Free Fall

'FREE FALL': Two Stars (Out of Five)

Low-budget B action flick about the career driven employee of a corrupt L.A. business, who uncovers incriminating company secrets and is hunted by an assassin; in order to silence her. The chase becomes more interesting when she becomes trapped in a company elevator. The film stars Sarah Butler (of 'I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE' fame), D.B. Sweeney, Ian Gomez and Malcolm McDowell. It was directed by veteran horror movie producer, turned first time feature film director, Malek Akkad and written by Dwayne Alexander Smith. I found the silly thriller to be slightly entertaining but mostly dull and forgettable.

Butler plays Jane Porter, an ambitious young employee of Gault Enterprises. Her boyfriend, Ray (Jayson Blair), wants her to spend less time at work and more time with him; but Jane is obsessed with her job. Her world is thrown upside down when a beloved coworker shows up dead, from an apparent suicide. Jane finds a thumb drive containing secret information about her boss, CEO Thaddeus Gault (McDowell), that most likely got her coworker killed. When another employee, Jane's supervisor Ronald Taft (Gomez), learns of her discovery, he calls in the company's hit-man, Frank (Sweeney), to clean up the mess. Things come to a standstill when Jane gets stuck on an elevator and Frank can't reach her.

The movie is pretty cheesy and filled with laughable suspense and bad acting. It's one saving grace is D.B. Sweeney; he's a delight to watch and he seems to be having a lot of fun playing this psycho killer. McDowell and Gomez are both good too but they're parts are too small. Butler is neither believable or likable, in her role. Most of all the film is just boring and uneventful; it completely lacks any originality or cleverness, at all. It's completely a waste of time; except for when Sweeney is on screen, of course.

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The story is nothing new and some of the acting was a bit wooden. However, I thought Sarah Butler (I spit on your Grave) saved the film as the lead character trapped in the lift. Her feisty performance as Jane Porter gave the movie something extra. There are some thrilling moments and the pace is just about fast enough to keep the audience's attention.

Both the writing and the acting are poor. It moves too slowly. Watch "Not Safe for Work" instead.Though the cast contains some medium-sized actors (McDowell, Sweeney), the writing is likely weighing down the project. The elevator angle slowed down the movie in my opinion. A chase through the building would have kept the tension high as it does in Not Safe. The female protagonist does not convince that there is an impending doom, and the antagonist seems to fumble and bumble more than the money one assumes was spent on his services would imply. I honestly had to take a break from watching half-way through due to lack of interest.

Watching a straight to DVD movie is always interesting experience - you never hear about these movies so you don't know what to expect. Some low budget movies can pull off great things with the story despite the limited budget. But this movie needs that budget ......badly.

This thriller premise started out quite interesting with a case of suicide in the corporate environment of finance. There was a whole office of people - "This could get interesting" I thought thinking it may become a great "whodunit" type. However this concept was quickly shot down by everyone leaving the office and the whole direction of the movie becoming quite apparent which totally deflated the thrill and left this movie as a low budget action flick.

Typical bad guy comes along, chases woman throughout office, despite being a professional he has really bad aim when it counts, he likes to walk when chasing people. He then threatens people with his goofy stare and cheesy dialogue.

The woman then makes it to the lift and then over half the movie is based around the lift. The movie should have been more accurately called "Stuck in the Lift"

The final show down between the woman and the guy is laughable - the conclusion of which only then does the movie title Free fall really mean anything.

Nice to watch if you are looking for something to accompany that pizza and beer............and oh so much more beer.

What a fun little thriller of a film this is,

I have to admitted I'm growing into a bit of a fan for Sarah Butler.

I first seen her in this film first, then The Demented,

before I seen I Spit on Your Grave, so I liked it a lot. I didn't much like The Demented, I Spit on Your Grave was alright, but had a satisfying yet eerie ending.

I don't understand why most of you out there hated this, even when I first seen this I thought was average at best, but still enjoyed it for what it is.

Sarah Butler was great in this and I think she is a good actress too, I think she's sexy as hell and I hope she has a bright future, I also hope to see her in bigger film projects as well.

Overall, I thought it was fun and exceeded may expectations.

I give it a 5.8/10. If your like me and not too cynical about low budget movies I think your going to enjoy it too.