Freelance is a new action comedy directed by Pierre Morel, director of Peppermint and Taken.
Former special forces agent Mason Pettits (John Cena) has left the military to start a family. As a result, he ended up with a boring desk job. Because he misses the action, he starts as a freelance security guard. For example, he has to protect journalist Claire Wellington (Alison Brie) when she goes to interview the infamous dictator Venegas (Juan Pablo Raba).
During this interview, a coup takes place, forcing the three to unexpectedly flee and survive together in the jungle.
Pierre Morel has not been able to produce a similar action film since Taken. At Taken he was fortunate to be able to work with stories written by action experts such as Luc Besson. With Freelance he unfortunately has to work with a script written by Jacob Lentz, for whom this is only his first film story. He has also written more for talk programs such as Jimmy Kimmel's.
The comedy level remains more at the level of comedy from such talk shows. This keeps the comedy at a low level and a bit on the predictable or repetitive side. Unfortunately, there is little to laugh about in this film.
Most of the action scenes are also more familiar and reminiscent of other action films such as The Lost City from last year. The film tries to come across as a better jungle action film like First Blood or Predator, but continues to lack this action quality.
Due to the lesser action and comedy qualities, John Cena unfortunately gets few opportunities to make something special of this role. Unfortunately, the same applies to the rest of the cast members. Alison Brie and Juan Pablo Raba have been known more for TV series lately in their acting careers. With this film they try to break through again with acting in films, but unfortunately they do not succeed so successfully with films of this quality.
20 out of 32 found this helpful