The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
‘Gunpowder Milkshake’ squanders its talented ladies with lame tale
Netflix’s violent ‘Gunpowder Milkshake’ fails to ‘Wick’ its way to delicious fun, but it may lead to stomach sickness
It’s not hard to imagine the pitch meeting for “Gunpowder Milkshake,” a violent action thriller debuting this week on Netflix.
“‘John Wick,’ but with a woman.”
Sure, it’s possible writerdirector Navot Papushado never said that exact phrase to any studio executives, but that’s what the Israeli filmmaker’s latest effort is.
And, hey, that would be fine if it were remotely good.
The highly stylized “John Wick” franchise — about an assassin working within a world of assassins, most of whom are out to kill him — is a lot of fun, and originality isn’t exactly a prerequisite for making a movie like this.
Plus, “Gunpowder Milkshake” has a cool, femaleforward cast. It stars Karen Gillan (“Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle”) as Jen Wick, er, Sam — an assassin raised by and surrounded by other assassins — but also boasts Lena Headey, Michelle Yeoh, Angela Bassett and Carla Gugino. (The only male actor of any note is an underutilized Paul Giamatti.)
However, Papushado — who co-wrote the script with Ehud Lavski — does nothing interesting with his talented actresses, offering an uninspired shoot-em-up that fails to excite from beginning to end.
It begins with Sam, holding a gun in each hand, executing a man before he can pull a trigger on her. She explains in a bit of narration that she works for a group called The Firm, more or less this movie’s equivalent of The High Table from the “Wick”-ian world.
“They’ve been running things for a long time,” Sam says of The Firm, “and when they need someone to clean up their mess, they call me.”
Things get messy for her moments later when she runs into — and subsequently massacres — a group of armed men, one of whom was the son of a powerful criminal (Ralph Ineson).
Soon after, we get a flashback scene where a 12-yearold Sam (Freya Allan) is served a milkshake in a diner friendly to criminals who must check their guns at the door — this movie’s answer to the Continental Hotel in the “Wick” flicks. (Apparently, knives are fine at the diner, though, as we will see a man not only pull one on Sam but even cut her face with it a few minutes later.)
Young Sam is waiting for her mom, Scarlet (Headey, “Game of Thrones”), who shows up late, shares a few sips of the cold treat and tells her daughter she must disappear for a while. As a result, Sam grows up without her in the criminal underworld and learns to kill. In present-day, Sam’s course leads her to a young girl, Emily (Chloe Coleman), whose well-being she prioritizes over retrieving a large sum of cash — much to the frustration of her boss within The Firm, Nathan (Giamatti, “Billions”). He has a soft spot for Sam, but he will be forced to have her killed if she doesn’t get her murderous act together.
Sam seeks help from the Librarians, assassins and former associates of her mother who keep guns hidden within books in their heavily fortified place of business. (In the film’s production notes, Papushado pontificates on the idea’s metaphorical value because “a library holds maybe the strongest weapon of all — knowledge.” It’s tremendously silly.)
The Librarians — Florence (Yeoh, “Star Trek: Discovery”), Anna May (Bassett, “Black Panther”) and Madeleine (Gugino, “The Haunting of Hill House”) — choose to assist Sam in her time of need despite Anna May’s absolute fury over how Scarlet dropped off the radar without so much as a goodbye.
The narrative of “Gunpowder Milkshake” is largely unfocused. While the aforementioned killing of the criminal’s son eventually becomes important, more of the movie deals with the cash Nathan wants retrieved — and the various complications that arise from Sam’s handling of that situation.
If the movie succeeds in one area, it’s the bond that forms between Sam and Emily, the former becoming a pseudo mother for the latter. The younger actress, featured in HBO’s “Big Little Lies,” gives perhaps the best performance of the film, but that’s probably because her character is relatable in the way the others aren’t.
And while Gillan’s Sam is fleshed out a little, it’s not enough for her to put a stamp on the movie. Obviously, then, Headey, Bassett, Yeoh and Gugino don’t stand a chance of doing that themselves.
Behind the camera, Papushado and Lavski — who worked together on 2013’s generally well-received Israeli black comedy horror-thriller film “Big Bad Wolves” — eventually lead Sam, Emily and company to the obligatory final shootout. As with earlier action sequences, it makes use of slow-motion and is frustratingly lifeless in general. There’s just nothing that moves the needle here.
Worse, this sequence betrays an idea established early on in “Gunpowder Milkshake.”
Like the movie as a whole, it feels pretty lazy.