The first quarter or so of Gunpowder Milkshake feels rushed. The movie is forced to flirt along the border of just plain cheesy—where all the dialogue feels simultaneously heavy-handed and weightless, as in the trailer—and campy—where the movie knows exactly what kind of movie it is and proudly rolls with it. The plot stampedes the interesting and well-composed neon visuals into irrelevance until one spectacularly creative fight scene in a bowling alley, where Gunpowder Milkshake starts to play like a campy version of John Wick. 

Director Navot Papushado shows more confidence in his directorial skills, and his movie, after the bowling alley scene; Karen Gillan’s performance begins finding the right balance of 1990s action star and satire, and the film finds balance between more natural dialogue (demanded to advance the plot with every breath) and bonkers action. Afterwards, the final three quarters of the film marinates its plot, leans into the silliness of the action-blockbuster, and shows no restraint in fight choreography. If you can burden a rough first twenty-five minutes, Netflix’s newest female-centric action flick ends up being two hours well spent. 

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