Freeway

Rating:
Summary: Little Red Riding Hood for modern times
Review: "Freeway" has basically the same premise as "Little Red Riding Hood." Except, well, add some drugs, prostitution, psychopathic serial killers, rape, and dead bodies and you've got FREEWAY's premise down perfectly.

Reese Witherspoon, who is wonderful in the role, is a prime example of white trash. He mother is a crack addict and a prostitute, who solicits right outside of the motel they live in. Her evil stepfather, also a drug addict, sexually abuses her. 15-year-old Vannessa Lutz has been in countless foster homes, and in almost every one the treatment was no better. All the trauma in her life has made her a very angry person....and anyone who stands in her way will pay for it.

One fine day -- while the whole city seems to be worried about the brutal "I-5 Killer" in the Los Angeles area -- her mother tries to sell herself to the wrong person -- a police officer. As if that wasn't bad enough, she gets caught with drugs and paraphenalia. The same happens to the abusive stepfather, and both deadbeat parents are hauled off to jail. Vannessa escapes her Social Worker, and steals her car and starts heading up to Northern California, where she plans to live with her estranged grandmother.

The fun really begins here. The old clunker of a car Vanessa stole breaks down, and a friendly psychologist, Bob Wolverton (played wonderfully by the great Keifer Sutherland) stops to help her. It appears her car is down for the count, so he offers to take her up to Stockton (where her grandmother is), because he was heading up that direction anyway. From there, Vanessa embarks on a crazy, dimented and warped adventure, that will make us laugh and cringe at the same time.

This film has a certain "Natural Born Killers" taset to it, but pulls off what NBL failed to do (I don't know about you, but I despised NBL). Perhaps this movie may be considered as an "exploitation" film, but in any case, FREEWAY works in every way possible.

The directing is superb, and Danny Elfman's score is highly entertaining, and one of the best (arguably) original scores I've heard in the 90s.

The dialogue is also beyond belief. Amazing, and even entertaining lines in this movie. And, ahem, Keifer Sutherland has a cute little line in this movie that will have you rolling on the floor, and rewinding fifty billion times.

I highly reccomend FREEWAY. Weather you're bored or not, you will LOVE this movie, which makes my top ten list.

Rating:
Summary: Viciously funny
Review: I like this movie!! It's surprising because it seems so outwardly trashy. The production values are low, some scenes don't make sense, the subject matter (psychopaths, trailer trash, prison lesbians, etc.) is very Jerry Springer-esque. But Freeway is genuinely funny, and seems more suited for Sundance, than direct-to-video. Reese Witherspoon is to die-for as Vanessa, the teen prostitute heroine. Why does she waste her considerable talent on films like "Legally Blonde" ? Kiefer Sutherland is hilarious AND scary as the big bad wolf, Bob Wolverton. When Vanessa gets a ride from a highway psychopath Bob, she shoots him in self-defense. He survives with a big jaw extension and mechanical voice box, making him the butt of many of Vanessa's jokes, even as she stands trial. It may seem offensive to those who have had their voice boxes removed, but it's really more funny and light-hearted than expected. The trailerpark climax is chilling and funny at the same time, especially due to Danny ELfman's brilliantly schizophrenic score, one of the best I've ever heard, probably better than Beetlejuice. Anyway, you HAVE to see this movie. It's probably not one to watch with the whole family (given how violent and sexually creepy it can be), but my mom and I watched it on Cable and were so surprised by how much we enjoyed it.

Rating:
Summary: This is a very good movie.
Review: Reese plays the perfect trailer park trash / hot looking chick that we all think about. She took a chance in her early days and I have to say that she did real well. Freeway will not let you down in my opinion. Have an open mind when watching the movie. If curse words, violence and inter-racial mixing bother you, do not watch this movie. Remember, have an open mind.

Rating:
Summary: Tremendously funny, a great dark comedy.
Review: This is one of the funniest movies I've seen in quite some time. I have to give credit to anyone who would agree to have anything to do with this movie, because there's some crazy stuff here. A very, very, twisted take on the "Little Red Riding Hood" story, featuring an illiterate prostitute as Red and a serial killer/rapist as the wolf. Aren't fariy tales fun?

Anyway, this modern adaptation of the story follows said prostitute Vanessa (portrayed excellently by Reese Witherspoon) on her way to her grandmother's house after her parents are both arrested. On the way, she meets child psychologist Wolverton (Keifer Sutherland), who she learns is in fact the notorious I-5 killer. After attempting to kill him, Vanessa is arrested and sent to prison, where she meets even more fun friends to share her adventure with, including a disfigured inmate played by Brittany Murphy, who gives a great performance as well. I don't want to give too much away (I've probably said too much already), but I can tell you that this is one funny movie, and if your sense of humor has a dark side, than this just might be for you.

I thought that one of the best things about this movie was Reese Witherspoon's performance, although I doubt that many "Legally Blonde" fans will like this movie much. She does a really great job with her role and is completely believable. The scene where she [possible spoiler here, so be warned] encounters Wolverton for the first time since the shooting is too funny and shows that she really was a great choice for the role. It's too bad that she doesn't do more films like this instead of Legally Blonde/Sweet Home Alabama/what ever other terrible movie she's working on next.

As for the rest of the actors, there's some other performances that are certaintly worth mentioning. Keifer Sutherland does a nice job as Wolverton, although I didn't think his performance was all that amazing. Brittany Murphy does a good job, as do the 2 guys (whoever they are) that play the cops. All performances are pretty good and I didn't feel that there was anyone here who did a bad job.

While the performances here are all at least decent, I think that the aspect of this film that really got it all the attention was the script. The dialog in this movie isn't the kind that you come across too often. You've got to be pretty brave to try making a movie like this, even in an industry as permissive as film. I can imagine that there was probably some feirce opposition to this movie at one time or another.

I will warn you that if you're even a bit sensitive, this movie may not be for you. This movie is a lot of things, but for the easily disgusted it's not. It's bound to offend lot's of viewers with the profanity, dark humor, violence, sexual content, and all the rest, but for those who can appreciate a little sick humor every now and then, I encourage you to give this movie a try, there's a good chance that you'll like it.

Rating:
Summary: Phenomenal
Review: This was the second Reese Witherspoon movie I saw, and the first one where I realized how brilliant she is as an actress.

The other reviewers have already raved about the great writing, and the performances given by Witherspoon and Sutherland. And they're completely right.

If you want a smart, edgy update to the classic Little Red Riding Hood fable, get this DVD.

Rating:
Summary: FLAW AT END OF MOVIE...
Review: ...lessened what could have been a great dark comedy. Throughout the movie Witherspoon's character performs violent acts on people who cross her, but almost all is justified. I had empathy for her except at the gas station and at the end of movie where this unjustifiable act really spoils the happy ending(in truth she would go back to jail).

The acting of Witherspoon is suprisingly top-notch. Except for the above, the plot is enjoyable. For the money, this is worth getting.

Rating:
Summary: Horrible
Review: This is the most disgusting movie I have ever seen. I'm disgusted with Keifer Sutherland. There is so much blood and guts in this picture there is no room for anything else. It belongs in the trash not in the drama section in the video store.Comedy? you've got to be kidding! Sutherland ought to be ashamed of himself for making such a gross, trashy picture! My opinion of him has certainly gone down. He is not that hard up for cash that he has to degrade himself to that level. The one star is too much.

Rating:
Summary: way disgusting and horribly boring
Review: this is quite the disgusting movie. Reese Witherspoon is intense in this one but she cant help with its obnoxious characters and too many other horrible things. Sutherland is totally a bore and when hes had his surgery and his face is messed up and he has his vocalizer its so funny,...a total garbage infested movie, blecchhh

Rating:
Summary: Wrong on so many levels...
Review: Freeway (Matthew Bright, 1996)

Matthew Bright, recently responsible for the Ted Bundy film (one of a slew of serial killer bio flicks quickly released after the success of Chopper), made, as his debut, a twisted auto wreck of a movie that should have had some sort of catchy tagline like "hitch a ride on the freeway of stupidity!" Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and getting Reese Witherspoon a slew of Best Actress nods from various alternative film critics, the movie really is like a particularly gruesome auto accident; you feel guilty, but you can't look away.

Witherspoon (back when she was still taking chances with her career) plays Vanessa Lutz, a fifteen-year-old illiterate reform school student with a very, very bad home life. Her mother (Amanda Plummer, playing the exact opposite of her character in The Prophecy) is a hooker, turning tricks outside the motel where they live; her stepfather (Michael T. Weiss, unrecognizable in these pre-Pretender days) spends the time while his wife is out working the streets smoking crack and sleeping with his stepdaughter. Not the best atmosphere in which to raise a kid, yes? Mom and dad get arrested, for various reasons, and Vanessa's parole officer shows up to take her back to foster care. Having none of that, she escapes, has one last long goodbye with her fiancée (Bokeem Woodbine, just off his career-making role in Dead Presidents), and then sets out for Stockton, California, where her grandmother lives. Her car dies along the way, and youth counselor Bob Wolverton (Kiefer Sutherland) stop to help; she accepts, but starts thinking after a while that Wolverton is actually the I-5 Killer, a serial murderer who's been preying on young hookers up and down the Southern California coast.

Don't worry, no spoilers there. We're still in the first half-hour of the movie. It gets better from there. ("Better" in the loosest sense possible.)

Bright saves this movie from utter idiocy by playing it against itself. It's way too funny to have ever been meant as a serious drama, but you get the feeling that's how the script was originally conceived. Bright uses visual cues and scenes that approach utter silliness (Witherspoon walking into a diner covered in blood, sitting down, and ordering breakfast without realizing anything's amiss-one of the movie's funniest bits) while allowing the actors to do their things. He did assemble a fantastic cast for this, taking chances on the down-on-his-luck Sutherland and rising stars Woodbine, Witherspoon, and Weiss (whose small part in here is as chilling as they come), and adding such wonderful bit parts as an inept guy from the sheriff's office (the omnipresent Dan Hedaya), a bisexual nymphomaniac (Brittany Murphy, in her second big screen role), and a completely insane prison warden (Susan Barnes, whose performance here, like those she had in They Live and Repo Man, would alone make the film worth watching).

It's simultaneously brilliant and utterly stupid, especially when you realize how the interminable opening sequence ties in with the film-which, if Bright did his job correctly, you won't until the climax. It has all the earmarks of becoming a major underground cult film ("brilliant and utterly stupid" in this quantity is rarely seen; Return of the Living Dead, Liquid Sky, Squirm, and Head all come to mind as other examples of this particular style of filmmaking). But for the life of me I can't figure out which wins out, so I'm stuck giving it a ***.

One other thing to note. This was billed as the "special edition DVD." If someone would please tell me what's so special about a DVD whose chapter selection doesn't even allow you to select every chapter and has the bare minimum of features to show even competency in releasing a DVD (in other words, buy the VHS tape if it's cheaper), I'd love to hear the explanation. SO while
the movie gets a ***, the DVD presentation gets a zero.

Rating:
Summary: This movie was horrible
Review: This movie was supposed to be scary. It was just stupid. If you're a Reese Witherspoon fan like me, this movie will disappoint you. Rent a different Reese movie. I recomment Election.