Powerful

Fresh and Exciting

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

One of the worst films I've ever seen. The acting was hammy and stilted, the plot and action scenes were amateurish and unbelievable. The cinematography tried to be arty farty and failed miserably. Avoid.

Crying Freeman starts in San Francisco as Yo Hinomura AKA the Crying Freeman (Mark Dacascos) who works as an assassin for the Sons of the Dragon kills Takeshi Shimazaki (Kevin Ohtsji) & a couple of his bodyguards (Tong Lung & Kiyoto Matumoto) all witnessed by vacationing painter Emu O'Hara (Julie Condra) but Freeman lets her live... Jump to Vancouver B.C. where by a complete & utter coincidence Emu & Takeshi's father Shido Shimazaki (Mako) live, in a sort of 'kill two birds with one stone' situation Freeman takes out Shido in broad daylight in front of the court house & then turns his attentions to Emu who he just can't bring himself to kill so he has sex with her instead, hell it probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Back in Japan & a Yakuza bloke type guy named Ryuji Hanada (Masaya Kato) challenges the Sons of the Dragon & in particular Freeman as his head will make him powerful or something like that...This French, Canadian, Japanese & American co-production was co-written & directed by Frenchman Christophe Gans & made by a lot of people with unpronounceable names both in front & behind the camera this is, in my humble opinion, total crap. The script by Gans, Thierry Cazals & the uncredited duo of Roger Avery & Laurie Finstad-Knizhnik which takes itself extremely seriously is based on the popular Manga comic by Kazuo Koike & Ryoichi Ikegami & subsequent Japanese Anime which I have seen but unfortunately it was back in the 90's & can't remember a single thing about it other than it was better than this live-action version. For a start it's pretty slow going & repetitive along with the fact that there's a criminal lack of proper over-the-top Anime action, there are constant dull shoot outs where the Freeman can shoot & kill dozens of bad guy's who no matter how hard they try or how heavy they are in number just can't even get a shot off, I hope these Japanese mafia bosses aren't paying these guy's that much because they ain't much use! Then there's the fact that at least some of it had to be Americanised with a couple of American cops & some of it being set in the US, the storyline is weak & is your basic inner struggle within a powerful crime organisation with someone wanting to take it over. I suppose Freeman is supposed to be some sort of anti-hero as he kills swiftly but also has some sort of moral code & predictably turns soft when the time comes to kill a piece of skirt who he fancies. It's all been done before & much better as well, from the rubbish James Bond style opening titles to the happy ending as the Freeman & his bird ride off into the sunset on a speedboat Crying Freeman is a crying shame...Director Gans making his full length film debut clearly doesn't know how to stage or edit an action sequence, this is really hard going actually. For a start there's absolutely no variety in the action with a constant stream of virtually identical shoot outs although there is some samurai sword play at the end which is the only reason I gave this 2 stars out of 10 instead of just the 1, the violence is tame & the blood very restrained with only one blood spurt right at the end. Then there's the constant annoying use of slow motion, seriously this film has more slow motion in it than any other film I can remember seeing. In fact if all the slow motion scenes were played back at normal speed Crying Freeman would probably run over 40 minutes shorter, everything is seen in slow motion from people running & walking to people falling over to people shooting guns from drink being poured to sex scenes there isn't 5 minutes that go by without at least something being shown in slow motion. Now this is fine when it's used properly but here director Gans just does it for the hell of it or because he mistakenly thought it looked cool & would automatically make his film stylish which it most certainly doesn't.With a supposed budget of about $5,000,000 this had a much bigger budget than I thought while I was watching it, I'm not sure where all the money went as there are no big stars or particularly big action scenes either. The filmmakers obviously didn't go anywhere near Japan & it was shot entirely in Vancouver in Canada. The acting isn't up to much I'm afraid, if you like happy stories Mark Dacascos & his co-star Julie Condra actually married each other after the film in real life.Crying Freeman is what I would personally term as a total waste of 100 odd minutes, I didn't like it & have no fondness for it at all. Disappointing as far as I'm concerned, stick to the Manga & Anime instead.

I've read the manga and seen the anime. I've now seen the live action film and like the earlier versions of the story I was entertained but not overly so.The plot of the movie has a girl witnessing the assassin known as the Crying Freeman killing several targets. (He's so named because he sheds a tear for each person he kills). She flees the scene of the crimes, and then waits for him to find and kill her. He does find her, but he does not kill her. They end up together. This turn of events along with a power void at he top of yakuza brings about a series of bloody clashes.A workman like production, this is a good little thriller that's not particularly special. It plays in many ways like a supped up TV movie, having the feel of a production that was made with an eye on every market in the world. Its a movie that will entertain you but won't stay with you very long after you've seen it.Honestly this version of the story made the least impression of all on me and I had to sit and think a while to try to remember, if indeed I really saw this movie or not.Certainly not a bad movie, its more middle of the pack. Its the type of thing that will entertain you while its on but won't really hang around in your head for very long after you've finished watching it. If you run across it on TV its worth trying.To be honest the worst thing that I can say about it is even though the actor playing our hero has no presence its still an enjoyable time waster.

The title is a big come-on: "Crying Freeman." It elicits thought. "Crying" and "freeman," the two words seem to cancel each other out. But then again, it is precisely the nature of man's being free--his freedom is not absolute! Not only because all man's actions have dire consequences following it but also, his choices are already limited by his design, by his thrown-ness.That being said, the movie has great potential. It is supposed to play around that theme having creatively combined the two words together. However, this movie is so much unlike the anime. It is from the point of view of the woman touched by the Crying Freeman. It could have gone through the psyche of its protagonist--his battles within, the dissonant drives and desires tearing him apart--and it would have worked much better. Unfortunately, the movie stuck to the love angle, the hero and the damsel-in-distress story, and it drained the movie of all potential.