Freelancers

It's hard to find fault with a Robert DeNiro movie, no matter the budget. We saw him pull of "Mad Dog and Glory" (at least I did) and we saw his chops as a comedian in the Fockers films. But lately, the legend is disintegrating, and here we find a man on auto-pilot, restlessly moping his way through a character he's played countless times before.

"Freelancers" finds 50 Cent as a young cop who's father is slain by bad cops when he is little. Now on the force himself, Fiddy finds himself taken under the wing of corrupt captain Sarcone (DeNiro) along with other dirty cops like Detective Leurie (Forest Whitaker). Will Fiddy find his father's killer? Will the film end in a shootout?

It plays out like a dream you have every night. You know what to expect, and can just about point to the screen when you can expect to see it happen. The script is cut-and-dry, listless, and unsure of if it's trying to make more a point than simply to promote its impressive cast.

I would say don't watch it, but you've watched this before, and you'll watch it again, though in a theater and with a couple zeroes added on to the end of the budget. For a low-cost, easy to shoot film, the cast is impressive and the acting is fine, but for the hour and a half spent sitting at home waiting to be surprised, I felt let down.

CROSSFIRE wasn't quite the dog of the film I was expecting but it's certainly no classic and it only barely gets there as an average and acceptable watch. There are two major problems with this production which drag it down and the first of those is lead actor Curtis Jackson, better known to the world as rapper 50 Cent. Jackson is no actor and is as wooden as they come, so watching him attempting to convey any emotion apart from the most basic happy/sad expression is a real chore and quite embarrassing in places.

The second problem is the familiarity of the material. CROSSFIRE feels like a Frankenstein's Monster of a movie, made up of bits and pieces from TRAINING DAY, RAMPART, STREET KINGS, and at least half a dozen others. Heck, Forest Whitaker is here and playing nearly EXACTLY the same role as he essayed in STREET KINGS. Despite these problems, CROSSFIRE is occasionally thrilling in places and there's a lot of involved material to fill up the running time. Robert De Niro is barely in it but at least he doesn't embarrass himself and there's a nice minor part for Dana Delany. While I enjoyed CROSSFIRE in places I do feel that with a better lead actor and story it could have been something truly great rather than just average.

This movie is an overall quite entertaining and mostly fast paced action thriller that though lacks of depth. The story simply features too many stereotypes and is therefor sometimes even mildly amusing even if this surely wasn't the intention of the makers of this b-movie.

The film is about three crooks that get out of prison and get to work in the corrupt New York City Police Department. Soon, they get involved in the local crime scene and must learn how to survive in tough circumstances where nobody's left whom they can trust in. At the same time, the main character portrayed by a weak but not completely bad Curtis James Jackson III wants to resolve the secret of his father's assassination that he witnessed as a child.

The problem with this movie is that it almost has no clear guiding line and some events happen without any logical reason whatsoever. Sometimes, the characters rapidly change their moods and appear almost schizophrenic which is very odd. Apart of a slightly stronger and even quite entertaining ending, at least three quarters of the movie go straight to nowhere or are highly predictable. Most of the actors and especially the cop roles are simply not credible at all and even happen to be quite ridiculous. Sometimes, the movie just feels like a longer 50 Cent video clip with senseless violence, gratuitous sex, a very minimalistic story line and some cameo appearances by a couple of good actors such as the strong Robert De Niro or the now deceased and surprisingly convincing actor Pedro Armendáriz Junior where one ends up asking oneself why these gifted guys are starring in such a bad movie.

In the end, there isn't much interest in watching this film. Especially the story is quite random and predictable. The low budget flick features almost more shots of nocturnal New York City every ten minutes that are taken from a plain than gripping action or suspense scenes. The only reason to watch this flick are the solid appearances of Robert De Niro as well as Pedro Armendáriz Junior or if you simply are a big fan of 50 Cent. Objectively seen, his acting is of a rather average quality and lacks of emotion and quality but he surely has a quite cool image and mostly promotes himself and his music in this movie. You can grab this flick at a cheap price for a loan if you have not much else to do and want to switch your brain off for one hour and a half but apart of that there definitely isn't much in this.

Without any real success or box office backing Curtis "50" Cent Jackson has still managed to churn out a film career, with most of in straight to video action films. This time though he has aligned himself with some big star power in the form of Robert DeNiro and Forest Whitaker, but is it enough to deliver that extra punch to step this cop thriller or will it just be another forgettable addition to the genre?

Freelancers follow a young cop who joins in with a group of rogue cops led by his father's ex-partner. When the truth about his father's death is revealed it pushes him to finally make sure justice is served. This isn't a bad movie, but it isn't anything different than every other cop movie that has come along over the years. Jackson does a decent job here, but just doesn't have the chops to really sell the emotional aspect of the character. He works well for the action, but as soon as he has to deliver some sort of emotion it just comes off non-existent. Whitaker and DeNiro both pretty much phone this one in, but thanks to their amazing talent still manage to deliver some interesting characters. The story is pretty straight forward, but wants to try and deliver twists and turns where it is pretty obvious as to where it is all headed. In addition there are some aspects of the story that just come off a bit unbelievable in the system. There's some decent action moments here but nothing that really stands out to help push this along.

Overall this is a pretty generic delivery into the cop thriller, but thanks to the star power behind it at least feels a bit bigger than the straight to video release it got. If you are a fan of this genre or any of those involved give it a try, just don't expect anything all that new or original.

http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-dallas/bobby-blakey

OK, I recognized a few names in this movie: Robert De Niro, Forrest Whittaker, Dana Delaney, and 50 Cent. Based on the aforementioned names, I rented this movie. The bottom line is I got duped. The movie is below-average in every aspect:screenplay, acting,and directing. Basically, the whole film feels generic and half-assed. What is surprising is that the characters are all superficial and one-dimensional. This is to be expected from the likes of 50 Cent and some of the supporting characters, but from Robert De Niro and even Forrest Whittaker, it is incomprehensible.

In the past, the name Robert De Niro would have conjured up memories of incredible movies from the 70's and 80's such as Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Godfather 2,Mean Streets, The Deer Hunter, etc. However, Robert De Niro has not made a quality film in almost a decade. What happened? Has wealth and fame completely enervated his passion for acting?

Very Disappointing.