Review: Freelancers

Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson stars as one of a trio of former delinquents turned cops, in his case he’s the son of a cop (Andre Royo) who was killed right in front of him. He ends up joining a special task force headed by his father’s former partner, played by Robert De Niro. De Niro makes it pretty clear early on that he and his cronies are all corrupt, including Forest Whitaker, De Niro’s right-hand man who is now a hopeless, pitiful drug-addict. At the other end of the scale, one of 50’s buddies is mentored by an honest African-American cop (Robert Wisdom), who tries to make a difference, by sometimes letting a petty young crim walk, hoping that giving him a chance will save him from becoming a career crim. In his final role, Pedro Armendariz Jr. turns up as a drug kingpin, whilst Vinnie Jones turns up as a middle-man criminal, and Dana Delany plays the widow of a deceased DA, who tries to steer 50 Cent clear of the bad eggs on the force.

 

Further proof that Robert De Niro should either put more thought into his film projects or quit acting altogether to focus on his other interests rather than completely destroy his reputation. This 2012 corrupt cop film comes armed with a lot of bad omens; Dubious company Lionsgate involved, direct-to-DVD mainstay ‘50 Cent’ among the cast and producers credits, his “Gun” director Jessy Terrero (who also directed “Soul Plane”) at the helm, Oscar-winner and “Battlefield Earth” co-star Forest Whitaker in support…I knew this one wasn’t going to be the “Citizen Kane” of corrupt cop flicks. Unfortunately, it’s not even “Colours”, “Pride and Glory”, or “Internal Affairs”. It’s much closer to “Street Kings”, I’m afraid.

 

Beyond incriminating photos, there’s absolutely no reason for De Niro and Dana Delany turning up in this poor film. It’s not the worst film the aforementioned four actors (if one can call 50 Cent an actor) have made, but it’s still lousy, and the whole thing is obvious from the first flashback scene. Almost no one acquits themselves well here at all, with Robert Wisdom probably faring best, but his character ends up entirely forgotten about after a while. Mr. Half a Buck is far from the worst rapper-turned-actor, and if Ice T and Ice Cube can play cops, I have no issue with 50 doing it, too (70 year-old De Niro, however, is very hard to swallow as a cop). However, he’s a bit low-key and mumbly, and his character is extremely difficult to care about. He’s a little boring and forgettable, to be honest, but at least playing a delinquent turned cop, so he’s hardly miscast.

 

I mentioned “Street Kings” earlier, and both that film and this film show the talented Forest Whitaker at his worst. He may have looked embarrassed in “Battlefield Earth”, but playing a hopelessly drug-addicted, surly corrupt cop, he’s terribly hammy here. He plays it as so monumentally fucked up, it’s not credible that his character is still employed. How bad is he? 50 Cent acts him off the screen by considerably underplaying by comparison. Why didn’t the director rein the guy in? De Niro, meanwhile phones it in yet again, whilst Ms. Delany is so fleetingly used in the film one wonders why she bothered. Vinnie Jones has a funny, memorable cameo, but Wisdom is the only one here playing a flesh-and-blood character. He’s OK in the role, but OK is a billion times better than anyone or anything else here. He’s an honest cop who hates the ‘N’ word and tries to impart his knowledge onto his assigned rookie partner. I’m not sure if the character is entirely credible, or if I even approve of the things he says and does, but at least he’s a human being, unlike the rest of these creeps and crooks. Truth be told, though, the film botches its attempts at saying something about race, due to extreme heavy-handedness from Terrero and screenwriter L. Philippe Casseus, and that also includes the Wisdom character at times. Terrero also makes a couple of really irritating editing choices that annoy. The film also looks absolutely, unquestionably awful. Whilst I applaud DOP Igor Martinovic for not shaking the holy hell out of the character, he nonetheless gives us a washed-out, ugly, muted, and murky visage.

 

You don’t need to see this clichéd, subpar film, and the rather high-calibre cast needn’t have helped make it. Nothing to see here, move along…

 

Rating: D+