Gunpowder Milkshake: Film Review

Cast: Karen Gillan, Paul Giamatti, Lena Headey, Michelle Yeoh, Carla Gugino, Angela Bassett

Director: Navot Papushado

With its Pulp Fiction-style soundtrack, its penchant for diners, and its stylish yet potentially ultimately hollow execution, Gunpowder Milkshake veers dangerously close to Tarantino-lite fare.

But with a pure shot of adrenaline, and a neon-soaked visual palette, as well as some extremely tautly choreographed action sequences, Gunpowder Milkshake is a film that revels in its influences, and just manages to outgrow its Jane Wick edges, to provide a stylish bubblegum action movie that's as enjoyable as it is stylish.

Guardians of the Galaxy and Doctor Who star Gillen is Sam, a seemingly orphaned assassin, whose world is turned upside down when she accidentally crosses the Firm she's working for to try and save a kidnapped child.

With a series of assassins on her tail after she kills the wrong person, Sam has to turn to her past for help...

Gunpowder Milkshake revels in its neon-soaked vistas, its almost kitsch-like execution and its truly thrilling action sequences. There's a thrill seeing Gillan beating up the competition (even if the MeToo elements are over-egged in some of the weaker dialogue early on) as she punches and kicks balletically during showdowns.

Papushado's eye is more for the action throughout the movie, and Gunpowder Milkshake more than accomplishes its inventive use of locations, its lighting and its desire to thrill.

Which is a good thing, because throughout, there's a crushing feeling of lifeless dialogue which appears to have been overwritten in an attempt to seem cool and timelessly quotable, and a feeling throughout of some stop/start mentality to the plot.

It's here the sugar rush and gun fu of Gunpowder Milkshake falls foul; outside of its hyper-stylised edges, the film lacks the timeless zing of the likes of Tarantino's finest - even if it does provide great companionship and secure its place in the action movie pantheon recently visited by Bob Odenkirk's Nobody earlier this year.

While its villains lack a charisma to carry them through, and make them rise beyond their required body count goon narrative edges, the leading ladies more than make up for their male counterparts' flaccid outings.

Gillan in particular goes from sullen and sulky to violent contract killer in seconds, but never loses sight of some of the emotion the script's denied her overall. Equally, Headey's comedic edges and smirking sensibilities come to the fore as Sam's mum, who disappeared 15 years previously.

Sure, there's a superficiality to Gunpowder Milkshake's characters and dialogue, but there's a real thrill in seeing the action executed, and the film's pure rush ethos, and the gleeful execution that goes with it ensures that this is one milkshake that will bring all the boys to the yard.