Directed By Pierre Morel

Starring – John Cena, Alison Brie, Juan Pablo Raba

The Plot – Ex-special forces operative Mason Pettits (Cena) is stuck in a dead-end desk job when he reluctantly takes on a freelance gig to provide private security for washed-up journalist Claire Wellington (Brie) as she interviews the ruthless-but impeccably dressed-dictator, Juan Venegas (Raba). When a military coup breaks out just as she’s about to get the scoop of a lifetime, the unlikely trio must figure out how to survive the jungle AND each other in order to make it out alive.

Rated R for violence and adult language

(1) FREELANCE Official Trailer (2023) – YouTube

POSITIVES

A few solid performances can still captivate an audience, while regressing on the damage of less inspiring elements surrounding them, and that’s the case with the unlikely trio of Cena, Brie and Raba conjuring an infectious chemistry that takes them and this story miles. Cena in a physical role is certainly nothing new or original, but the depth prescribed to his backstory does afford John the accessibility of experimentation, allowing him to tap into the dramatic and vulnerable sides of his design that he hasn’t received a lot of chances to entertain at this point. Likewise, while Brie’s character is annoying at times, it’s naturally by design, and with the passage of time spent fleshing out the dynamic between her and Cena while evading dangerous adversaries, it opens her up to a sardonic wit in familiarity from her that brings forth the energetic release of what was initially subdued, surpassed only by the heavy lifting exerted by Juan Pablo Reba’s unshakeable charisma that took his powerful dictator down some truly unexpected roads that affords him plenty of time to chew up scenery. Aside from this dazzling trio, “Taken’s” Pierre Morel gets up close and personal with the on-site shooting location of the Columbian countryside doubling, which doubles for Paldonia, emitting an immensity but endlessly exotic beauty to the movie’s imagery, which served as a constant reminder not only to the vulnerabilities of our protagonists, but also the isolation factor of being thousands of miles from where anyone assist their escape. Beyond this, Morel imbeds an opening POV angle sequence that I wish played more of a prominent consistency to the duration of the film’s run time, but still one that I appreciated for putting us in the shoes of Cena’s protagonist, and quite literally letting us experience and interpret the setbacks and emotional roller-coasters that came with a life of spontaneity.

NEGATIVES

Unfortunately, there’s something missing to “Freelance” that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but one that leads to many jumbled artistic instances, which kept this from feeling like one cohesive unit of creativity. For starters, the distinct brand of childish humor here doesn’t work with the extensive exploration of the movie’s intense action sequences, with awful dialogue and groan-heavy gags literally spelling out the disruption of off-camera influence in the person who obviously wrote them. Lines like a repeated joke on Cena’s character’s last name being petite were tiring by the second time they used it, and another occasion involves Cena’s character naming the C.D.I initials of the company that recruits him, “Chicks Dig It”, because that’s the first thing that came to mind of the twelve year old who wrote this, I guess. Beyond this, the action itself is nothing special or even slightly ambitious, with abrupt camera tilts, intrusive editing schemes, and obvious framing work easily conveying when an explosion or deception will come with one of the characters. Even the brutality itself is underwhelming, which makes this feel like one of the softed R-rated action flicks that I have seen in quite sometime, and one made worse by the extent of a nearly two hour run time that felt twenty minutes too long by the film’s third act climax. Adding to the pain is an air of derivative familiarity in everything from the plot, to the direction, to even the poster replicating the hundred stories between polar opposites stuck in nature that came before it, especially films like “Six Days Seven Nights” or last year’s “The Lost City” ringing such an evident parallel to a film that never has a chance to distance itself from them. When I wasn’t accurately predicting the direction the story was heading, I was groaning at a forced romantic angle between Cena and Brie that I’m elated wasn’t fully explored, either for the complete lack of romantic chemistry between them, or the idea that movies like these have to get two good looking people together if they’re alone and drinking in a foreign country. My disdain grew worse with some of the most meandering music compositions that I’ve heard this year, which range from TV dramatics during momentary cliffhangers, and cutely quirky during scenes where hijinks ensues between characters trying to get one over on the other. Del Shannon’s “Runaway” in Spanish was even a fresh break on the brand of one-dimensional monotony that these tracks lacking depth regretfully elicited, reminding me further of the budgetary limitations that started with underwhelming instrumentals, before evolving to lifeless green-screen work that brought back painful memories of “Expend4bles” from only two weeks ago. The benefit here is that “Freelance” wasn’t made for half of the budget of what “Expend4bles” was, but it’s still not any more comforting knowing that the same problems that existed in 1996’s “My Fellow Americans”, with artificially wooden horseback riding, resonates nearly thirty years later with a John Cena action flick.

OVERALL
“Freelance” does feature a dazzling display of Herculean efforts from the charismatic trio of Cena, Brie and Raba, but can’t overcome creative inconsistencies and technical pratfalls that leave it stranded without an escape route. Pierre Morel returns to the genre that made him a household name, fifteen years ago with “Taken”, but his set of specific skills clearly aren’t enough to make up for a film that is wholeheartedly cloaked in genre-derived familiarity, and one whose best days lie ahead as one of the posters you scroll through in one of many streaming applications.

My Grade: 4/10 or D-