Plot: What’s it about?
Had Freejack been made in present day, a few things would have certianly been changed. First of all, this came out right as actors Anthony Hopkins (excuse me, “Sir” Anthony Hopkins) and Rene Russo were on Hollywood’s “A” list. At the time it was Emilio Esteves who was the big time star and it seems now, both the Sheen brothers could use a lot more positive exposure. But this movie isn’t the kind of movie you tend to see anymore. Others in this genre include titles like “Eve of Destruction” and “Runaway”, it’s just a very late 80’s-early 90’s type of movie that probably won’t peek again for some time. We see all the signs of the post cold war era, a bleak, desolate future where there are two classes: Rich and Poor. There is no in between. Figuring out this movie was a challenge all in itself, and it was my first time to see it, so I was still trying to ponder the casting of Mick Jagger as a major star!
We meet Alex Furlong (Emilio Estevez) as a young, ultra hip race car driver. Along with his tag along girlfriend (Rene Russo), who’ll do just about anything to please him, we see that he’s just a bit too cool for everything to be going his way for long. Sure enough, we are greeted with a series of “Terminator”-esque flashback or flash forward scenes that mark the impending death of Alex. What we learn later is that in the future, it’s possible to go back to the past and transplant your mind in the body of someone else. The person is known as a “Freejack”. Only problem is, in the future everyone is so polluted and exposed to the radiation of the sun, that it would do no good for a person of that time, hence the time travel bit. Thankfully we aren’t treated to many scenes in the past, they concentrate on the future. Not that it’s much better, with the cheesy special effects and the “laser” guns, it’s hard to buy. After all, Alex was transported only 18 years into the future (from 1991) and now the world is such an ugly place.
Taking cues, or trying, to take cues from Riddley Scott’s masterpiece “Blade Runner”, the movie just doesn’t really work. Anthony Hopkins, though “undiscovered” at the time is brilliant in what small part he has, and I can see any number of actors in Mick Jagger’s part as well. Jagger has some natural acting ability, but it’s his cockney accent that is just to deep to be taken seriously. We expect him to break out into “Please to meet you…” at any moment (or I did anyway). Overall, Freejack is a mildly entertaining sci-fi movie, and like I said, is probably the type of movie that isn’t much around anymore, at least not with any major starts. But Freejack has it’s audience, I’m sure and for those of you who are a fan of the film, you’ll like the transfer and what little extras are provided.
Video: How does it look?
Being a Morgan Creek (Warner) title, Freejack is presented in one format only…widescreen. Why they do this, I don’t really know, if I had a choice it would be for the widescreen format, but it’s still nice for those non-widescreen lovers to flip the disc over and enjoy the hacked version! The colors and the whole movie seem to use a very bland palatte, though it doesn’t distract from the movie at all (though I wish it would have). The image is clean and for the most part, free of compression errors and digital artifacting. The 2.35:1 image on the whole, looks very good.
Audio: How does it sound?
Freejack claims on the back of the cover that is has been “Remastered for Home Theatres” and that’s a good thing…a very good thing. Most any sci-fi movie will have a very good audio track, and this soundtrack sounds very good, minus a few errors. Often in movies that were converted from analog to digital, there is some loss, and in Freejack’s case it suffers from a very “hollow” effect. There are some effects that sound like they were done on a soundstage (and most likely they were), and that detracts from the movie. But the rest of the mix is very active and at some points I had to turn the volume down for fear I might wake my neighbors!
Supplements: What are the extras?
Some cast bios and a theatrical trailer are all that’s included.
