The Worst Film Ever

Just perfect...

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

2018 is barely a week old, but I'm afraid I already stumbled upon the biggest disappointment of the year! Words literally fail to describe how incredibly dire and incompetent "Free Fire" is. Seriously, how is it possible that a film can superficially look so cool but then turn out to be so unbelievable irritable? In fact, the question "how is it possible" will form the red wire across this entire user comment. How is it possible that people are still imitating the success aspects of "Reservoir Dogs" and "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" after more than twenty years? If there's one thing these movies have proven, it is that the combination of graphic violence and witty one-liners is rather unique and almost inimitable. Hundreds of rip-offs were unleashed, especially between 2000-2010, but none of them were truly worthwhile. Just when you think that nowadays aspiring directors are clever enough not to do so anymore, Ben Wheatley comes up with the most embarrassing rip-off of them all. How is it possible that I still have faith in Wheatley, anyway? Critics often label him as a multi-talented director, but this is the third letdown in a row after "High-Rise" and "Sightseers". I still want to see "Kill List", but if that's another disappointment, I'll never watch another Ben Wheatley film ever again. How is it possible that a film, which doesn't even have an actual script, is still so badly written? Simply put, "Free Fire" is set in 1978 and handles about an illegal weapon deal in an abandoned Boston warehouse between nervous IRA members and the gang of the sleazy and completely unreliable smuggler Vern. For the most banal reason imaginable, the already agitated situation goes awry and they all start shooting each other. How is it possible that anyone is still standing up after five minutes? Every single character gets shot, sometimes even in the head, but they all cheerfully continue reloading their arms and shouting idiotic stuff at each other. How is it possible that all these talented cast members got lured into this? "Free Fire" stars Cillian Murphy ("28 Days Later"), Sim Riley ("Control"), Brie Larson ("Room") and Armie Hammer ("The Lone Ranger"), but they don't immediately seem to realize they're stuck in the worst project of their careers. And then the most vital question of them all: how is it possible that a film that features constant gunfire and bullet-showers is so damn boring! Despite all the Mexican stand-offs, the enormous body count and the sly dialogs, "Free Fire" is BORING beyond belief. The only reason why I'm giving this a generous rating 2 out of ten, instead of the miserable rating 1 it really deserves, is because I was rejoiced to hear a couple of long-forgotten John Denver classics on the soundtrack.

I'd say style over substance but really the style is meh. Everything is amateur and really feels like a student film. Everything is boring and annoying after the first 10 minutes: from the acting, to the plot, to the cinematography, to the action, to the one location of the film. Too much of the film is just things happening with no real progress and nothing is satisfying. It just keeps going. Characters die but you don't care either way. There is not good or bad guy, You hope everyone dies and there is no fun in it. The whole thing is filler and it struggles to reach it's 90 minute run time. 3/10 because there were a couple neat images and ideas (some desktop wallpaper material). A very tiring film in the end not worth your time, just look at a few stills and move on.

I couldn't care about any of the characters. Little plot or story line. Complete waste of time. One of the worst films I've ever seen. Absurdly bad. You couldn't pay me to watch it again!

There has been movies that had a very small space that have worked quite well. Phone Booth. Buried. This got about 70% there but was overcome with some poor choices. I read a bit about the production and watched the "making of" attachment on the DVD. That gave me some clues.Apparently much of the choice for it to take place in the '70s was due to cellular phones. Not much of a movie when you can call for help. But that choice also came with having some reference to it being the '70s. A few disco jokes? Someone served in Vietnam? Something like that. I think there was one passive reference to a guy's suit and that was it. And the John Denver 8-track, I suppose.Additionally the director apparently did quite a lot of research on shootouts and how they really go down. Then patterned the action to it. All well and good and seemed to reflect that because there was an absence of action and flash to it all. I'm glad it didn't flip to a Tarantino Xerox blood fest, but maybe more of early John Woo? Something more with a flair. Sure, there were slights-of-hand to the visuals, but hardly enough vs. the latitude that was there. And I thank it again for not going totally Tarantino with the dialogue and characters. There were some as they were all criminals, so a comparison was inevitable. A distinction to each and every one was present with solid acting talent behind them. Yes, it was likely that such criminals would have said the "F" word just as frequently as the characters, but was a pain to listen to in a movie and took away from further potential exposition. Not that I was offended. It was just verbal junk.I also found the logistics suspect. I was not really sold on there not being any way out for any of the characters. Even the two "suprise guests" suggested they entered from a direction that would then provide escape for the others. But they were never used or tried. It was a subject that was just dropped. And the endless supply of bullets was growing tedius. The lead-up to the shoot out was engaging and entertaining, though. But it had more to it on a whole that wasn't there. Room for another 10-15 minutes. So it shot itself in the foot in the end. (See what I did there, eh? Wink wink.)