL with a bit of JOHN WICK, maybe a garnish of DRIVE using a DESPERADO stir stick… but you didn’t quite measure properly then added some college level flat diet soda? GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE.
Or maybe it’s more like a cheap knock off, slightly changing the name to fool the few people who may not know the difference or don’t care like “Kill Will” or “John Rick.”
Forgive me if these analogies seem a little harsh, but that seriously is not the full intent. The influences of the first two movies I mentioned are very apparent and that’s good. Those movies are great and a movie that is attempting to emulate some of their coolness is not necessarily a bad thing. Unfortunately, Netflix’s GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE is clearly trying ultra hard as a wanna-be Tarantino type film. While the lesser quality is obvious, it’s still quite a bit of fun. The style, costume, dialogue, music, and action feels as though it is trying to be like some super hip filmmaking that we’ve seen before, and it still kind of works if you like that sort of thing. In fact, the film has a few stand-out moments. So much so, that I still rather enjoyed it… even when it was kind of bad… which is sort of throughout.
Director Navot Papushado, who also wrote the screenplay with Ehud Lavski, manages to get some great talent to help elevate the material. Karen Gillan (GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, JUMANJI) is Sam, an assassin for hire. But when she hesitates on a job that involves a little girl (Chloe Coleman), her bosses are not forgiving. Add to the fact that her prior assignment ended with her killing the son of a prominent gangster, Sam is now on the run from multiple killers. Veteran cool chicks, Lena Heady, Angela Bassett, Carla Gugino, and Michelle Yeoh all add their great talents to this strong butt-kicking female powerhouse film.
I think the worst part of GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE is that it desperately wants to be cool. Sometimes it is. But man, the dialogue is rough and the filmmakers think long pauses with deadpan delivery ala Uma Thurman as the Bride will beef it up a bit. That’s not the case. In fact, they are dead wrong and the film is rather boring at times. The nearly 2 hour run-time feels as though it should have been a half hour shorter. Nonetheless, we do get some genuinely exciting set pieces. Maybe I’m a sucker for the genre but I love the costuming and art direction with a few respected females destroying some goofy bad guys.
Most of the fighting action is fair to decent, even if the finale overly indulges in a bullet and gun extravaganza that I would equate to the brain freeze of eating up this milkshake too quickly. However, I have to bump GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE up a half a star specifically for one action scene that stands out among all action sequences. Sam’s arms are briefly rendered paralyzed. In order to take on a few comical goons, she has a knife taped to one hand and a gun taped to the other. What follows is a joyous choreography of creative brutality as Sam must use momentum to swing her weapons while she simultaneously avoids and attacks her three assailants.
GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE is not Shakespeare, but like the title suggests it can be guilty fun, desserty goodness, even if the ingredients are from a cheap off brand.
