Freedomland (R)
Mike:
Scott:
Scott: Tonight we are reviewing Freedomland
, the story of a single mother whose son was allegedly kidnapped during a carjacking by a black man in the projects.
What'd you think Mike?
Mike: I was not impressed. I wanted to like the new Samuel L. Jackson movie, but I just couldn't. One word for this movie is: annoying. The people are annoying, things that happen are annoying, the two hours wasted....
And you?
Scott: hmm... Let me gather my thoughts.
Mike: Are you trying to be coherent? This movie sure wasn't.
Scott: It started out pretty spooky, you weren't sure what was going to happen, which way the movie was going to go from that first shot. Then Council (Jackson) meets up with Brenda Martin (Julianne Moore) and it's all downhill from there.
Martin is the traumatized mother whose daughter was allegedly kidnapped by the carjacker, but she acts more insane than distraught.
Mike: Not even insane, more like she is mentally challenged.
Scott: It seemed a bit much, she couldn't speak well enough to say that her son was in the car, let alone what had happened to her. Yet, she knew the height and weight of the offender.
Mike: As a matter of fact, it's like 15 minutes into her story when she suddenly remembers to mention that her kid was in the car. Excuse me? If your son was missing, don't you think that would be the very first thing out of your mouth?
Scott: That would seem to make sense, but we need to suspend common sense to watch movies now-a-days.
Mike: I was a little worried that it was going to turn out that she didn't even have a kid. Oh wait, that was The Forgotten.
Scott: I never saw that movie, but I kept thinking of the credit goofs in Liar Liar with Jim Carrey where he is called an 'Over actor' by Swoosie Kurtz.
Mike: Then there is the number one annoying scene where the camera moves all over the place and Council and Martin scream at each other for no apparent reason.
Scott: Council yells so much he has an asthma attack. Apparently this is something that happens so regularly, that a Doctor comes in, without any visible request, to give Council a shot of adrenaline.
Mike: Some of the movie seems like an expanded episode of CSI, but it goes on way too long. Unlike CSI, this movie is filled with plot holes and things that don't make any sense.
It makes me wonder about the novel that this movie is based on. The screenplay is by the same guy, Richard Price. He can't blame anyone else for mangling his novel, so maybe the book isn't that good to begin with.
Scott: Just because you have a good script that doesn't make the movie a good movie. Directors can and have changed the script to meet their vision. So, I wonder who is responsible for this? Could be Director Joe Roth?
Mike: Joe Roth is responsible for the crappy movie that was America's Sweethearts.
Scott: And he does have good director roots, I mean, he did direct Revenge of the Nerds II.
Mike: I will admit, that even though it got bombed, I liked his Christmas with the Kranks. That is probably more due to Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis than Joe Roth, though.
Scott: I liked that too, but you are right about it being the actors who made that movie. On an interesting side note, I have a co-worker that has a resemblance to Curtis.
Roth directs by pointing to Jackson 'be tough', and then pointing to Moore 'cry a lot'.
Mike: Oh, if that's the case then he IS a great director.
Scott: There were way too many close ups in this movie. I can count the pores on all of the stars faces.
Mike: Yes and both Julianne Moore and Edie Falco were made to look as homely as possible.
Maybe it's a New Jersey thing?
Scott: No, it's not a NJ thing. I like NJ and the peeps up there, don't mess with NJ!
Mike: Dude, there is a reason all the New Jersey people move down here to Virginia!
Please let me mention Ron Eldard, who is making a career out of being the out of control hothead. He is supposed to be Brenda's brother, but rather than visit her after she has been carjacked, he goes straight into revenge mode.
Scott: Wasn't he in something recently? I saw him in Mystery, Alaska and I liked that movie and him, but he was more fast and loose in that.
You mention Falco, who played Karen Collucci. Her character lost a child 10 years prior to the events in this movie. At that time she formed a group to look for lost or missing children. I never really understood her character until the end. At first I didn't recognize her at all with her dark hair. One other thing about her. How did she get though the police lines twice?
Mike: Oh, and that reminds me of a more stupidity. Ron's character, Danny Martin, happens to hear a confession outside of an interrogation room that you would assume is sound proofed. But even after he hears the confession, he doesn't act on the information. In fact Danny is never seen again. Huh?
Scott: I thought he was going to do more in the movie, but he was more of a moving character - he was there to move the movie from one plot point to another. He really disappeared when you thought you would see more of him.
His relationship with his sister is not explored at all.
Mike: My last major problem was how long the movie dragged out. There are at least three places the movie could have ended before it finally does. The extra couple scenes don't add or explain any more.
Scott: I agree. The final scene at the Armstrong housing project could have finished the movie nicely.
Mike: By the way Freedomland is a neat name for a movie, but the place mentioned in the movie is kind of incidental. It's almost like it is thrown in just to makes us angry or sad, but it doesn't.
Scott: The conflict of the movie is the struggle of Council to decide whether he is an African American, or a cop, it doesn't appear he can be both.
Mike: You like Council, because he's the main character and because he's played by Samuel Jackson, but he's actually an odd character.
It's funny. At the beginning of the movie everyone loves him. By the end of the movie everybody seems to hate him, but I don't know why. It's like people are blaming him for things he wasn't even around for.
Scott: He was the bridge between the two worlds and when the two worlds came against each other, he was the odd man out. Of two worlds and none.
Mike: It seems like the filmmakers are trying to make a statement about race relations, but it's not presented well and gets lost in the shuffle. Crash handled that topic much better.
Scott: Haven't seen that yet. It's on my Netflix list.
Mike: Definitely one of the best movies of last year.
Scott: So what do you rate this as a crime drama?
Mike: I give this a 2 for crime drama and a 2 overall. The movie's not a complete waste, but I would not run out to see it.
And you?
Scott: I give it a 1 for crime drama and a 1.5 overall. The crime wasn't that well done and the movie was done only slightly better.
Mike: The tagline for the movie is: "The truth is hiding where no one dares look". Yeah and no one is going to find it watching this movie.
Note to Samuel Jackson: Please make a good movie soon. I don't want to have to keep giving your movies bad reviews.
