Freefall - Spiel mit dem Feuer

I don't like John Irvin's movies very much. Such movies as "Robin Hood", "City of Industry" and "Dogs of war". But there were also ones that I liked. This is "Raw deal" and "Freefall". I can't say that "Freefall" is the great movie, but I watched this one with a big interest. It's little unusual when Eric Roberts acts a good guy and Jeff Fahey is the bad guy. But they are both acted well. There's also strong sexual episode between Eric Roberts and Pamela Gidley. So I think the people who will like a good action will like this movie also.

Watching this movie I had to wonder if the writer of the screenplay had anything to do with the filming. A wildlife photographer is sent to Africa on assignment by her fiancée, a nature magazine publisher,to get pics of some rare (ficticious) falcon in its natural habitat.

Only problem is, she ends up at Angel Falls, in Venezuela, where she happens to bump into Eric Roberts, engaged in his favorite sport, free fall skydiving, off the Angel Falls Tepui, no less! So instead of Africa, we find ourselves at the most recognizable landmark in South America! It's like sending her to Paris, and have the Statue of Liberty in the background! They COULD have said South America. It's like they were going to film in Africa, but changed their minds, without changing the script! Then when she realizes someone is jumping, she stops clicking away on her Nikon, proving she's really a bad actress, rather than a good photographer. She meets this guy later that day at what is apparently the only hotel in Venezuela, and, of course, they have sex. She later bemoans the idea of spilling the beans to the fiancée. Hey, I got some great shots of the bird, and no, I didn't miss you, I had plenty of entertainment...

At this point, you can stop watching the movie. Save the rest for another day, because they truly each stand alone, one having very little to do with the other. Like, who's the strange "blond Doctor" who keeps appearing but has no impact on the plot, or speaking part, for that matter.

For some added enjoyment, watch the movie, and THEN read the preamble on the DVD box, and you'll discover that even whoever wrote THAT didn't bother to see the movie!! So other than the bad acting, bad writing, bad continuity, and thin but convoluted plot, we have about 10 minutes of nice scenery, and Eric's muscles for the girls. '5' for escapism if there's nothing on PBS.

I was simply stunned by how poor this movie is! Its not so much the thin story(lots of good movies have poor plots), its the incredibly poor acting by the main characters. Normally i would turn off the TV upon encountering a movie such as this, but this one kept me enthralled simply due to the poor script and acting. The two main characters seem just as phony as cheap soap opera actors on a bad day. The obvious sexual encounter between these two also seems kind of odd, and out of place at the time. Don't waste money on this film, but if you have nothing better to do, and don't believe, i think you should definitely watch it the next time its on TV.

Steamy sex scenes put Eric Roberts and Pamela Gidley on display, and the waterfall scenery is spectacular. While in this exotic ___location, the story is pretty straight forward, a hormonal romantic fling. However, the plot begins to blur once a mysterious albino appears on the scene, after which things never recover any kind of sense. Eventually the scene shifts to London, where the totally confusing screenplay is as murky as the densest London fog. With little or no character development, the gun play and explosions have zero meaning. Things then descend into cartoon-like jumps from tall buildings to avoid deadly assassins, who we know nothing about. When the scene again shifts to the Pyrenees Mountains we get another glorious mountaintop setting and a couple of villains take"free falls" - MERK

I had the feeling before I saw 'Freefall' that it was destined to be a turkey, but I should've expected the type of movie it was. These are a grade of action movies that started in about the late 70s and really haven't died out. They're cheesy and the mounting inattention to details can be ridiculous, but these movies were made with the purpose of one thing: action non-stop. Granted, despite the extreme cheesiness and idiocy of much of this film, the story was at least somewhat more interesting than most.

Dex Dellum (Jeff Fahey, making an ill attempt to play a former agent/CEO of a wilderness magazine with a southern drawl) sends his fiancée, Katy (Pam Gidley) to some remote island country to track down and photograph a species of hawk that was rumored to be extinct. When she gets there, she meets the mysterious but rather intriguing Grant Orion (played by Eric Roberts, hubba hubba!) After a misunderstanding about Grant dying (he's a former stuntman who likes free-falling in his spare time) and some steamy (and awkward) sex scenes, Katy has found herself in the middle of an inter-agency dispute among Interpol who are all after her to track down a registry containing names of terrorists.

Katy, too, becomes the victim of some rather predictable double- and triple-crossing as everyone tries to either kill her and Grant for the registry or just dupe her to handing it over to some corrupt member of Interpol. Don't expect a great movie, and this one, in large part thanks to Jeff Fahey's out-of-place character, is full of cheesy character development. But, if you are in the mood for just loads of mindless action, it can at least satisfy viewers looking for that much. It knows its purpose and it delivers.