Movie Review: Freelance

 

Michael's Movie Grade: C

An okay action-comedy. 

This movie seems to have an irresistible premise for an action film. An army vet who is now working as a lawyer and hates his job, gets a chance to go on one more mission to protect a journalist who is traveling to a dangerous country to talk to its controversial dictator. However, they soon find themselves in the middle of an assassination attempt. While this film does not live up to the full protentional of its premise, it still definitely has its moments. What is surprisingly is that one of this movie's biggest strengths is that it fully sets up why we should care about its main character. The start of this movie really delves into what it is like to be in a job you hate and feel there is no way out. Because of this, from the very start you cannot help but strongly sympathize with this character. You continue to not only sympathize with him but fully understand just why he felt compelled to take this job. This also makes the film feel relatable even when it gets very over the top. The story itself moves by very fast and the film never really drags. While there are not as many action scenes as one might hope for, the action scenes that are here are quite good. The climatic action scene is excellent.

The main problem with this movie is that for an action-comedy, there are no real laughs. There were a couple of comedic moments that made me smile but I never once laugh out loud (nor did anyone in the theater with me). There are also many of these comedic moments that are painfully unfunny and obvious. This film also wants to make some sort of political point. However, it never truly delves into the politics and much of the commentary is too simplistic to really say anything. Also, while our main character is easy to care about, the supporting characters are often quite boring. 

This is not a great film by any means, but there is still has its moments.