Now I'm freeee.......freeloading.

FREELOADERS (2011)

Hello again film fans.  When it comes to reviewing for Boonsweet & Bucklesworth, it seems your old pal Kenny B. often leans toward reviewing something horror-related.  And while I've obviously reviewed non-horror in the past, lately I've been feeling that I should broaden my reviewing horizons, genre wise, on a more regular basis.  Which brings us to the movie in question for today, Freeloaders.

Freeloaders is a movie that surprisingly eluded me until recently.  And by surprisingly, I mean that this movie was produced by the Broken Lizard comedy team.  You most likely know them from such great comedies as Super Troopers, Beerfest, etc.  And I am a huge fan of their work.  So when I heard that they produced Freeloaders, I chastised myself for not seeing it sooner, and finally checked it out last night.  So, does it live up to the standards of comedy gold?  Let's find out.

Five slackers have spent a varying number of years crashing at the home of Adam Duritz of Counting Crows.  Originally they were supposed to be there long enough to make something of themselves and get their own place eventually.  However, they grew complacent and lazy, and years later they've given up on their dreams.  That is, until Adam calls and announces he's getting married and is going to sell the mansion.  So, with their idyllic existence threatened, the group decide to finally get their shit together and work towards getting enough money together to make a down payment and keep the house for themselves.  As you can expect, hijinks ensue, and the gang discover it's not so easy to get $475k together in a week (as that would make for a rather short movie otherwise).

Freeloaders does have some funny moments in it no doubt, but it wasn't as entertaining as I had hoped.  The main problem is that when it comes to behind the scenes of the movie, the Broken Lizard group are only involved with producing, and nothing else creatively speaking.  They did have cameos in one scene where they are all part of a porn production team who convince the freeloaders to do a shoot in the mansion, which was the highlight of the movie for me. 



Just a regular day in the life of....the Freeloaders.

The acting was decent enough, but I can't imagine it's that difficult to play a slacker who just wants to party and get high all the time.  At a certain point in the movie Dave Foley shows up playing himself.  In the movie he's broke and ends up crashing with the gang, and I think I enjoyed his performance the most of the main cast.  Adam Duritz also plays himself in this, and if you're a Counting Crows fan you'll get a treat, as he performs "Hanginaround" during the credits.  Legend Jane Seymour was also good in her role as Adam Duritz's real estate agent, who just wants to sell the house and get the freeloaders the hell out as quickly as possible.  For you Olivia Munn fans, she has a brief cameo early in the movie, a good portion of that just in her bra and undies if you're interested (cough Boony cough lol.). 

The movie overall isn't very original.  Some of the jokes aren't that funny, and it's got a pretty predictable story and ending.  But I didn't really regret watching it.  At best, I'd recommend renting it only, and sometime when you don't have anything else to watch.  You will get some laughs out of it, but probably not as many as you'd like.  And you'll also get some T&A in a couple of places if that makes it better for you in any way.  That's really all I have to say about it.  It just makes me want to watch a comedy actually made by Broken Lizard.  Vaya con dios.

Movie Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Comedy Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

- Ken Bucklesworth, in need of a good laugh. :P

Twitter: @KenBucklesworth, @BoonsBuckles