The first feature directed by Navot Papushado without sharing those duties with Aharon Keshales( the two made quite an impact with their first two films, Rabies and Big Bad Wolves), Gunpowder Milkshake is a well-paced and fairly enjoyable action movie that boasts an excellent cast and some fun fights. It suffers in comparison to many other films that have been released in recent years though, ending up as something ultimately too insubstantial to be anything more than disposable fun.
Karen Gillan is Sam, a talented assassin who, as so often happens, ends up becoming a target when a job goes slightly awry. We find this out after watching some backstory showing us that her mother (Lena Headey) was an equal shining star in the same profession. Sam ends up looking after a young girl (Emily, played by Chloe Coleman), and she needs to enlist some help, in the form of weaponry and more assassins, to have even half a chance of staying alive for more beyond the next 24 hours.
I like pretty much everyone in this film. I'm saying that now because I think that's why I ended up liking this as much as I did, despite the clunky editing and ridiculousness undermining most of the set-pieces. Gillan is good in the lead role, and she looks capable enough while fighting off numerous enemies. Headey is equally talented, and the fact that she's never been given a lead film role worthy of her considerable talent is always bemusing to me. I would have been happy enough if Gillan and Headey were the two characters kicking ass here, but they're joined, albeit all-too-briefly, by Carla Gugino, Angela Bassett, and Michelle Yeoh. That's a hell of a selection of badass women, which boosts the movie, but also makes things slightly disappointing when sequences don't feel planned around their star power. Michael Smiley is fun in his supporting role, and Paul Giamatti adds another entertaining baddie to his rogue's gallery of villainous characters. Coleman just has to look young, cute, and vulnerable, and she does that perfectly well.
Having spent that much time listing, and praising, the cast, it's a shame that I can't find a lot of positives elsewhere. Papushado's direction is disappointingly straightforward, and the script, co-written by Papushado and Ehud Lavski, feels a bit too lacking in confidence (it's unsurprising to see this as a first feature from Lavski). The violence never seems truly threatening and the quirky comedy is clumsily shoehorned in, making you wish that the film would either ramp up the action or strive for more comedy, as opposed to positioning itself awkwardly between the two.
Technically, everything else is fine. Not great, not awful. Just fine. Nicholas De Toth may not do his best editing work, but it's in line with standard action movies that don't have the choreography and fluidity of the recent high points of the genre, and there's decent enough production design, music, etc. to keep everything simple, clear, and moving along at a good pace to make the 114-minute runtime go by quickly enough. Ironically, considering the two movies share Giamatti in a bad guy role, this might pair up nicely with the whackier Shoot 'Em Up. That film had the confidence to revel in some moments of inspired lunacy, however. This film, with one brilliant highlight that stands out as notable exception, doesn't.
6/10
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