New Ben Wheatley: "Free Fire" (Action/Crime)

[jacobsever]

Originally Posted by The Debts

I wonder if A24 will ever get confident and go for a full wide release someday. I know they experimented with The Witch and that gave them mixed results (great reviews and solid box office but a mixed audience reception), so it should be interesting to see how this pans out.

Ex Machina was wide, no? That definitely played in multiple theaters for a while out here.

And Room. Room was big with advertising everywhere.

[MikeScott]

Originally Posted by The Debts

I wonder if A24 will ever get confident and go for a full wide release someday. I know they experimented with The Witch and that gave them mixed results (great reviews and solid box office but a mixed audience reception), so it should be interesting to see how this pans out.

Well what do you consider a full wide release? The Witch was definitely full wide with over 2,000 theaters. It did well no matter what audiences thought of it.

Ex Machina, Spring Breakers, and Moonlight expanded wide too. Or do you mean right off the bat? Because if so then only The Witch did that. But this is set for a wide release and so is It Comes At Night in June. Really hoping Free Fire does decently considering it's opening the weekend after The Fate of the Furious.


Did anyone see Kong and have the trailer attached? Hoping it will be since Brie is in both.

[thewerepuppygrr]

Saw this last night and had a real blast - definitely one of Wheatley's best films next to The Kill List. If you cross Tarantino with Shane Black this would pretty much be the result.

Had a bit of a dip in the middle and had the usual 'infinite bullets' issue that shoot-em-ups tend to have, but for the most part it was rip-roaring action with a lot of humor thrown in. Thoroughly recommend it.

Originally Posted by bowlingbilly10

I wonder if the trailer for free fire will be in front of kong skull island since Brie Larson is also in that?

Weirdly not only do both films have Brie Larson, they also both include

[Show spoiler]the song "Run Through the Jungle" by CCR

.

[Foggy]

Guys, the film's the real deal, get hyped people.

[ManBeast]

I was kind of disappointed to be honest, I would give it 7/10 and I prefer High Rise. It was funny but not really that tense. Jack Reynor and Sharlto Copley were great however. Might be one to rewatch.

[eightslicesofpie]

I thought it was a pretty fun time. I didn't think it was tense either but I also don't feel like it was particularly supposed to be; I didn't care about any of the characters, it was just a bunch of goofy, wild violence for 90 minutes. Pretty funny, entertaining movie. Sharlto Copley and Armie Hammer were both very funny ~

[Troll2fan]

Originally Posted by eightslicesofpie

I thought it was a pretty fun time. I didn't think it was tense either but I also don't feel like it was particularly supposed to be; I didn't care about any of the characters, it was just a bunch of goofy, wild violence for 90 minutes. Pretty funny, entertaining movie. Sharlto Copley and Armie Hammer were both very funny ~

Sign me up!! This is the only April release that I've been looking forward to seeing.

[shrex]

I won tickets to see this on Monday, looks like fun.

[Talleyrand]

How's Brie Larson in this? I like her a lot, but I have the feeling that this a movie that should have had a strictly male cast, and having a woman will be distracting. I have not seen it yet though and could be wrong.

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by Talleyrand

How's Brie Larson in this? I like her a lot, but I have the feeling that this a movie that should have had a strictly male cast, and having a woman will be distracting. I have not seen it yet though and could be wrong.

She fits in, her gender plays into the plot and the way the guys treat her, so the film would be missing something without her, but she holds her own with the guys without being made out to be one of the guys.

[NP13]

I thought the film was OK, but compared to Wheatley's previous stuff, I was a bit underwhelmed. Had some funny lines, but nothing else seemed particularly memorable. Strangely though, I do want to watch it again.

[duggie walker]

As someone who would claim KILL LIST to be one of the best British films of all time, it's sad to say that I found FREE FIRE to be actively bad.

The characters are dull and unlikable and the actors portraying them likewise. When Armie Hammer is the most charismatic cast-member, you should be worried; and on this evidence, I'm actually now quite dubious about Brie Larson's ability to carry CAPTAIN MARVEL. By the way, some of the least interesting characters make it to the end.

I agree that the film isn't tense but, for me, it wasn't funny either. I was initially skeptical of the "one-room" concept but trusted that Wheatley wouldn't take it on if he didn't have a novel take on it; but what was most surprising to me is that, for all the cartoon elements, the whole film is shot pretty straight with very few of the flourishes that, say, the Coen Brothers might employ. Bafflingly, Wheatley doesn't even map out the geography of this single space very well - I was still confused as to where people were; and pretty much baffled throughout as to why any of it was happening at all.

It now looks to me like Wheatley is on a downwards slide, where every film he makes is a little bit less good than the one before. At least HIGH RISE had a distinctive sensibility; FREE FIRE feels like a minor sell-out to the US market, putting Wheatley in the same category as other UK Tarantino-wannabes like Martin McDonagh. Wheatley's better and more original than that and I hope he doesn't pander further to the market in future.

[eightslicesofpie]

Originally Posted by duggie walker

As someone who would claim KILL LIST to be one of the best British films of all time, it's sad to say that I found FREE FIRE to be actively bad.

The characters are dull and unlikable and the actors portraying them likewise. When Armie Hammer is the most charismatic cast-member, you should be worried; and on this evidence, I'm actually now quite dubious about Brie Larson's ability to carry CAPTAIN MARVEL. By the way, some of the least interesting characters make it to the end.

I agree that the film isn't tense but, for me, it wasn't funny either. I was initially skeptical of the "one-room" concept but trusted that Wheatley wouldn't take it on if he didn't have a novel take on it; but what was most surprising to me is that, for all the cartoon elements, the whole film is shot pretty straight with very few of the flourishes that, say, the Coen Brothers might employ. Bafflingly, Wheatley doesn't even map out the geography of this single space very well - I was still confused as to where people were; and pretty much baffled throughout as to why any of it was happening at all.

It now looks to me like Wheatley is on a downwards slide, where every film he makes is a little bit less good than the one before. At least HIGH RISE had a distinctive sensibility; FREE FIRE feels like a minor sell-out to the US market, putting Wheatley in the same category as other UK Tarantino-wannabes like Martin McDonagh. Wheatley's better and more original than that and I hope he doesn't pander further to the market in future.

This is actually something I thought Wheatley did surprisingly well; I was never confused by the geography of the warehouse and where certain characters were situated

[Talleyrand]

Originally Posted by Foggy

She fits in, her gender plays into the plot and the way the guys treat her, so the film would be missing something without her, but she holds her own with the guys without being made out to be one of the guys.

Excellent news. Even more excited for this now.

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by Talleyrand

Excellent news. Even more excited for this now.

It's very good. After A Cure for Wellness and T2 Trainspotting, it's my third favourite film of the year so far.

[Spencer_Kain92]

Will it be in wide release on the 21st? Anyone know how many screens it will be on?

[Captain.Monkey]

No one is talking about Cillian Murphy?

[HorrorBlu]

Originally Posted by spencer_kain92

will it be in wide release on the 21st? Anyone know how many screens it will be on?

1,070

[xbs2034]

Originally Posted by HorrorBlu

1,070

Is this A24's first wide release (at least as far as right away, rather than starting limited and expanding)?

Anyway saw it last night, and it isn't original and can get a bit tiring (basically after the set up it really is a non-stop shootout, which doesn't allow for much character development and by the third act you've pretty much seen everything they can do with the conflict), but it's really fun.

[ronboster]

Originally Posted by eightslicesofpie

This is actually something I thought Wheatley did surprisingly well; I was never confused by the geography of the warehouse and where certain characters were situated

Ben Wheatley did a live stream Q&A last night at Alamo Drafthouse. He talked about having to map out the warehouse and the location of each character and their movements. This shoot was more difficult due to continuity and logistics of all the characters.

He did say, they did much of their editing live as shots were completed on location.

One interesting comparison....he used Die Hard as an example...if John was moving through the air ducts, one didn't need to know what Hans was doing at that exact moment. In this film, when you focused on one character, you still had to be cognoscente (as a film maker) where and what the other characters were doing at the same time.