Mmm…milkshake

Yet another enjoyable case of déjà vu.

Sam (Karen Gillan), a professional assassin, is sent by Nathan (Paul Giamatti) to kill David (Samuel Anderson), who has stolen from the organization they both work for. Only after she shoots him does Sam discover that the money was so that David could pay the ransom of his daughter Emily (Chloe Coleman). Uh oh. Sam decides to rescue the kid, and everything that can go wrong does go wrong, naturally.

Rounding out the cast is Scarlet (Lena Headey), Sam’s mother, also an assassin who was forced to abandon her offspring because it seems that Headey’s mothering skills are less than to be desired in any role she plays. Anna May (Angela Bassett), Florence (Michelle Yeoh), and Madeline (Carla Gugino), a trio of librarians with a history with Sam and Scarlet. And Jim McAlester (Ralph Ineson), a powerful crime lord whose son was killed in one of Sam’s hits.

Gunpowder Milkshake is the spiritual antithesis of Black Widow. They’re both female-led action movies with a family theme that came out within days of each other, but the differences between the two are vast. Black Widow has a dark, gritty tone, moments of trademark MCU humor aside, with a dull, “realistic” color palette and, while pretty violent, is still PG-13. Gunpowder Milkshake is more humorous, vibrant, and colorful with all the blood and swearing expected of an R-rated movie. Also, while Black Widow is the latest in a long-running franchise, Gunpowder Milkshake is the first of hopefully many sequels. Hey, if Netflix is making a sequel to Bright, they should make a sequel to this.

While Kill Bill and Aliens were clear influences on this film, it takes after John Wick the most. Both films are very stylish with well-done fight scenes and meet the bare minimum amount of emotional depth. Could Gunpowder Milkshake have traded in some of its slow-motion to develop the mother-daughter plotline further? Maybe a little, but that didn’t break the film for me.

While I’m comparing this to other films, another movie that this one reminds me of is Birds of Prey. They’ve both action movies with a predominantly female cast of various ages and ethnicities. And the one who gets to be front and center is the young white woman. I mean, Gunpowder Milkshake is still pretty progressive, but if the time to push the envelope of who gets to be the lead isn’t now, then it definitely will be soon.

What’s interesting about this movie is that despite the main villains being men, none of them seem to be misogynists. McAlester claims to be a feminist who loves his four daughters, even if he’s not as close to them as he was to his son. We only have his word to go on, so he could be lying, but I don’t think he is. I found this a refreshing change of pace for a strong female character movie.

All in all, Gunpowder Milkshake was an enjoyable popcorn movie. If you have a Netflix subscription, then I recommend watching it. Then when you’re done, you go out and compare it with all the other movies that I’ve mentioned in this review. That would be a fun way to kill an afternoon.