Welcome to The Best Movie You NEVER Saw, a column dedicated to examining films that have flown under the radar or gained traction throughout the years, earning them a place as a cult classic or underrated gem that was either before it’s time and/or has aged like a fine wine.
This week, let’s take a look at FREEJACK!
HISTORY: The year is 2009 – the long term. Rich people don’t die anymore. On the contrary, their minds are stored in a program called “The Spiritual Switchboard”, while the “Bonejackers” lend bodies from beyond that they can use. Enter the driving force of the automobile Alex Furlong (Emilio Estevez), which was stolen at the time of its fatal twist of fate to be used as a shipment through a mysterious customer. But when he is agreed to transfer, Alex escapes into the infernal world in the long run, to be chased through the Bonejackers’ leader, Vacendak (Mick Jagger), with only his former lover, Julie (René Russo), in a position to help him escape his clutches. Array
PLAYERS: Emilio Estevez, Mick Jagger, Rene Russo and Anthony Hopkins. Music through Trevor Jones. Written by Steven Pressfield, Ronald Shusett and Dan Gilroy. Directed through Geoff Murphy.
“They said, would you like to make this movie? We want to know by next week why filming starts in three weeks. So I said, OK, I’m going to do it. Probably if I had six months to think if I would have refused and said “ah this is not what I want” – Mick Jagger – Entertainment Tonight Interview
THE STORY: FREEJACK a tortured production for Morgan Creek, a studio that then up to the good fortune of ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES. With a forged budget of $30 million, he had not only Emilio Estevez, young from YOUNG GUNS 2, in the lead, but also Anthony Hopkins in his first post-SILENCE LAMBS role, emerging star Rene Russo, and the most productive of all, Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger, in his first acting feature in years.
It is true that the studio had high hopes, but the first checks screenings went wrong and the film was largely shot again, so much so that director Geoff Murphy was tempted to withdraw his call from the final product. All the covers were in vain, as the film went badly at the box office, bringing only $17 million. Hopkins himself then called the film “terrible”, while in an interview at the time, Estevez said Murphy let them down by focusing too much on the action.
WHY IT’S GREAT: I vividly remember the first time I saw the trailer for FREEJACK. I was seeing STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY with my father in theaters, I was only nine years old, and the trailer for this blew my mind. “Dad, I want to see this!” He promised to take me, but the film was closed before he could make good on his promise. Suffice to say, I saw it on VHS a few months later and loved this futuristic action-adventure. I’d say it was one of the movies I watched the most as a child, so it always surprised me as an adult that the consensus out there seemed to be that this was not a good movie. We even did an “Awfully Good” on it.
So it was with some anxiety that I saw the movie this week, but to my surprise, I really enjoyed it. For my life, I don’t understand why other people think you’re bad. On the one hand, it has a legal premise – the rich rich lend the bodies of the dead from beyond. It’s true that there’s something hilarious about the fact that this long-term rainy and miserable global, where bodies can be stolen in the afterlife, is just 2009, but if you can drop that, it’s a lot of fun.
Based on a novel called “Immortality, Inc.” through Robert Sheckley, FREEJACK has a myriad of writers, adding Dan Gilroy (NIGHTCRAWLER) who met his longtime wife, René Russo, on set (lucky). There are many clever characters here, with an impressive cast of unusual actors making appearances, from Amanda Plummer as a nun in the groin, to a younger Jonathan Banks, Frankie Faison of “The Wire” and former New York Dolls frontman David Johansen.
But what anchors the film are the 4 tracks. Estevez was in decline in the early 1990s, and I discovered him as an affable leader in films like this and JUDGMENT NIGHT. It’s simple to see, but the ace up the sleeve of FREEJACK is René Russo, who brings a lot of center in his role as Estevez’s lover, Julie, who is now seventeen years old to mourn, but who is now suddenly plunged into chaos. She’s great, and Anthony Hopkins is captivating enough as Estevez’s boss and roguyticist rival that it’s no exaggeration to think she might prefer old Tony. Of course, the inevitable plot twist is quite simple to predict, and it wasn’t even hidden in the trailers.
“I looked for him for an addictive personality. I looked for the character to be addicted. Most everyone has one. But I didn’t need him to be addicted to cigarettes, alcohol or drugs. So I made him addicted to food. pan-leaves of Indian wrapped in condiments. The pot gives you a little height” – Interview with L.A Times
And then, of course, there’s Mick Jagger. Although he is really rusty as an actor, he still brings a lot of presence to his role as a nominal antagonist, who pursues Estevez’s Furlong and, in his own eyes, is by no means a villain. Some of his line readings are a bit odd, but when Jagger is on screen, you can’t keep an eye on him. Look at FREEJACK and find out how things would look if Jagger had to give up the rock star life to become an action hero.
Everything is connected through a clever score by Trevor Jones, no doubt some seams in the film are provided as a result of the re-movie, as the character of John Shea that takes a large accumulation, but comes back to nothing, while the bodyguard of Grand L. Bush, Boone, carries a sword in bad taste, but manages to use it slightly.
BEST CCENE: FREEJACK has a clever little chase in the middle of the film, the catch is that the chase probably features some of Jagger’s top rogue actors. Well, here she is.
PARTING SHOT: Although FREEJACK isn’t really a very productive film, for me it’s still one of the most productive science fiction action films of its time, and a film that I think stands up well all those years later. Check!
Summer School
Freejack
Fragility
Man of darkness
Dead men don’t use tiles
Advertise on this Site | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | Site Map | Links | Shopping
Dedicated hosting through NEXCESS.NET Web Hosting
Website design and through Face3 Media