Released: October 2014
Director: Malek Akkad
Rated R
Run Time: 90 Minutes
Distributor: Anchor Bay Films
Cast:
D.B. Sweeney: Frank
Sarah Butler: Jane Porter
Malcolm McDowell: Thaddeus Gault
Ian Gomez: Ronald Taft
I love me a good espionage thriller. The Pelican Brief, Jack Reacher, The Bourne films, the James Bond movies; each of these films offers something different and exciting. While some of them are also spy movies, espionage is definitely involved in most of them. In fact, the definition of the word espionage is: spying. This is usually used for political or industrial means of gaining information without the victim knowing about it. Your average espionage film usually involves somebody stumbling on some secret that they aren’t supposed to know about. The person that discovered said secret is hounded by mysterious people hired by an organization to protect that secret. That secret is usually something that could spell doom for a company or CEO. It’s a basic setup for a film like this. Sadly, for each awesome thriller that I mentioned, we have a hundred that are dreadful. First-time director Malek Akkad’s Free Fall is one of those that ain’t so hot.
Free Fall starts promisingly enough with a high-ranking exec apparently committing suicide by jumping off the roof of a high-rise building. The next day, the employees of the company, Gault Enterprises, are mourning the loss of that particular exec. At least, most them are. One of them, Taft, is acting pretty strangely throughout the whole ordeal. Thaddeus Gault, the owner of the company, comes in to offer his “sincere” condolences. That’s not ominous, and I don’t know why people aren’t picking that up. Gault strikes up a conversation with Jane Porter, who was friends with the deceased. She begins collecting things in the exec’s office for his family when she notices a small thumb drive taped to his desk. She brings it to Taft’s attention who suggests that she waits until after the building closes to deal with the situation. There’s a HUGE number of problems this movie is facing right from the get-go. For one: Taft. You can tell right from the beginning that this dude is up to no good. It’s plain as day. Two: The thumb drive. You would’ve expected somebody to find something like that attached to the side of a desk. Nope. Everybody’s oblivious. Three: Taft tells Jane to wait until the building closes before dealing with the information on that drive. This should set off red flags almost immediately to anybody of any sort of intelligence. So, why would he do such a thing? To send a hired assassin after Jane. THAT’S not cliche. Not at all.
There are more issues with logic that I’ll deal with later on, but let’s move on to the acting. The heavy-weight of the film is Malcolm McDowell. I love to watch that guy act, no matter how old he is. He’s only here for about 5-6 minutes tops. D.B Sweeney plays Frank the Assassin, not Frank the Pug. The character is a scumbag, no doubt about it. Sweeney, at least, gives the character some kind of personality….mostly. I first saw Sarah Butler when she played Jennifer Hills in the I Spit on Your Grave remake. I thought she did a really good job in that movie. She returned for the character in I Spit on Your Grave III. She still did a good job. It’s a shame that she doesn’t do a particularly convincing job of a corporate worker in a very dangerous situation. The character makes some really ill-advised moves. First of all, she never should have brought the drive to Taft’s attention. She knew he was acting strangely. When Frank enters the picture, she runs away from him only to get stuck in an elevator. There’s a dumb-ass move if there ever was one. Especially if there was no way to escape from that elevator when the power goes out. Afterwards, she gets out and fights back and wins and blah, blah, blah.
Going back to the complete lack of logic in the film, it is completely unrealistic. If you get stuck in the elevator, you need to be able to escape. Jane can’t because the escape hatch is sealed. The assassin can’t get in, and she can’t get out. You know, having that hatch sealed is a blatant violation of multiple city and building codes. I would assume Akkad did that to ratchet up the attention, but he fails miserably. The whole damn thing is boring. Aside from all the lousy cliches and gaps and logic, there’s really nothing here worthwhile. Malek Akkad was a produce on a number of Halloween films, but his first real gig as a director is a monumental failure on almost every level. Free Fall hits all the notes, but it just doesn’t do it very well. I’m still waiting to see Sarah Butler play something other than a victim that eventually fights back. Free Fall isn’t worth anybody’s time. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen worse genre movies, but this not even middle-of-the-road. It’s the worst kind of generic thriller. This one is guilty of under-utilizing Malcolm McDowell, and just blindly following what other thrillers have done and done better. Therefor, I sentence Free Fall to the Dunce Corner with a 3/10. Abysmal. Avoid it.