Land of the Free (1998)

hyped garbage

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Absolutely brilliant

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

In a way LAND OF THE FREE was a good action movie about a campaign manager that discovers the senator he is working for is actually part of a terrorist group that wants to take over the U.S, and goes on the run once the the corrupt senator dispatches his henchmen to go after him and his family.Although the film has a lot of car crashes, shootouts and fight scenes, all very well done, the thing that is really poorly done is the film's music score, its basically this one little tune that sounds like a kind of national anthem that plays repeatedly throughout the film including action scenes, and it really doesn't go well with the film at all, to give an idea of what the score is like, imagine Celine Dion's My heart will go on being played during all of the film's action scenes.The storyline is nothing new, the acting isn't too bad at all and the film isn't badly directed either, but it gets my vote for a razberry award because of its score.

If you enjoy the sight of cars flying and spinning through the air and exploding upon impact with the ground, then here's the movie for you my friends.Visibly out of shape and sadly, clearly struggling here, Kenpo master, Jeff Speakman, stars in this somewhat mundane action effort as campaign leader for a political hopeful (William Shatner) who subsequently discovers that his boss is in fact secretly financing terrorists for his own ends on the side. Predictably, such knowledge puts our hero and his family in jeopardy however, as various shady characters try to wipe him from the board in order to silence him and suppress the truth that he has uncovered. Yes, it's generic action flick time again, as Speakman is subsequently, relentlessly pursued by seemingly everyone in on this conspiracy (which as it happens is just about every one in the cast!)All this invariably translates as a series of admittedly, very well orchestrated car chase action sequences, during which the cars of Speakman's pursuers have a propensity to fly up into the air at any given moment. Sadly however, such kinetic enjoyment doesn't carry over into the rest of proceedings and it has to be said that the whole film carries a horribly rushed feel to it, taking liberties with huge leaps in logic in order to keep the running time (and presumably also the budget) down. On a more positive note, the performances are generally fine considering the material the actors have to work with and the stunt work is good throughout at least. For Speakman fans however, this is will likely prove a decidedly disappointing effort. If you want to see the action star on peak form, my advice is to check out The Perfect Weapon instead.

This seems to be a parody of a parody. The overly-patriotic music (the composer will probably claim "West Wing" was inspired by his score) and the action scenes are especially bad. Each involves every single person who tries to kill Jeff and his wife and annoying kid being incredibly stupid, slow-footed, and a lousy shot. There was one moment early on when Jeff Speakman is karate-chopping a security guard in slow-motion, and I wondered why it seemed so familiar. Then I remembered the karate moves of the old "Double Dragon" NES game series, from 10 years ago. The only difference was that those games had more believable characters and plotting. How sad to see talented actors like Chris Robinson and Chris Lemmon stuck in the middle of this latrine. If you ever wanted to see Mac from "Night Court" (Robinson) punch someone in the gut, then this is the movie for you. The best laugh of the film. Watch only if you want to laugh, or learn how *not* to make a film.

While William Shatner's performance was the best part of the movie, the rest of the acting by every single every other person in this movie is just awful. The music is one of the worst scores I have ever heard, and the car chases are just non-stop and totally unrealistic. On the plus side, the hand-to-hand action scenes are actually entertaining. If you feel like watching a movie that really defines 'B-movie,' this is it.