Episode 284 - Free Fire

Could this be the most aptly titled film of the year so far?  Perhaps, but aptitude is not the measure of a good movie.  FREE FIRE is a an exercise in imprecise filmmaking.  Director Ben Wheatley wanted to make a nasty, fun dark comedy that delights in watching it's characters brutally kill one another, but the shootout is sloppily directed.  It's hard to get a sense of where the bullets are flying, and how many each shooter has before they run out.  The film is full of great actors, but Wheatley doesn't seem to care about any of them.  His last film, HIGH RISE (episode #223) was a similarly misanthropic mess.  Phil would like to see Wheatley make a film that might betray his emotions; an earnest movie about people dear to his heart, rather than another violently ironic black comedy. You can download the podcast here by right-clicking on the hypertext link and choosing "save as", or you can use the convenient player attached to this post.