Image Courtesy of Amazon.com
Director:
Joe Roth
Cast:
Samuel L. Jackson……….Lorenzo Council
Julianne Moore……….Brenda Martin
Edie Falco……….Karen Collucci
Ron Eldard……….Danny Martin
The Movie
There doesn’t seem to be a movie season without Samuel L Jackson in it, it seems. The man is one of the hardest working men in Hollywood on an annual basis, appearing in 3-4 movies on a regular basis. No movie, good or bad, seems to be off limits to the man as he crams more movies into his schedule than any other actor of his status. He even lends his voice to animation and guest spots; the guy is perhaps the hardest working man in Hollywood, or at least the one working the most. No script, it seems, is beneath Jackson as the man just loves to work. Many actors pick and choose one or two movies to do per year, as they have enough clout or have acquired enough weariness to want to work sporadically throughout the year.
And Freedomland was another in the sort of projects that Jackson seems to collect. It isn’t a great movie, nor is it a good one, but it’s another film he gets to have a great performance in. Jackson stars as Lorenzo Council, a police detective trying to solve a case. The son of Brenda Martin (Julianne Moore) has been kidnapped in a carjacking; being that it was near a housing project, the racial tensions between the posh town nearby and the ghetto rise to a boiling point. Council has to try and find the child while the world around him seems to be going haywire. Throw in an ending that’s pretty obvious and we’re not dealing with a film that’s anything more than mediocre.
To start with, the film can’t decide on what it’s striving to be. There’s a police procedural waiting to crawl out in the first act, a story about racial tension & strife in the second and a movie aching to throw a creative plot twist in the third. The film has three central story arcs that it tries to follow, as this tale of a missing child is interwoven with a detective struggling to maintain his street presence as well as a psychological thriller and yet the film never settles on being just one. There are so many attempts at taking the plot in one direction and yet it fails by never going with one.
As usual, though, Jackson is dynamic as Council. Flimsily written, Council does have a lot of potential as a character that the script doesn’t really bring out but Jackson’s mannerisms and screen presence bring to life what isn’t a fully developed character to begin with. Council is someone we like because Jackson is so good at what he does; this isn’t Jackson’s finest performance but it’s good.
The rest of the cast generally doesn’t have much to do, as Julianne Moore’s sole function seems to be able to cry on command and Edie Falco is relatively wasted in her supporting role. This is Jackson’s movie for the most part but his supporting cast isn’t given enough to do.
Score : 5 / 10
The Video
Presented in both full frame and widescreen versions, with aspect ratios of 1.33:1 and 2.40:1 respectively, Freedomland look wonderful either way. The film is a dark one, both story wise and setting wise, and the transfer illuminates both quite well.
The Audio
Presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, the film has a good audio component. The transfer is good with a good separation; it’s mainly a dialogue-driven film, but the film has a subtle score & some moments with intense sound and they come through well.
The Extras
Previews for Click, Friends with Money, Underworld: Evolution, Little Man, Marie Antoinette, Basic Instinct 2, The Boondocks, The Forgotten, The Missing and S.W.A.T. are included.
Score : 1.5 / 10
