This is an interesting experiment, albiet one that doesn't quite make the grade. It's an attempt to make, basically, a feature-long gunfight (barring 10 minutes of exposition at the top of the film). It's the 1970s and a bunch of misfits from Ireland are meeting another bunch of misfits from America (plus one South African) to purchase a large number of guns. But when distrust starts between them, the shootout kicks off.
This doesn't quite sustain - while the idea has merit, in the end too many of the characters are just that little bit too thin. There's a good collection of performers here (Brie Larson, Noah Taylor, Cillian Murphy, plus new to me performers like Sam Riley and Jack Reynor) but I don't feel like this offers enough twists and turns in the shootout to make this anything more than a drawn out experiment - director Ben Wheatley has a reputation for interesting indie material, but this isn't fully fleshed out and ends up feeling like thin gruel. THere's almost enough here but the screenplay needs just that couple of extra twists to bring it all home.
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