Movies to watch on Netflix: Gunpowder Milkshake review

Netflix loves bloody action movies and they are back this week with the latest entry, Gunpowder Milkshake. The Karen Gillan (Guardians of the Galaxy) led assassin movie packs in the star power with Lena Headey (Game of Thrones), Carla Gugino (The Haunting of Hill House), Michelle Yeoh (Crazy Rich Asians), Paul Giamatti (Billions) and Angela Bassett (Black Panther) all featured in fairly significant roles.

The movie follows Gillian’s character, Sam, on the worst night of her assassin career. She comes from one job that didn’t go as planned and heads to the next. The second job also goes poorly and leaves her caring for a young girl. The rest of the movie follows her trying to survive several cleanup crews that come to take her out, but she isn’t left completely on her own as several other killer ladies show up to help her.

The first thing I have to tell you about Gunpowder Milkshake is that it is bloody. It is almost excessively bloody and it starts from moment one. The movie starts with headshots before we even see a character’s face or hear anyone speak. This sets the tone of the film. These also aren’t the most realistic blood splatters but are dramatized for effect. This carries on throughout the movie though I do believe it is worst early on.

Tonally, this is fine because Gunpowder Milkshake does not take itself completely seriously. It has fun with a lot of assassin movie tropes and will remind you of movies like John Wick, Nobody or Baby Driver at different points. The characters have one-liners, some of the kills are funny, the weapons used in the fights range from guns to knives, to a bowling ball and the fights remain interesting from start to finish.

Gunpowder Milkshake is a bloody, fun assassin movie

It’s not all blood and jokes, though. Gunpowder Milkshake does try to tug at your heartstrings a bit as well. Karen Gillan’s Sam was abandoned as a young girl and now she is in the care of an orphaned young girl. The movie is not without stakes (the good guys can’t get out unscathed) and this leads to one of the more emotional scenes in the film which I’ll admit got to me. If you buy into what’s happening in the film, it may get to you, too.

Is the action in Gunpowder Milkshake good?

The action is another area of the film that gets better as it goes along. Early on in the film, when Sam is fighting solo, there are a few scenes where you will need to suspend your disbelief. They aren’t incredibly sloppy like Iron Fist, where you can see his punches not landing, but Karen Gillan is pulling off some pretty insane things in tight quarters while facing multiple men.

There are scenes where characters conveniently don’t have guns when they’d have her at a disadvantage if they did, and moments of conveniently poor aim, BUT by the time you get halfway through the movie you’ll begin to accept these and they become less obvious. There is a car chase scene that is the first one I’ve seen of its kind that is pretty epic and the larger sets near the end of the film are awesome, too.

The director’s use of slow-motion and panning shots through some of the scenes adds an extra dramatic element. These techniques certainly enhance some of these fights. If I had to give the fights a grade overall, I’d give them a B with John Wick being an A+.

Will there be a Gunpowder Milkshake 2?

Under normal circumstances, I would not be talking about a sequel, but I will here. The movie ends without all loose ends being tied up and with a strong possibility for the story to continue. The creators only sold Netflix the streaming rights for the United States. The movie’s rights overseas were retained by the studios, so the film was released in theaters internationally this week.

This is a unique scenario that could determine if the movie ends up getting a sequel. If the movie ends up becoming an international box office success, that increases the likelihood of a sequel dramatically, rather than having to just wait to see what numbers are reported by Netflix. You have to imagine a cast like this one only shows up for a solid payday and action franchises are popping up everywhere.

Is Gunpowder Milkshake in the John Wick Universe?

After the release of Nobody earlier this year, there was speculation that the film could take place in the same universe as John Wick. In that case, there is reason to suspect so since the movies are all written by Derek Kolstad. However, this is not the case for Gunpowder Milkshake. The movies are similar enough for people to ask the question but this movie does not have any ties to those two.

One fun tie that can be found in this movie comes through the young actress Chloe Coleman. Chloe plays the young girl that Sam ends up caring for, and if you recognize the face it’s because she was also in the movie My Spy. My Spy stars David Bautista. David Bautista, of course, plays Drax in the Guardians of the Galaxy, where Karen Gillan plays Nebula. I couldn’t resist making that tie here, and we’ll see if she pairs up with any other Guardians in the future.

Is Gunpowder Milkshake worth watching?

This is what you really want to know, right? Should you spend almost two hours watching the movie? Gunpowder Milkshake is not the high-level concept that The Old Guard is, and it’s not as serious as Extraction. It’s supposed to be fun. The fights are intense and bloody, but the tone never gets too heavy. It’s a playful spy universe with women kicking butt and taking names, so if you go in with that in mind, it will be a lot of fun. The John Wick and Nobody comparisons, while not completely apt, are fair and if you like that kind of movie, there’s a chance you’ll like this one too.

Will you be watching Gunpowder Milkshake on Netflix?