Freelancers

It's hard to find fault with a Robert DeNiro movie, no matter the budget. We saw him pull of "Mad Dog and Glory" (at least I did) and we saw his chops as a comedian in the Fockers films. But lately, the legend is disintegrating, and here we find a man on auto-pilot, restlessly moping his way through a character he's played countless times before.

"Freelancers" finds 50 Cent as a young cop who's father is slain by bad cops when he is little. Now on the force himself, Fiddy finds himself taken under the wing of corrupt captain Sarcone (DeNiro) along with other dirty cops like Detective Leurie (Forest Whitaker). Will Fiddy find his father's killer? Will the film end in a shootout?

It plays out like a dream you have every night. You know what to expect, and can just about point to the screen when you can expect to see it happen. The script is cut-and-dry, listless, and unsure of if it's trying to make more a point than simply to promote its impressive cast.

I would say don't watch it, but you've watched this before, and you'll watch it again, though in a theater and with a couple zeroes added on to the end of the budget. For a low-cost, easy to shoot film, the cast is impressive and the acting is fine, but for the hour and a half spent sitting at home waiting to be surprised, I felt let down.

CROSSFIRE wasn't quite the dog of the film I was expecting but it's certainly no classic and it only barely gets there as an average and acceptable watch. There are two major problems with this production which drag it down and the first of those is lead actor Curtis Jackson, better known to the world as rapper 50 Cent. Jackson is no actor and is as wooden as they come, so watching him attempting to convey any emotion apart from the most basic happy/sad expression is a real chore and quite embarrassing in places.

The second problem is the familiarity of the material. CROSSFIRE feels like a Frankenstein's Monster of a movie, made up of bits and pieces from TRAINING DAY, RAMPART, STREET KINGS, and at least half a dozen others. Heck, Forest Whitaker is here and playing nearly EXACTLY the same role as he essayed in STREET KINGS. Despite these problems, CROSSFIRE is occasionally thrilling in places and there's a lot of involved material to fill up the running time. Robert De Niro is barely in it but at least he doesn't embarrass himself and there's a nice minor part for Dana Delany. While I enjoyed CROSSFIRE in places I do feel that with a better lead actor and story it could have been something truly great rather than just average.

In all fairness and truth, I was quite liking the movie at first. By all means this should had been one that would had been bad to watch from start to finish and one that I should have hated watching, since it stars Oscar winning actors Robert De Niro and Forest Whitaker opposite 50 Cent and Vinnie Jones. All alarm bells should go off when you hear this, especially when you learn that 50 Cent is playing the lead role. But in fact, the movie isn't being all that bad to watch and its first half especially makes this a decent enough, little, genre movie.

The first half of the movie is basically one about rookie training, in which rookie cops, one of them played by 50 Cent, get teamed up with an older and more experienced cop, who starts learning them the tricks and ropes. It all sounds very familiar, I know but it does work out interesting and entertaining enough and I was ready to really start liking this movie.

But then its horrible second half came along. Half way through it suddenly becomes a far more standard crime movie and not a very good one I'm sad to say. About half way through, exactly, there is a certain scene in the movie after which the movie starts to take a turn for the worse. The scene in itself already is being something ridicules and out of tone for this movie but everything that follows after that is about just as bad and silly. Suddenly 50 Cent and friends become hardcore crime fighters, trying to solve a case, which also involves dirty cops, while before that they were being naive and timid young cops, afraid of their superiors. It doesn't quite click all and the second half almost entirely ruined the movie for me.

It might seem strange to you, seeing 50 Cent playing a cop in this but it in fact is not a movie that glorifies the police corps at all. On the contrary really, since the cops are the biggest bad guys in this, who also form the biggest danger, do most of the drugs and have sex with prostitutes, whenever given the opportunity, all while being on duty. No, I don't think the makers of this movie have a lot of love for the police man and woman out there and 50 Cent also quickly finds an excuse in this movie to take off his uniform. It's a bit too over-the-top all at times, which obviously doesn't make this the most convincing and realistic genre movie out there.

I have always thought that 50 Cent is an horrible actor. He's even terrible in his own music videos! Now, I'm not talking about him as a performer of course but he, out of all rappers, always seemed to be the most unlikely one to ever have a decent acting career some day. Guess movies like this won't really help his acting career forward, since he also really isn't being all that impressive in this. He especially has some real difficulties in the scenes in which his character was supposed to show his emotions. And watching him sitting across Robert De Niro, having dialog with him, feels just wrong! They are not remotely in the same league and I was also quite surprised to see the likes of De Niro and Whitaker in this.

It's definitely not the worst movie you'll ever see but it's not one to get very excited about either.

5/10

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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.

In New York, three smalltime hoodlums are arrested and years later they become NYPD officers. When they are celebrating in a bar, Captain Joe Sarcone (Robert De Niro) summons Jonas "Malo" Maldonado (50 Cent) to sit at his table. Sarcose was the partner of Malo's deceased father and he invites Malo to join his team of corrupt cops. The rookie Malo teams up with the dirty Dennis LaRue (Forest Whitaker) and he begins his career of crime in the police department. But when his former trainer Lydia Vecchio (Dana Delany), whose husband worked at the Internal Affairs when he was murdered, shows evidences of his father's death to him, Malo returns to the side of the law to seek revenge against those that killed his father.

"Freelancers" is a movie with a messy story about corrupt NYPD officers. The lead character is a hoodlum that becomes a dirty cop, but comes back to the side of the law to revenge the death of his father and ends invited to join the Internal Affairs. Lydia has conclusive evidences against Sarcose and his gang, but they are not enough to arrest the dirty cop that is not under surveillance. The great cast is lost in a poor screenplay and a weak direction. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Assassinos de Aluguel" ("Hired Killers")