Gunpowder Milkshake Parent Guide

The life of a professional assassin is not an easy one. Scarlet (Lena Headey) learned that the hard way when her work took her away from her young daughter, Sam (Freya Allan). All grown up now, Sam (played by Karen Gillan) has followed in her mother’s footsteps, making a living out of murder. Her last two jobs have gone wrong, though: One ended in a massacre of the relatives of a dangerous rival crime family, and the other saw her involved in a kidnapping gone wrong, resulting in her employer losing a significant amount of money. Wanted by seemingly every criminal in the city, and with the young girl from the kidnapping, Emily (Chloe Coleman), in tow, Sam is in a race against the clock to get away from everyone who’s trying to claim the price on her head. And she won’t be able to do it alone…

I think the best metric for your potential enjoyment of the film is how much you liked Birds of Prey. If you loved Birds of Prey (and don’t mind a slightly lower budget version), then you’re going to love this. It has the same over-the-top violence, heavy stylization, and girl power story. It also has a nearly identical runtime, which isn’t important but which is a fun little coincidence.

The cast here is incredible, with Karen Gillan, Lena Headey, Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh, Carla Gugino, and Paul Giamatti starring in the major roles. But if you can avoid being dazzled by the star power, you might notice that the writing is a little…chunky. I don’t mean that it’s verbose, but it is overblown. The writers aree clearly trying to play with some of the genre clichés, but it’s not consistently successful – or successfully consistent.

The action, on the other hand, is pretty good. It’s not quite up to, say, John Wick standards, but it’s still quite capable. What I especially appreciate is its creativity. The plot is silly enough to allow for some truly bizarre fight scenes, and I can’t think of another movie that killed a guy with a giant porcelain tooth or a milkshake glass. That said, if you don’t have the stomach for some bloody gore, this isn’t going to be your kind of thing.

The other big concern for parents is going to be the profanity. There’s a good deal less than I was expecting, but that’s still more than some people will be comfortable with. If it’s any consolation, the characters go out of their way to avoid cussing in front of the kid – for me, I would have been more concerned about limiting her exposure to gunfire and corpses, but I suppose they’re doing their best. After all, you can’t expect perfect parenting out of a gang of assassins.