Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Stephen Abell 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.

kyle-mcdonald I went in with extremely high hopes, I've been a Robert De Niro fan for as long as I can remember, and I've also enjoyed a lot of Forest Whitakers work as well, but when all was said and done Freelancers just falls into the same old cop thrillers that has already been done hundreds of times.A newly graduated cop Malo meets his fathers old partner Joe Sarcone and gets taken under his wing. Soon enough things start getting out of hand as Sarcone sends Malo and his two best friends into dangerous territory and Malo decides to take matters into his own hands, going against Sarcone's orders.I'll start off with the storyline. From beginning to end the story is nothing but the same old generic corrupt cop story with the rookie turning on his leader. Filled with major plot holes such as a couple of days after Sarcone meets Malo he all of a sudden loves him like a son and Malo believes that he's been therefore him his whole life, it's either I'm missing something or this movie has a big gap missing in it. The dialogue is terrible and doesn't add any emotion to the movie at all. One of the worst things I found in Freelancers was the very predictable racist cop, but to make matters worse there just so happens to be an African American cop who is border line racist towards white people at the same time. I feel if they had to focus on the African American racist towards white people rather than the very regular racist white cop it would have made this aspect of the movie more interesting because its not very often we get to see this in a police thriller. Overall the storyline is extremely predictable and far from original.Acting was also sub par, 50 cent as Malo wasn't bad I find 50 cent to be a pretty good actor I feel there could have been a bit more character development but overall he didn't do a bad job. Forrest Whitaker as LaRue was probably the worst performance which really surprised me because usually we see Whitaker give an all out performance with everything he does, but I guess for a direct to video movie he just didn't see the need to give it his best. Robert De Niro as Sarcone wasn't what I was expecting although it wasn't bad it was far from great, he's just playing the general corrupt cop who runs the show and that's about all you can say about it. I found that De Niro and Whitaker had absolutely no chemistry on screen what so ever. SPOILERS: I found the best part of the movie was the last scene with De Niro and 50 Cent when Sarcone tells why he betrayed Malo's father and killed him and when we see if Malo is actually going to give him up to the police, I must say it was a very well done scene.Overall I was very disappointed and thought there was lots of room for improvement. But this is just my opinion.Overall score: ** out of ********** * out of *****

rgblakey Without any real success or box office backing Curtis "50" Cent Jackson has still managed to churn out a film career, with most of in straight to video action films. This time though he has aligned himself with some big star power in the form of Robert DeNiro and Forest Whitaker, but is it enough to deliver that extra punch to step this cop thriller or will it just be another forgettable addition to the genre?Freelancers follow a young cop who joins in with a group of rogue cops led by his father's ex-partner. When the truth about his father's death is revealed it pushes him to finally make sure justice is served. This isn't a bad movie, but it isn't anything different than every other cop movie that has come along over the years. Jackson does a decent job here, but just doesn't have the chops to really sell the emotional aspect of the character. He works well for the action, but as soon as he has to deliver some sort of emotion it just comes off non-existent. Whitaker and DeNiro both pretty much phone this one in, but thanks to their amazing talent still manage to deliver some interesting characters. The story is pretty straight forward, but wants to try and deliver twists and turns where it is pretty obvious as to where it is all headed. In addition there are some aspects of the story that just come off a bit unbelievable in the system. There's some decent action moments here but nothing that really stands out to help push this along.Overall this is a pretty generic delivery into the cop thriller, but thanks to the star power behind it at least feels a bit bigger than the straight to video release it got. If you are a fan of this genre or any of those involved give it a try, just don't expect anything all that new or original.http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-dallas/bobby-blakey

kluseba 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.