Movies That Settle: Free Fire

Dragged Out of the Archives, so How Does it Work Today?

About five years ago, I mysteriously went on a quest to watch evey Brie Larson movie, just for fun. The idea of this quest actually came from a different quest, the 2017 “Watch as Many Movies as I Can” Quest, which was an admittedly failed attempt top study how people consume their cinema in the 21 century. I say failed because, with all the streaming services out there, plus going to the movies and some DVD’s that we owned and i still hadn;t seen, I thought I could watch thousands of movies, but I ended up at a mere 159, and I barely remember most of them. So, all I really learned is, “Don’t force yourself to watch movies.”

Anyway, during that quest, I fluked into watching three Brie Larson movies in a row, which was weird because I didn’t really know who she was before that, except that she won an Oscar for Room. So I decided to lean into that a little more. It was only later that I found out that she would be playing Captain Marvel, so that made me feel less weird, but in reality, who whole thing was just a crazy fluke.

Anyway, while questing, I came across what would be my favorite Brie Larson vehicle, Free Fire. Larson stars alongside a menagerie of funny and talenetd folks including Cillian Murphy, Sharlto Copley, and ok, Armie Hammer, who at the time I thought was was really cool, but apparently is kind of a creep (although there was apparently no concrete evidence? Who the Hell knows?). Since this post is mostly lifted from my old mattdursin.com site, I said some nice things about him, so I apologize for being ignorant back then. I admit, in this movie, he plays his part well and I’ll leave it at that.

Anyway, since The Marvels is coming due in theaters this week, Cillian Murphy is famous now for being in Oppenheimer, and director Ben Wheatley is way more famous for directihng The Meg 2: The Trench, I figured this was a good time to pull this one out of the closet and see if it still fits. The verdict:

Before I get to it, remember to like, comment, subscribe and and buy me a slice, if you can!

And now, what did 2018 Matt Dursin think of Free Fire:

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A lot of people probably have never even heard of this movie, and if I weren't scouring the globe for Brie Larson movies, I maybe wouldn't have, either. And that would be unfortunate, because it's a totally fun, awesome movie, one that I would have loved in college during my "Tarantino is God" phase, and totally worth your time (Seriously, it's available on Max and Hulu right now, and I when is say "worth your time," I mean it because it's exactly 91 minutes, and over 60 of them are one, long gunfight.)

Larson herself had just come from filming Room, for which she would win critical acclaim and an Oscar, but at the time, she was just making a fun action movie alongside Armie Hammer and Cillian Murphy. In fact, it was likely for the best that it happened that way, because the fame that came from her performance in Room could have possibly changed the vibe that this movie had going on, and that would have sucked, because the vibe that Free Fire had going on was that of a shoot-'em-up, gonzo, late-70's blood bath. No CGI monsters smashing buildings or giant sky-lasers. Just people shooting each other and crawling around on the ground, wounded. And the great part is, when these people get shot, they feel it, and they scream in pain, and the people that shoot them even sometimes feel a little bad.

As a brief aside, can I just say that I am finding Armie Hammer to actually be quite an accomplished actor? I had honestly never heard of him before that horrible Lone Ranger debacle, but this dude has some chops. I love that he plays his handsomeness for comedy more often than not, where a lot of handsome Hollywood actors play their handsomeness for handsomeness.

(2023 Interlude: Okay, sorry about that. I could just delete it, but it’s a good lesson for me to learn. I didn’t know that the guy might have been a cannibal.)

The quick rundown of the story, such as it is, goes like this; in 1978 Boston, Larson's Justine is helping to broker a deal between criminal groups for some rifles. So, of course, when you get a bunch of stupid criminals and some guns and put them together in an enclosed space, hilarity will ensue. As Larson puts it, Free Fire is simply "an action movie making fun of action movies." That's pretty good, but I don't see it as "making fun," as much as paying tribute to them, and making one that's actually quite simple, and very good. There is of course some subtlety in the performances, especially Hammer's sweet-talking, sharp-dressed kingpin, and Sharlto Copley's stupidly fake-smooth Vernon, and there's some nods to the political unrest in Northern Ireland (hence the guns), and the real violence only starts when one bad guy is mad at the otehr bad guy for sexually assaulting his cousin, but even if I didn't see the opening minutes and had no idea who anyone was, I would have enjoyed this movie immensely.

Also, I know this may seem biased, but Larson happens to be playing the most intelligent character in the movie. She is the only female, and definitely stands out among the leisure suits and bad facial hair, but there is also an edge to her that just isn't seen in a lot of action movies from previous generations (She even has a great moment, while pointing her gun at one of her rivals: "We can't all be nice girls.") There were saucy female characters, to be sure, and there were hordes of Marion Ravenwood-esque women who could hold their own with the male bad guys, but usually in the end had to be rescued by their leading men. Justine needs no rescuing, and in fact, has one up on all of them, and plainly states as much when she responds to one of the dimwit crooks when he asks if she's F.B.I.: "I'm I.I.F.M.," which stands for In It For Myself. I mean, Marion Ravenwood was definitely in it for the money (at least at first), but even she wasn't savvy enough to put one over on both Indiana Jones and Rene Belloq.

I would like to say that I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone, but that's really not an issue here. I guess I won't tell you who, if anyone, gets away, but let me just say a bunch of people get shot, all of them more than once, there's a lot of jokes and quips, Armie Hammer smokes a lot of weed, the filmmakers make great use of John Denver on the soundtrack, and assuming they have a pulse, the audience goes home happy. But don't let the lack of plot twists and turns get you down, because, as I said earlier, there are great characters and performances in here. They are done so well, in fact, that even though they are all criminals, you kind of want them to make it. But you know that never really happens in these movies. Just enjoy them while they're there, because it's pretty unlikely you'll see a Free Fire II: Guns A’ Blazing anytime soon.

In closing, I would be remiss if I didn't post my favorite gif, one that I've used before in this blog, but now I can give it some context because it's from this movie, and it pretty much tells you what the movie is all about. When Vernon sees Justine for the first time in awhile, he remarks that she is lovely, but also that she's put on a bit of weight, and hopes that no one has "put a bun in her oven." Justine's reply, and the only appropriate one in this or any other era:

So, yeah, see Free Fire.

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