Freelance is a 2023 action comedy directed by Pierre Morel (Taken, Peppermint), from a screenplay by Jacob Lentz.

An ex-special forces operative stuck in a dead-end desk job (John Cena) reluctantly takes on a gig to provide private security for a washed-up journalist (Alison Brie) as she interviews a ruthless—but impeccably dressed—dictator (Juan Pablo Raba). When a military coup breaks out just as she's about to get the scoop of a lifetime, the unlikely trio must figure out how to survive the jungle, the assassins, and each other in order to make it out alive.

Freelance made its debut in theaters on October 27th, courtesy of Relativity Media.

THE GOOD

To be honest when the trailer for Freelance was first released it felt like a straight-to-streaming release to me in the sense that it sort of came out of nowhere and seemed to lack substance. Now I’m not going to sit here and act like I wasn’t interested because I enjoy John Cena as an actor, and I also like Alison Brie as well. I watched the trailer and it seemed like something I would enjoy as long as I kept my expectations in check. Now Freelance did turn out to be a theater release and did not debut on a streaming platform, so I made sure to check it out on the big screen to see if it was worth the extra gas money.

Alright so I did manage to keep my expectations in check and I’m glad I did, because Freelance is a fun movie if you can appreciate action comedies that aren’t overly concerned with story or lasting appeal. Now it may not be worth the price of admission for the majority of people, or the gas money for that matter, but I didn’t hate this movie. Again, all about expectations.

I thought the cast was fun and it was clear they enjoyed working together, Pierre Morel is a solid director and overall he seemed to make the most of what he had at his disposal, and I thought the film took advantage of some beautiful filming locations in Columbia thanks to cinematographer Thierry Arbogast. Freelance also has a decent comedic element thanks to what I felt was natural chemistry between the cast and a tone that was mostly light throughout. The screenplay was admittedly brutal, but more on that later.

The primary draw for Freelance is the cast obviously, and all things considered, I thought they had fun with this movie. This movie is far from gritty and is much more goofy if anything, but the cast seemed to gravitate to that and kept things fairly light throughout. Although this is far from one of Cena’s better films, I thought he was still good here. As expected he contributed to the majority of the film’s comedic element and he got a few solid laughs out of me.

Personally, I like Alison Brie as an actress, and I felt like she took advantage of her opportunity here. She plays a disgraced journalist willing to do anything to get her career back on track and she fits this role well. She also shined in a scene where she did her best to get Cena into bed and full disclosure it did feel like the temp in the theater went up a few degrees during this particular scene, just saying. I also had fun with actor Juan Pablo Raba, a native of Colombia where the movie was filmed. Raba played the film’s misunderstood primary antagonist, and as silly as he was for the majority of the film I really liked his performance. Raba helped to round out the dynamic for the primary cast and kept things light and fun.

THE BAD

Alright, so where do I start? Freelance is incredibly flawed, but in all seriousness what were we expecting? At the end of the day, this is an action comedy starring John Cena, so I don’t think at any point we expected it to win any awards. Now does that mean it was okay to just coast with a bland story relying entirely on the cast? Of course not, but clearly the people making the important decisions disagreed. Freelance is the first screenplay from writer Jacob Lentz, and his inexperience was one of the most glaring issues for the film. With that being said, it would not surprise me for a second if he was specifically told to keep things as simple as possible ensuring that the primary focus for the film is the cast, and simple it was.

Now the story is okay in the sense that it isn’t brutally slow or obnoxious by trying to be clever when it had no chance to be, it just has zero substance. This screenplay was all about playing it safe allowing the cast to steer the ship, but the refusal to put more value on the comedic element with a cast like this felt like a waste. It had funny parts but they were really few and far between in my opinion. It was almost like they thought the story would resonate more with viewers and they didn’t want to overshadow that with too much humor, but that is just a silly notion considering the final product.

I talked about how the cast had a certain chemistry that really helped the film, but the tone was massively inconsistent. As an action comedy Freelance lacks the laugh-out-loud moments you would maybe expect it to have, and to say it was predictable would be an understatement. At the end of the day this movie is what it is, and keeping your expectations in check will serve you well.

THE VERDICT

A bare-bones action comedy lacking substance or really any lasting appeal for that matter, Freelance is a movie that can still be enjoyable as long as you keep your expectations in check. The fact that critics have slapped this with a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes is funny to me because it really isn’t that bad, and it makes me wonder what the heck they were expecting. Now it is incredibly flawed which I touched on during the review, but to say it is unwatchable or just a horrible movie is a bit ridiculous. Now with that being said I’m not going to tell you this is worth a trip to the theater, but I also don’t think you will regret spending just shy of 2-hours watching it once it is available to watch at home.