Freelance (2023)

Plot of Freelance: Mason Petitts is a former special forces guy who has been invalided out and has become a lawyer. He is very unhappy putting a strain on his marriage. Then he gets an offer of a job, body guarding Claire Wellington, a journalist, who has got a interview with Juan Venegas, President of the South American country of Paldonia. Petitts had been a member of a team who had been sent in to eliminate the dictator years before, but two of them had died. Petitts finds out that it had been expected that he would eliminate the president, but as it turns out the president has created a revolutionary group to keep the population happy, and is a benevolent person. However, a group of South African mercenaries are also on the case, resulting in the president, Claire and Mason having to go on the run., now with the population on side, but the mercenaries in the pay of evil international corporations chasing them.

Content: No sex or nudity, although Claire reveals parts of her anatomy provocatively to Mason, once they are safe in a jungle village. Mason has a bad back which hampers his hand to hand combat skills, but he is still able to shoot down a helicopter with a sniper rifle.  They do a lot of running through the jungle and at one point wade across a river. We are aware that Mason’s wife is not keen on her husband doing this sort of work, but despite Claire’s provocation he remains faithful to her. There are a lot of shoot-outs, ending up in the president’s palace.

A View: This outing was reputed to have cost $40 million for a return at the box office of $9 million. And it was roasted by the critics. But come on guys, it was not that bad. Regardless of what the film is, I require a few things of what I watch. It has to have a plot, it must not suffer from what I call infill, superfluous activities just to fill in time, at least one of the characters must be likable and, God love us, please let it have a conclusion. So Freelance fulfilled those requirements pretty well. It is probably a watch for nothing while doing your knitting.

Fun Fact: John Cena’s Wikipedia entry is compiled from a record 499 sources.