Freelance – A Lifeless Action Comedy (Early Review)

Freelance sees director Pierre Morel stepping back into the action genre after making a name for himself 14-years ago with the surprise hit Taken. The story follows former Special Forces officer Mason Pettits (Cena) who years after retiring from the army, is stuck working a boring desk job and slowly watching his marriage with his wife Jenny (Alice Eve) fall apart. When his old friend Sebastian (Christian Slater) comes back into his life and offers him a new position, Mason finds himself taking a job providing security for journalist Claire Wellington (Brie) as she interviews the president of Paldonia, Juan Venegas (Raba). After a military coup breaks out shortly after their arrival, Mason, Claire, and Juan are forced to escape into the jungle where they’re forced to survive against the looming threats and each other.

Freelance is clearly trying to harken back to old school action adventure comedies with two mismatched leads from yesteryear (like last years The Lost City did much more successfully) but unfortunately, the film is merely a lifeless, generic and beyond dull watch that fails to establish an identity or personality of its own and instead, feels like it was conceived by AI. Everything about it from the production design, to the way it’s shot, and edited feels very amateurish and cheap especially considering its reported budget and well established director who is no stranger to this genre. While it’s nice that mid budget action films like this are still being released theatrically, this one feels like it was made for streaming and those who do see it on the big screen will undoubtedly feel the same and maybe even feel cheated in that sense.

Ultimately, the film fails as both an action adventure and a comedy, and never finds a smooth balance of its different conflicting tones. The action isn’t anything terrible in the moment but all of it is so flat and unexciting to watch which is a shame considering Morel knows how to construct an effective action scene. There isn’t a single action set piece that stands out in a positive or negative way, they are just kind of there happening on screen and whenever visuals or green screen are included, it becomes easy to be taken out of the experience simply for how awful and unfinished they look. A much different watch in many ways than what its trailers suggested, this is fairly likely to disappoint a large portion of audiences expecting something more. Almost all of its comedy falls completely flat despite having a wickedly talented and funny cast behind it and none can salvage the film’s terrible script or characters they are stuck with. Outside of Cena who’s just naturally likeable and charismatic, there isn’t a single memorable or likeable character in the entire cast, and most are stuck playing annoying caricatures who most can’t wait to see get off the screen.

Despite being dull and surprisingly boring, the film still has a few redeeming qualities. Cena is solid as always and commits fully to the role. Meanwhile, Brie and Raba are fine, despite being hampered down by the writing, and it’s a lot of fun to see Slater in a decently-sized role again. The opening act is decent and easily the best part of the film, setting up what looked to be a potentially entertaining action comedy. However, what followed did not live up to it. The film could have got a lot of mileage out of Cena and Brie’s chemistry which is clearly what is was trying to do but unfortunately, they don’t have much chemistry together despite being solid individually. When it comes to Eve, it’s almost criminal how she was waster by how little she is given to do.

In the end, Freelance will likely find a nice home for diehard action junkies once it hits streaming but as a theatrical release, it is lacking in almost every area and isn’t worth the trip. While not a completely miserable viewing experience, it’s refreshing to see John Cena lead a film pretty much on his own again without a large ensemble to back him up (he does well at holding it all together). However, there are countless better action films that one could very easily watch instead.

still courtesy of VVS Films

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/