Movie Review: Freelance

The new movie "Freelance" starring John Cena, seems like a grab-bag of action movie ideas that were either used in previous films or just thrown away. The story is about a former Army Veteran, now bored with his life, who goes back to his life as a mercenary, running in the jungle, dodging helicopter fire, trying to save a reporter and the leader of some Latin American company under attack by other hired mercenaries.Variations of this same story have been done too many times already.

Everything in this movie has been produced 100 times before in much better action movies. There is nothing new in this screenplay that was written by Jacob Lenz - that according to IMDB is his first. This production could be another example of a favor bank gone bad because Freelance is one of the few movies receiving a zero on Rotten Tomatoes. If this is not a favor bank movie it is hard to believe money was spent to produce a screenplay this bad and convince several named actors to make this film. I often think about so many very great screenplays that will never made or even seen by a producer, and a movie like this is made during a time when the best movies of the year normally are released.

The story of a frustrated lawyer returning to his "more happy life" of fighting battles around the world stars John Cena as Mason. He finds himself in a Latin American country protecting a famous reporter Claire Wellington played by Alison Brie. What follows is gunfire, chase scenes, downed helicopters, and attempts at very subtle humor mostly by Cena that fails almost every time. There is a continuing attempt at humor involving a back problem with John Cena's character, which is another unnecessary part of this alarmingly bad movie. Actress Alice Eve plays Mason's wife, in a small part, that is a harsh reality of being an actress in Hollywood - sometimes you have to take a small role in a bad film, hoping something much better might someday come along. I hope this movie is not too much of a setback for all involved.

The solution with this movie is to just find any other current action film on Netflix and watch that instead. This one rates about 20%, and is a big time miss.