We’ve hit that small cinema slump before Hollywood starts rolling out their big push for award-winning movies to hit theaters.
For me, that makes it harder to pick a movie to watch and review – like this week, I went to something I’d never even seen a trailer about.
‘Freelance’ features a horribly predictable storyline and a host of cartoon-like villains, but it does have some pretty solid comedic timing and banter.
Does that make up for it – in the end, that’s your decision, dear reader.
All I can say is that it’s being panned by more famous critics across the board and I can understand why.
However, I probably laughed the loudest in our local theater that day, but it beats being that one patron who’s taking phone calls during a movie!
Freelance is an American action comedy film directed by Pierre Morel and written by Jacob Lentz in his feature writing debut.
It stars John Cena, Alison Brie, Juan Pablo Raba, and Christian Slater.
The film is 109 minutes long and rated R for violence and language.
During an introductory montage, Mason Pettits (Cena) recounts that he has been searching for his purpose in life since his childhood and after graduating from law school, realizes that the path he is on isn’t the one that he really wants.
Cue a snap decision to enlist in the army and eventually become a Special Forces operator.
While he’s living his best life on and off the field, an unfortunate helicopter incident puts Pettits out of commission and discharged from the Army.
That leads us to the present day where he’s now using that law degree and struggling to maintain his rocky marriage while pining for the fast-paced military career he once had.
Out of the blue, former colleague Sebastian Earle (Slater) reaches out to him and asks him to drop by for a tour of his new business – a private protection contract agency.
Earle tries to entice him out of retirement to join his team of security professionals, but Pettits refuses due to his back injury from the helicopter crash.
Earle needles him by saying that while the job is to protect journalist Claire Wellington (Brie) while she’ll be interviewing the president of Paldonia – Juan Venegas (Raba).
Venegas was marked as the one responsible for the helicopter crash and Pettits’ resulting injuries and loss of military career.
Armed with that information, Pettits accepts the job and returns home to his wife and daughter.
The minute he comes home, his wife informs him that their daughter got in trouble in school with the advice he had given her and now she wants to move forward with their divorce and separation.
Pettits opts to leave instead and heads to Wellington’s apartment first thing the next morning before they fly to Paldonia.
Wellington and Pettits have a very rocky start in their first handful of interactions and once they land in Paldonia, the addition of Venegas only strains things further.
Things only get predictably worse from there as a military coup breaks out in Paldonia and Venegas tries to win Pettits over while retaining his presidential status.
Overall, it’s a fairly entertaining movie for adults with strong comedic timing and banter with plenty of action.
