Freelance

Freelance is a decent action comedy held up by strong character performances particularly from Juan Pablo Raba. The film takes obvious inspiration from The Lost City, replacing artifacts and authors for hit jobs and journalists. The chemistry between the cast is there and the dialog feels natural. Some scenes feel shoehorned in which detracts from the overall story. However overall the twists feel mostly original and provide a compelling plot.

Raba absolutely nails his role as a Castro-ish ruthless dictator who feigns ignorance. His deliveries are perfectly timed and at times he carries the entire weight of the story.

John Cena and Alison Brie were great in their roles with palpable chemistry as well however their roles were somewhat hamstrung by clumsy writing.

Overall this is a fun and exciting movie for adults. It's not a perfect production but it's a worthy film if not entirely held up by strong acting.

Watching Freelance was such a strange experience. There is so much wrong with it. It's filled with stupid moments and things that make no sense. The story and action are completely unrealistic. Yet I found myself invested and entertained. Not once did I feel bored or like "I don't want to be here."

I guess it's just an amusing premise with some charming actors. And while unrealistic, the action scenes are pretty fun and mostly well-shot. There are a couple decent fight scenes and a few memorable moments.

Having said all that, there are so many flaws. The most egregious examples occur during the action scenes. Bullets seem to be the least effective method of killing. There is an extensive scene with two characters running through an open field with no cover. And a helicopter is UNLOADING bullets and missiles on them. It's basically two minutes of them running with bullets and explosions all around them.

In multiple other scenes, someone will fire numerous shots at short distances and hit nothing. It's so obvious. It would offend even the most lenient of viewers. Also, for a comedy there isn't much humor. I only laughed a few times.

Even with all the flaws, I didn't mind watching this. It's not "good." But I'll take this over 95% of the straight-to-streaming (straight-to-boredom) movies.

(1 viewing, 1/15/2024)

This movie is one step shy of being an action movie, one step shy of being a comedy, 2 steps past being an actually interesting political drama with a step or two behind the dash of a journalism thriller.

Some interesting political commentary weaves through the story to mask the, at times, underwhelming action sequences and make up for the slapsticky humor that might seem a bit immature or flat.

It was fun, and that's all you can ask for out of something like this. John Cena has some good comedic chops and Alison Brie can go from stone cold to likable and charismatic in a snap.

Fun time at the movies if you ask me.

This film reminded me of Dwayne's movie The Rundown with an overall picturesque theme of a Far Cry game. Compared to Dwayne's movie, this seemed like a lighter version of it with repulsive characters. Alison's character was that of a teenage girl with an entitled princess attitude, and John's was like a genetically blessed pre-teen who when asked to do something does it like an enthusiastic teen (hey buddy, wash the car please like thing), but nothing else goes behind those two eyes. Venegas character's flair reminded me of Aladeen from The Dictator film. I think the audience for the film was teenagers, and adults who hate teenagers that act like there is no real world consequences and are able to get away from the consequences. Is this worth of your money ? Spend it, if you really want to just laugh with a group of people even if the jokes are cliched, and see some 30 second ammo bursting sequences that could be seen while lazily swiping through movie clip reels.

Freelance has a strangely low budget feel that is coupled with very tongue-in-cheek lines. It is a film that cannot be taken seriously. However... the silliness rests on a quite poignant issue. How malign private operators exploit countries for their resources. Although this is buried away under the cheesy action scenes, looking back it is something that has stuck with me. Whether this is by design, I do not know. But the more I think about it, the more I realise the film included some clever nods towards recent dictators and various situations around the world. At the very least, some thought has gone into the film.

That to one side. John Cena is John Cena. I would like to see more of Alison Brie on the big screen, she is someone who seems to have a lot of talent that is not being used to its full extent. That is evident here, she brings something extra to her two-dimensional character in Freelance. Not a lot, though.

It is a film without revelation. If you watch it, you cannot be surprised by its mediocrity.