I watched Gunpowder Milkshake last night. I enjoyed it but I've been struggling with if I can/should recommend it.
First thing you gotta know is that it is super violent. I actually checked a couple of reviews in trying to decide whether to recommend it or not and the word they used was UltraViolent. The violence is so constant and extreme you don't even take it seriously. Kind of like the spaghetti westerns or kung fu movies of yore. But this is a big budget film with all that entails so a more apt comparison is Kill Bill or maybe John Wick. I imagine that down in the bowels of the Netflix corp where the guys in production development work, some one said, How about we do a Kill Bill?
I didn't feel that the movie was a deliberate rip-off, more of a homage to the movies in the genre.
The next thing that jumps out to you, especially if you are like me and read a little bit about the movie before deciding to watch it is the cast. Its got a incredible cast list. And I would skip the trailer - too many spoilers.
I don't think 30M is a lot to spend on a movie nowadays. but the movie looks and feels very big budget. There is of course the aforementioned cast list. A lot of times when I watch a film that has a big budget - I wonder why they didn't spend more money on the script. Well, I'm sure that this movie didn't have a very thick script and I checked and the writer /director has a pretty thin resume. However i thought the writing was pretty good. There were some plot holes and some what I call internal inconsistencies but nothing very deep or wide. In fact, a little post movie discussion can fill in the plot holes pretty well.
The music is great and the costume and set design are if not excellent are more than interesting. both music and design work to set a mood and a theme.
The other thing that might be worth mentioning is the villains. Some of them are so inept they are comical. Come to think of it, the two fight scenes with the BoneHeads are actually funny.
So if you don't mind the violence (the body count of this film is probably in the hundreds), put this one on your short list.
