The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Despite its very best efforts of trying to bring something new and fresh to the table, Free Fire – the latest movie from British filmmaker Ben Wheatley (see Kill List, A Field in England) – doesn’t really amount to much. Co-written by Wheatley and Amy Jump, its one-night-one-location setting proves, at times, to be an engaging and exciting set-up, but is also equally tedious at other times.

Set in the late 1970’s in Boston, Massachusetts the film tells the story of two Irish gangsters, Chris (Murphy) and Frank (Smiley), who have arrived to the city hoping to purchase a truckload of firearms from South African arms dealers, Vernon (Copley) and Martin (Ceesay). Accompanied by their intermediary, Justine (Larson), and a couple of associates, Stevo (Riley) and Bernie (Cilenti), the group soon arrives to an abandoned warehouse to meet Ord (Hammer); a slimy frontman working for the dealers.

It’s pretty clear that no one trusts anyone with the tensions soon rising when Chris learns that they are being sold the wrong kind of weapons.  He reluctantly agrees to the deal, but before the cash exchanges hands, an argument between Stevo and one of Vernon’s accomplices explodes into a full-blown shootout which soon finds the two sides trying everything they can to stay armed and alive.

 The structure of the story is simple and the introduction to the storyline and its characters is straightforward and easy. We learn about who they are and what ticks them off early on, through a relatively brief self-expository dialogue, with the story carefully paving the way for what appears to be a promising showdown.

And it is, with Wheatley devoting most of his attention and time to the execution of a full-blown, gun-blazing and a bullet-ridden shootout that takes up most of the movie’s running time. This alone should be enough to keep any of the trigger-happy fans relatively happy, but the story does run into trouble with keeping things plausible while the characters, although all collectively talented in their own way, don’t really get a chance to leave an impression as the story never really allows the viewers to get to know them beyond the surface. While its super-talented cast does everything it can to keep the story rolling, their efforts are squandered by a weak script and a flaky premise that is, more often than not, hard to take seriously.

Pinned up against a 1970’s backdrop, Free Fire is a mixed bag of gun-firing goodies. Whilst its elongated scene of never-ending violence is relatively exciting, there is still an obvious lack of coherency and that perhaps could have taken the story further.