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jackspencerjr
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
262 Posts |
 Posted - 08/19/2006 : 8:10:41 PM
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With all the SoaP and SLJ hype, I rented the flick Freedomland from pay per view and let me tell you; this movie STINKS!
Lots of movies have subplots that feel tacked on. In this movie, every single plot thread felt tacked on. Even the main plot. Heck, the title is tacked on. It just made no sense, really.
As a rule, I don't care for Julianne Moore. I don't find her attractive and her acting abilities are negligible. I actually hated her in this movie more than I would have thought I ever could hate her. She was just a completely annoying character with no redeeming qualities nor any logic behind her motivations. Her actions were like rolling dice. Annoying whiny dice that have a fake New Jersey accent.
Samuel L Jackson was fun to watch, as usual, but he was actually more sad to watch in this material. I felt sorry and embarassed for him. On the plus side, unless I'm mistaken, I think he's wearing the same hat Gene Hackman wore in the French Connection.
I won't get into the plot as I'm not posting this in the review forum, but I will say that Freedomland, which is described as an orphanage that was shut down in the 50's in the trailer, was so tangical to the plot I wonder why the called the movie Freedomland.
The film is based on the novel by Richard Price. Comments on the IMDb lead me to believe that in the book Freedomland was an amusement park in the Bronx in the 60's and was more integral to the plot. I guess they couldn't get the rights to the name from the amusement park people or something, so switched to the orphanage thing. So the book might not be so bad, but the movie sucks. Anyone else see this turkey? |
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Neville
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Spain
1590 Posts |
Posted - 08/20/2006 : 03:07:21 AM
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I did, as I have an interest on modern noirs.
I also felt Moore was terrible. I'm not a fan of her work either, but she's always been above average in everything I've seen her, so it was pretty embarrasing to see her overact her way throught the whole movie.
The main fault with the movie, though, was the director. It sure looked like a TV movie, and nothing seemed too believable, although I'm sure it did on Price's novel, as he also wrote the novel that would become Spike Lee's Clockers.
It couold have worked as feeel-good movie of the month, but then it came Crash, which at least had someone at the helm who knew what he was doing.
And yes, Samuel L. Jackson was the best in the movie, which kept me asking myself why he accepts jobs like this. |
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jackspencerjr
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
262 Posts |
Posted - 08/20/2006 : 4:26:02 PM
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| Probably for the same reason Ernie Hudson keeps accepting roles in crappy movies. So he can be the best part of the movie. And both of them should be more choosy. They could both appear in superior movies and still come off as the best thing in the movie. |
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New Hinda
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Israel
469 Posts |
Posted - 08/21/2006 : 06:30:54 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by jackspencerjr
I won't get into the plot as I'm not posting this in the review forum, but I will say that Freedomland, which is described as an orphanage that was shut down in the 50's in the trailer, was so tangical to the plot I wonder why the called the movie Freedomland.
The film is based on the novel by Richard Price. Comments on the IMDb lead me to believe that in the book Freedomland was an amusement park in the Bronx in the 60's and was more integral to the plot. I guess they couldn't get the rights to the name from the amusement park people or something, so switched to the orphanage thing. So the book might not be so bad, but the movie sucks. Anyone else see this turkey?
Freedomland WAS an amusement park in the Bronx. Does anyone besides me remember his/her parents taking him/her there? It is strange that they would pay good money for the film rights to the book, then make the amusement park an orphanage. |
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jackspencerjr
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
262 Posts |
Posted - 08/21/2006 : 9:49:49 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by New Hinda
It is strange that they would pay good money for the film rights to the book, then make the amusement park an orphanage.
I did some googling and while I didn't find a definate answer, apparently the book is a lot more complicated that the movie is and Freedomland may not have been replaced by an abandoned orphange so much as the name was given to the orphange type thing. In the novel, the site of Freedomtown, an abandoned theme park is where a massive search takes place and its name is all symbolic and stuff. I guess the scenes in the novel that directly related to Freedomtown were considered not integral to the plot and were removed, thus making the title make no sense.
Overall, it sounds like adapting this book to the screen was a horrible idea in the first place. |
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