Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Good movie but grossly overrated

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Irish-shot FREEZE FRAME stars the goofy, jug-eared guy from FIFTH ELEMENT and THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY as a paranoid murder suspect who constantly videotapes himself to prove his whereabouts. A TB-stricken detective has in it for him after the guy gets off on a triple-murder charge. Someone else appears to be shadowing the poor guy and possibly breaking into his home to steal some of his tapes. And a strikingly beautiful woman is after him for other reasons. The ending comes as a shocker of sorts, although it all feels a bit contrived. The film is shot mostly in muted colors or no colors at all, and the suspect wanders about with his head end eyebrows shaved and a videocamera attached to his torso. While this Kafka-esquire film is listed as running 99 minutes, after while it begins to seem more like 199 minutes. Not much honestly happens until the end. A truly erotic "rape" scene near the end perks things up a bit. For indie film fans only.

...but it ends with a uneasy feeling.The characters aren't sympathetic and everyone seems to have a kind of neural disorder. But hey, what would you expect from a dark thriller like this. Especially dark because of the lighting and colors used during daylight.The scenario attracted me to this film, and the first half definitely was worth the time. Somehow the dialogs are too long and too "deep" to keep the thriller feeling alive. A few small twists at the end, and you've got a perfect mix between memento, twisted and the fugitive.As the movie started, I was alerted by lines that made clear it was an Irish movie, and a lot of quite unknown actors passed by (notice the one with the double under chin...) It wasn't bad, but just don't have too much expectations!

(I apologize for the title of this review, but it's one of Lee's lines that has always stuck in my mind. That and his wicked scream at the start and end of the movie- the one he lets out when he shaves his head; and then, again when he stands by the three, dead bodies in another part of his 'home'.) Anyway: can I just say that I love, love, love this movie. Up until seeing it; all I knew of Lee was his comedy- so I never once imagined how genuinely creepy or serious he could be, until I made the decision to go and rent this movie from my local blockbuster video shop . . .and I must also profess to being just a little bit frightened by his performance (especially during the scene when he's interrogating/threatening-to-kill the Ian McNiece character; Seiger. (And, like many of you who have already reviewed this film; I felt a good deal of compassion for Lee's character- among one, maybe two others.)I mean; for an innocent man to be accused/convicted of such a heinous crime as murder can't be the best feeling in the world- but it's something that happens all the time! So; in a bizarre way; this film makes the audience confront the awesome feelings of sadness, confusion, paranoia- generally all the things Lee's character goes through, all the way to the end. This movie is very well cast. (I can't see anyone else playing 'Sean' except for Lee!) The writing, I must say, is very much like one of those crime-murder-mystery novels you'd see on a dusty bookshop shelf somewhere. The sound design is clever. The lighting effects are very surreal- and the music is another thing that- since my first, initial time of watching it- has stuck with me. (Much like that weird song in 'The Ring', and things like that.)One of my favourite scenes in this movie comes just before the credits- when one of the accusing police officers looks at 'Sean' and asks him; how he would feel if the video-recording the two of them had just watched; was to- somehow- get 'lost.' Well, Sean is not fussed by this in the slightest! He simply looks at the police officer and says: he's 'alibied up.'; because: "I emailed it to the papers before you got here!" YES!!!!! NICE ONE, LEE!!!!!

Firstly, I have to say Lee Evans is without doubt stunning in this film. We can only hope that he gets further meaty roles on the back of this performance.A triple murder suspect has his case thrown out of court due to police incompetence. Vowing his innocence, he becomes a paranoid who tapes himself "24/7/52" and keeps the tapes in a special vault. Just before the 10th anniversary of the murders, he is again arrested on suspicion of murder, and when he tries to produce the relevant tapes they are missing.The only downside to this superbly edited, visually stunning film is the lack of suspects as there are only half a dozen characters throughout. Other than that, it's well worth watching. Unlike most people here, I even enjoyed the ending (especially Evans last words!)