Free Enterprise
by Robert Meyer Burnett
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Audie England, Carl Bressler, Eric McCormack, Jennifer Sommerfield, Thomas HobsonDirector: Robert Meyer Burnett
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 121 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-03-07
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Movie Reviews of Free Enterprise
Movie Review: These are my people!
Summary: 4 Stars
So let me just say that this movie is NOT going to appeal to the mainstream. If you're not a sci-fi/horror movie/comics geek you will probably loathe this movie to the core of your very being. In fact, even if you are a geek you may not like this movie for whatever reason. There are parts that make me squirm, like with Moaning Girl faking an orgasm on the answering machine for like 20 minutes and I could have done without the threesome scene. The production values aren't alway fantastic (direction, acting in some scenes) and sometimes it's maybe just a bit too self-conscious and clever.
However, let me just say that when I first watched this movie in my late teens it was like a life-changing epiphany for me. I was like holy crap, these are my people. They do exist out there in the world. I'm not the only one. (I was a bit sheltered growing up.)
I don't love everything about this movie, but I do love most of it. I love Eric McCormack's manic monologue at the beginning about his idea for the Bradykiller movie (serial killer kills women named Marcia, Jan, and Cindy) and his pitch-perfect Shatner impersonation. I love how Rafer Wiegel tells off some snotty bimbo who makes fun of his action figure collection, by pointing out that her fifty some pairs of shoes aren't much better. I love how Shatner plays himself as a bumbling, goofy kook. I love how when Claire spouts off the list of comics titles that she reads I have this urge to pull out a pad of paper and take notes so I can check out the titles she references. I love any movie with the line "you're as transparent as Wonder Woman's invisible jet", as well as the Aliens reference "bad call Ripley, it was a bad call."
All in all this movie seems like an affectionate love letter to geek culture. It really captures the dynamic of a group of friends who have bonded over an intense passion for sci-fi and comics, so much so that they have their own vocabulary and verbal shorthand for certain situations--just like groups of close friends in real life. An entertaining, weird little indie movie that I recommend to fans of Star Trek, science fiction movies, and comics.
Summary of Free Enterprise
This modest but likeable movie is driven by a sincere love of the screenwriters' childhood kitsch, with Star Trek dominant above all--although Logan's Run, the X-Men, Planet of the Apes, and dozens of other science fiction touchstones of the 1970s have been worked in as well. Even an action figurine of almighty Isis, from the Saturday morning TV show, plays a major role in the plot, if plot is the right word. The story follows two guys on the fringe of the movie industry: Robert (Rafer Wiegel) edits movies like Teen Bimbo Beach Assault, while Mark (Eric McCormack from Will and Grace) is writing a screenplay about a serial killer who murders all the characters from The Brady Bunch. The movie touches on their career struggles but spends most of its time with their floundering love lives, suggesting that their pop-culture programming may not be the best model for life. The actors are clearly enjoying themselves, and the writing makes its innumerable pop references with wit, but what really makes the movie work is William Shatner. Shatner plays himself with affectionate but cutting self-mockery, simultaneously lampooning Star Trek obsessiveness and Hollywood egotism in general. Shatner displays not only a more subtle sense of humor than he's ever shown before, but also a surprising vulnerability. He may have alienated a lot of his fans when he did that Saturday Night Live sketch telling them to get a life ("It was just a TV show!"), but his performance in Free Enterprise may just win them back. --Bret FetzerFREE ENTERPRISE changed the way science fiction fans saw William Shatner and themselves in a performance since called a comic masterpiece. Starring Eric McCormack (WILL & GRACE), Rafer Weigel (RATED X), Audie England (DELTA OF VENUS), Phil LaMarr (PULP FICTION), Deborah Van Valkenburgh (THE WARRIORS) and William Shatner as Bill. Now, you can boldly go beyond FREE ENTERPRISE in an all- new special edition supervised by the film's director and writer, mastered from the original theatrical elements featuring exclusive footage re-edited into the original film for the first time ever in a brand-new state-of-the art anamorphic transfer (enhanced for widescreen televisions) featuring deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes footage from the filmmakers' personal archives.
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