In my mind Freejack has always merged with other 90's sci-fi movies like Johnny Mnemonic and Chain Reaction. All of these had cool poster images that were seen in magazines, but other than the posters I pretty much missed out the actual movies.
Another thing that comes to mind is that the phrase "Freejack Soundtrack" is a thing...maybe even more than the actual movie. That's because I had a phase when I was a huge fan of the band Scorpions, and I remember noticing that the song "Hit Between the Eyes" was featured on the soundtrack album of this movie. So I always thought that someday I'm going to see what this Freejack actually is.
Third notion is that this is the gimmick film with Mick Jagger as an actor. I feared that if he happened to be a bad actor, then that would explain why this movie seems so forgotten. Maybe it was a flop?
All right then, let's take a ride to the danger zone and see does Freejack hit between the eyes or miss completely.
The story is original and interesting. A supposed-dead guy is hijacked to the future to be used as a new body for a dying businessman. But the body accidentally escapes, and right there we have a recipe for an action packed chase adventure.
The cast is interesting. Antony Hopkins is probably the best actor in the film but he doesn't have much screentime so it doesn't make much difference. Then we have of course the rocker Mick Jagger as a tough leader of the bad guys' army. Even though Jagger isn't a seasoned actor he looks good in the role and acts decent enough. The hero is played by Emilio Estevez. I've never really liked him. I always thought he's like a poorman's version of Michael J. Fox. But in the end Estevez redeems the role. He manages to use his blank face to create a puzzled character lost in time. The female lead is played by Rene Russo who's always got class.I just like her whenever she's on the screen. One more mention: Jonathan Banks (Mike Ehrmantraut from Breaking Bad!) is in this movie too. That's awesome!
The budget is not enormous but it's big enough and used effectively. I really like the comic book vibe of the visual style, the "futuristic" vehicles that actually just are some army jeeps painted red but... hey, it works! The coolest machine is Jagger's techno-truck that unforrtunately is not seen that much.
Overall Freejack might not be a cinematic masterpiece if judged by indiviudyal acting performances, or if you're looking for some deep message that will change your life. But as an action movie it's really entertaining and stylish, and has an diverse cast of actors that just feels...cool. More than the sum of its parts I'd say.
Oh, and last but certainly not least: you can bang your head and play air guitar during end credits when one of the hardest rocking songs from Scorpions starts playing. Yeaaah!
