Gunpowder Milkshake

"You are a strong, smart, incredibly impressive young woman. There's not a single person on earth I'd rather kill people with."

"Thanks Mom."

If you watched last week's new Netflix action thriller Kate you'll get a strong sense of deja vu when you watch Gunpowder Milkshake. Both are films bathed in gaudy shades of neon about female assassin's that end up protecting children along the way. Kate doesn't have Angela Bassett in a supporting role rocking a pair of claw hammers though. But can something as undeniably cool as that make a movie?

Sam (Karen Gillan) is a hitwoman for an organised crime gang called The Firm and she's literally deadly at her job. She's their golden girl, their ace in the hole and of course their fall guy when things goes wrong and when a rival mobster's son gets in the way of one of her bullets they decide not to back her up to avoid a war. The only people she can turn to are the librarians, (Carla Gugino, Michelle Yeoh & Angela Bassett) a sisterhood of assassins who worked with her mother Scarlet (Lena Headey) back in the day. Her mother that disappeared without trace 15 years beforehand. If there were ever a more perfect time for her to reappear it would be right now. Oh and she's a child to protect now too, picked up along the way, a young girl called Emily (Chloe Coleman) who's interested in the carnage cropping up all around her.

Gunpowder Milkshake will genuinely try your patience in it's opening 30 minutes. All it's pieces are slid into place, all it's exposition is gotten out of the way fast but it's all done in a cringy, quirky, cutesy faux noir fashion that will make you want to hide behind your hands while setting up a world that's John Wick-ian in everything but name. Assassin's are everywhere, controlled by underground networks, instead of exclusive New York hotels it's 50's diners where meetings take place and sanctuary is sought. It looks and feels tacky, flimsy and cheap while Karen Gillan feels totally out of place as supposedly the best assassin around. Then a bowling bowl strikes a face. It's just what the doctor ordered.

It's vicious, a bowling alley bust up that really kicks the film into gear. Faces and limbs are wrecked, Gillan displays a wicked physicality, people are taken out Van Helsing style(!), you'll laugh and you'll cringe in equal measure. Then Sam goes to get her wounds looked at and ends up in an even worse predicament that turns into some highly inventive and bloody Buster Keaton style slapstick and one of the more unique car chases you'll see onscreen this year. We barely get a chance to breathe and then we get to see what old school assassins can do. We won't go into details here but suffice to say you'll have fun watching the patriarchy get taken apart piece by piece by Bassett, Yeoh, and Gugino to the fiery sound of Janis Joplin.

The patriarchy. A lot is made of it in this film, the problems it's caused, it's lack of understanding or want to understand. A speech made in the film comes from a man who calls himself a feminist but who makes no attempt at getting to know women or empathising with them. The reply is a shotgun blast. In the moment it's funny but it does speak to a shallowness in the script. Why make a statement like that and do nothing with it? Writer/director Navot Papushado is all about the surface pleasures here meaning you'll have a good time watching but remember little later. 

If you like your gory gunplay with a side order of laughs you'll enjoy this. If you want something deeper you may have to look elsewhere. In Cinemas and on Sky Cinema from tomorrow.