Freelancers (2012)

How good should this film have been(?) Starring Robert De Niro and Forest Whitaker, two great American actors, and 50'Cent Curtis Jackson who I've noticed acting well in other films, this should have been, at the least, a satisfyingly good film. So when I saw The Sony Movie Channel was airing it I thought I'd give it a view.

DAMN! This was bad! If I were any of the actors I wouldn't even consider putting this on my resume. Robert De Niro played the leader of a group of bad cops, Joe Sarcone, who recruits Malo, Curtis Jackson, and his friends. These had previously been thugs who had supposedly seen the light but were very quick to jump on board Sarcone's ship (so much for the good guys) Milo is paired with LaRue, Forest Whitaker, who is a drug addict and will let anybody off if he can score from them. Even though he's not openly racist he does have a hatred for whites. This is balanced off by a minor player in the film, Billy Morrison, played brilliantly by Matt Gerald (who is the only acting light in this dire movie), as he has a hatred for anyone not white and is very vocal and aggressive about it.

The only good cop in the whole film is Terrence Burke, played by Robert Wisdom. He tries to keep his distance from the others and even gets his rookie partner A D, Malcolm Goodwin, to help him train the kids in his area at football. The only community-minded cop in the city, it would appear.

Even when the cop who's pursuing Sarcone's mob, Robert Jude (played by Michael McGrady) tries to recruit Malo by telling him what really happened to his father, you get the sense that he isn't as clean as he should be.

This is a pretty depressing tale that paints the majority of police in a bad light stating that most of them are corrupt and on the take. If I were in this city I'd not ask a policeman directions because they would direct you down an alley, shoot you in the back and steal all your valuables.

The writer, L Phillipe Casseus, gives the audience a bleak tale of greed and depravity in the police force. This isn't a bad thing, it's been done before; though, it's been done better. The fault, I believe, lies with the director Jessy Terrero, who probably only got the job because he'd worked with Jackson before.

Most of the scenes are slapdash and so brilliantly set out. Jackson, most of the time, stumbles around the sets without an idea of what his character is about. There is one hell of a lot to Malo and giving the role to a newbie, without proper direction, was a bad decision.

De Niro is at his shouty best here; stomping around, hitting and shooting things. Even though it's nice to see him go berserk he just does it too much - poor guy must have needed some lockets afterwards to soothe his throat.

Forest Whitaker is brilliant as the drug-addled cop... so good that he actually does appear to have been on something. It was probably needed to get through this rubbish with most of his sanity intact. But it really didn't help the movie any, it just made his lines seem slurred and indistinguishable.

If you like any of the actors or cop drama's then I would recommend you to stay away from this pile of diatribe.

Fmovies: 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.

1. Two Academy Award Winning Actors who are also directors star alongside an ex-drug dealer-turned-rapper/actor.

2. The production company is owned by the aforementioned E-DDTRA

3. The estimated budget is less than either of the two Academy Award winning actors normally get paid.

While not the worst film, I've seen. I could have made better use of my money. 50 Cent is a slightly better actor than he is a rapper, which is not saying much. The plot has been done many times before in much better films (Training Day, Deep Cover). Curtis: Leave the acting to actors and the rapping to rappers. You don't see Jay-Z or P-Diddy starring in action/drama films, do you?

Freelancers fmovies. OK for a Saturday evening film, when the washing up is done and all quiet in the house, this will keep you fit as you slide into a deep sleep without the aid of a milky drink and a chocie biscuit. Firstly Mr whitaker looks decidedly lost in this film not a role for the Last King of Scotland more like Mc duff! De Niro just there for the money and film credits (he has done 163 now) and Mr 50p made a good effort, he hit most of his marks and looked slightly interested in the unfolding story, but his facial expressions changing every 17.6 became most annoying put me off taking him to serious as a lead role (has he got some form of Palsy? in that case he did well)

Story was the same as previous stories, the only difference they were told better and with more conviction from the characters (yes Vinnie i mean you). Best part of the film, as when i got up to search for some more washing up. all work and no play.

New York police captain Sarcone (Robert DeNiro, who's frankly been on auto-pilot for what seems to be a decade now) seeks to train Malo (50 Cent)' the son of his deceased partner in his corrupt secret cabal of corrupt cop ways. He's partnered up with the equally corrupt LaRue (Forest Whitaker, who was MUCH better as Kavanaugh, a sanctimonious foil to Vic Mackey in The Shield) In fact 50 Cent's character in this kind of reminded me of Julien a tad from that aforementioned series. Not that the film is anywhere close to that glorious series, if anything quite the opposite this film sucks. Just that it made miss The Shield and wish it were still on the air.

My Grade: D

In all fairness and truth, I was quite liking the movie at first. By all means this should had been one that would had been bad to watch from start to finish and one that I should have hated watching, since it stars Oscar winning actors Robert De Niro and Forest Whitaker opposite 50 Cent and Vinnie Jones. All alarm bells should go off when you hear this, especially when you learn that 50 Cent is playing the lead role. But in fact, the movie isn't being all that bad to watch and its first half especially makes this a decent enough, little, genre movie.

The first half of the movie is basically one about rookie training, in which rookie cops, one of them played by 50 Cent, get teamed up with an older and more experienced cop, who starts learning them the tricks and ropes. It all sounds very familiar, I know but it does work out interesting and entertaining enough and I was ready to really start liking this movie.

But then its horrible second half came along. Half way through it suddenly becomes a far more standard crime movie and not a very good one I'm sad to say. About half way through, exactly, there is a certain scene in the movie after which the movie starts to take a turn for the worse. The scene in itself already is being something ridicules and out of tone for this movie but everything that follows after that is about just as bad and silly. Suddenly 50 Cent and friends become hardcore crime fighters, trying to solve a case, which also involves dirty cops, while before that they were being naive and timid young cops, afraid of their superiors. It doesn't quite click all and the second half almost entirely ruined the movie for me.

It might seem strange to you, seeing 50 Cent playing a cop in this but it in fact is not a movie that glorifies the police corps at all. On the contrary really, since the cops are the biggest bad guys in this, who also form the biggest danger, do most of the drugs and have sex with prostitutes, whenever given the opportunity, all while being on duty. No, I don't think the makers of this movie have a lot of love for the police man and woman out there and 50 Cent also quickly finds an excuse in this movie to take off his uniform. It's a bit too over-the-top all at times, which obviously doesn't make this the most convincing and realistic genre movie out there.

I have always thought that 50 Cent is an horrible actor. He's even terrible in his own music videos! Now, I'm not talking about him as a performer of course but he, out of all rappers, always seemed to be the most unlikely one to ever have a decent acting career some day. Guess movies like this won't really help his acting career forward, since he also really isn't being all that impressive in this. He especially has some real difficulties in the scenes in which his character was supposed to show his emotions. And watching him sitting across Robert De Niro, having dialog with him, feels just wrong! They are not remotely in the same league and I was also quite surprised to see the likes of De Niro and Whitaker in this.

It's definitely not the worst movie you'll ever see but it's not one to get very excited about either.

5/10

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