Gunpowder Milkshake takes its “John Wick with chicks” premise and runs with it, scything through swathes of the supporting cast and creating a secret society for assassins, with a lending library of killing kit, that bears marked similarities to the (under)world-building of the Keanu Reeves pictures.
Unfortunately, the film fails on several levels. The fight sequences – largely featuring Karen Gillan as second-generation killer for hire Sam and a load of interchangeable man-meat – are ugly, defined by a sped-up jerkiness rather than fluidity of movement. And while the principal cast is made up of an impressive roster of women (Gillan is joined by Lena Headey, Carla Gugino, Angela Bassett and Michelle Yeoh), the film seems uninterested in the actual femininity of the characters. In fact the most archetypally feminine of the women – the one with nurturing instincts, empathy, a nice pussy-bow blouse – fares rather badly in the inevitable climactic battle, albeit having committed her fair share of mass annihilation with a camper van-mounted supergun. Tiresome stuff.