Freedomland (2006)

Brutal: find your own copy in the bargain-bin

Awful. That one word could sum up this entire movie. How did a movie with such good actors and initially promising plot run off the tracks this dramatically? Essentially this movie is proof that if doesn't matter who you cast in a movie if the plot and script are poor. Plot holes, jumpy storyline, and a conclusion that is laughable make this one of the worst 'crime drama' genre movies I've ever had the misfortune of watching.

1.5/5 stars. Not even worth the cost to rent, much less buy. Possibly useful by the corrections department to soften hardened criminals or to get witnesses to talk. December 28, 2008

What in the world???????

This was an awful waste of my time movie. I actually didn't enjoy the acting or the story line in this movie. I only regret that I purchase this movie instead of renting it. If only I had read the reviews first, instead of just watching a preview on another video. That preview was very misleading. The story line is all over the place and very hard to understand. Some of the acting is just unbelieveable, and weak. May 29, 2008

Decent performances, bad movie

Freedomland tries oh so hard to be both a crime thriller and social commentary that it fails at both. Instead of insight into the realities of race in America, or an interesting story with creative twists, Freedomland delivers an uneven, ham-fisted movie that is more pretentious than deep.

I won't go into the details of the plot. Other reviews have already done so with great clarity. I will state, however, that the acting is surprisingly good despite the mostly horrid dialogue. I felt particularly sympathetic for Julianne Moore. Her dialogue was a mess, especially during the important moments, such as the big reveal at the end. It's hard to imagine her wreck of a character switching from surprising eloquence to an almost catatonic state and back again in mere seconds, despite whatever mental instability she may have had. Some of these sudden shifts in tone and dialogue no doubt stem from the director's sense of artistic license, but in this case less would have definitely generated a better result.

The movie itself, from a plot standpoint, is muddled. Some of it is paint-by-numbers, namely how the racial tension inevitably turns into full-scale riots. Some of it is just a bit weird, specifically Samuel L. Jackson's character's forgiveness of Moore's character. His faith aside, it just seems too much of a stretch, especially since his character explicitly comments about how jaded he is in humanity as a whole. Moore's character, and her selfish choices, seem to be the last possible catalyst for the changes in Jackson's character. And yet, it still inexplicably happens.

Freedomland is definitely a movie delivered with conviction. It just seems to be confused about what it's actually trying to say. And because of this, it suffers greatly. March 20, 2008

One disaster of a film.

One disaster of a film from start to finish. Probably the only half decent part of the film is the start.

Begins with a woman staggering into a hospital dazed and with bloodied hands who says that she has been car-jacked. Soon she reveals that her son is on board the car and suddenly a full scale kidnapping investigation begins.

What makes the film different is that it is a white female who has been car-jacked and the man who took her car an African American. The location of the crime was also in a black area of the city resulting in racial tensions both from the police and local community.

There is really little if anything positive to say about this film. These are decent actors but the acting is frankly awful. Samuel Jackson plays a detective who on discovering a child is missing drags the mother into a private room of the hospital, screams at her, hyperventilates (This all prior to him getting a statement in a crowded hospital full of patents (Ever thought of pulling a screen or putting her in a private room?)) Then gives some half baked report over the radio.

The film gets worse. The female victim just happens to be related to a detective who seems to have full authority to 'lock down' an entire neighbourhood (Granted with his bosses permission) Not allowing residents in or out of the neighbourhood. The police then go about beating and arresting at will while local community leaders bait the uniformed officers.

Samuel Jackson seems to have little control of what is happening and even less on the victim who he is protecting. She wanders off, is driven back into the scene of the crime (This in an area supposedly under lock down) where she wanders around at will (Even being accosted by a local) When our detective needs to go back to the station what does he do? Drops her off with a local friend (Yes in the same neighbourhood where the crime was committed) while he goes downtown for a chat.

It just gets worse, the interview consists of Jackson having a chat with no tape running, no caution, nothing. Riot ensures with injuries on both sides (Don't Police wear riot gear in the States?)

This film really is so bad it makes Snakes on a Plane look like a classic. Even late night TV movies are of a better quality than this. Really, think TV movie about racism made 20 years ago shown on TV late at night to fill a bit of space.

Give this one a miss. At all costs! February 29, 2008

Disappointing

This movie didn't win my sympathies at any point. Just to give one detailed example: in the beginning, Jackson's character is treated unfairly by other cops, so I might expect to feel sympathy for him. But at the same time, his character is doing stupid things that makes me want to scream, "Come on, just do what you are supposed to do!" Apparently the writers wanted to prolong the tension this way, but it ends up just confusing the viewer and losing sympathy for the character. Generally this movie abounds with poor direction and storytelling. All the mob scenes look staged and phony. It's that sense you get that the director was showing us what he thought it should look like rather than what reality looks like. The blood on Julianne Moore's hands in the opening scenes is perfectly red and painted perfectly evenly over each hand. There's an extended ending that shows us the hearts of the characters, which might be satisfying if I actually liked or felt any sympathy for the characters up to that point, but since I didn't, it was a waste of time. This movie has been called a "thriller", but if you look at the plot, there's basically only one mystery, and it gets solved all at once. February 25, 2008

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