Gunpowder Milkshake has begun blasting on Netflix on July 14th, The film is directed and co-written by Navot Papushado, who also wrote and directed the thriller, Big Bad Wolves (2013). His co-writer is Ehud Lavski. It opens with a bloody man in a chair trying to raise a gun, he is shot by a in a coat. Narration says there is men in a group called The Firm. There is a banging at a door, the figure turns and we see partly in shadows, the eyes of Sam (Karen Gillan). She was last playing Ruby in Jumanji: The Next Level (2019). The narration says that she is there to handle problems from The Firm like the John Grisham novel or the 1993 Tom Cruise film? A cleaner in terms. The door is kicked in and there is an endless series of men. The assassin raises her guns. We get the title and then the assassin returns to her apartment, a blue hat and coat, with blood splattered on the right side of her face. She goes to her refrigerator to get vanilla ice cream and milk. The assassin drinks a glass of milk. She watches a cutesy anime show as she stitches up the wound in her arm!
Sam gets a call from Nathan who wants her to meet with him at the diner. The diner is rain soaked, retro 50’s diner, she sits waiting and served an ice cream shake by the waitress Rose (Joanna Bobin). Then, we get a flashback 15 years earlier, same greeting by Rose and the young Sam (Freya Allan) is waiting for her mother. Out of the rain, her mother, Scarlet (Lena Headey) does appear, thanking Rose for watching over her. Headey was also in this year's action movie Twist. Sam is upset her mother is three hours late and has brought what her mother asked for a hardback book. Inside is a pistol resting in pages carved out for it. A bit like John Wick. She says that she is going to leave for a time, Sam says she can stay in the library with Anna May, but her mother says it’s too dangerous. She takes Sam’s hand in her bloody hands and they both sip from the milkshake. It looks like they are rivaling each other, not just having a delicious milkshake. The quaint reality hiding the violent assassin’s life reminds me of the films of Luc Besson especially Leon: The Professional (1994).
Several men burst into the diner, ignore Rose, and one walks up to the booth with Sam.
He says her mother killed his father and takes out a switchblade. Sam is defiant speaking in Russian and he brings up the blade and cuts her cheek wanting to know where is her mother. She eyes the book and the man sees it is empty. Her mother has the gun with silencer and tells Sam to close her eyes. We hear the gun firing and men groaning as they die. Sam opens her eyes and notices her mother going to the car. She tries to run after her, but is caught by Nathan (Paul Giamatti). He is a perfect fit for this shoot-em up movie, Giamatti is next in Jungle Cruise. Her mother sees her shouting out for her. It snaps back to the present, Nathan enters the diner, Rose asks if he is clean and Nathan takes out a .38 from his ankle holster. Sam says the job had “bad intel”, only four or five gunmen, she flashes back to the door kicked open by dozens of men. Nathan says she is needed because someone, an accountant, stole from The Firm. He also wants her to get new firearms not connected to her last killing.
A man, Jim McAlester (Ralph Ineson), walks in to see the bodies, killed by his son, his nephew didn’t know about it. He wants revenge on his son’s killers. Sam walks in to a library and carries a bright yellow bag that has “I heart kittens” on it! She brings the bag to the librarian, Madeleine (Carla Gugino), to exchange for some “books.” Gugino was also in the action film, San Andreas (2015). We’ve already seen that a book was hollowed out to carry a gun. Sam doesn’t have a card, but would like to get one. Madeleine takes Sam through a door in the wall sized painting with a lion. Then, down some winding stairs, and says to Anna May that Sam wants to open an account. This is a character played by Angela Bassett. The actress was also in Avengers: Endgame (2019). She says they don’t accept new readers and calls for Florence (Michelle Yeoh). The actress is known for action roles besides her dramatic parts, her next movie is Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. All very subtle, but with this cast, some of the old ultra-violence is on the way. Sam doesn’t fold to Anna May’s threats. They ask her name and when Sam mentions it, they know she is Scarlet’s daughter, and that they haven’t seen Scarlet in 15 years.
They examine her weapons and then pile her with books; Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and Virginia Woolf. Madeleine adds an Agatha Christie book for reading, funny! Sam gets a text from Nathan, “Le Bonbon Hotel, Room 11”. She heads to the hotel in her black trench coat and hat, the desk clerk nods her in the right direction, she enters Room 11 with her gun drawn. It has a glaring red light and she moves to the bed which has bank notes. Also, on the bed, a phone chimes, and the man appears wanting to answer the phone. He rushes towards Sam, there is a struggle, and he is shot in the gut. He manages to get the phone and the caller says he has 60 minutes to bring the money to the Gutterball Bowling Alley or his nine year old daughter will be killed. Sam is about to take the money in its white case and then goes back to take the wounded man out of the hotel. She puts him in her car and her hat blows off. At a hospital, Sam sets the man down, and thn puts her silencer on a nurse’s book. She is told to put her gun in the “cookie Jar”, a giant tooth jar. Sam wants the doctor to watch over the father. Then, she drives away calling Nathan about the situation. Sam is quickly drawn in a situation with rescuing the girl, Emily (Chloe Coleman), whom of course is like her own past. Still, she has to face all of the dangerous associates of The Firm, get help from the women in the library, and just survive! Gunpowder Milkshake is a stylish action film with a great cast of women assassins!
Four Milkshakes out of Five!
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