Liberty Stands Still (2002)

Wonderful Movie

Dreadfully Boring

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I reviewed "Phone Booth" a while back, and only heard of "Liberty Stands Still" a few months ago, it was released at the same time as "Phone Booth" and has a similar story line.When i watched "Liberty Stands Still" for the very first time, i was glued to my sofa, this movie is so riveting that i didn't even get up the whole time and get any snacks which is what i was planning to do."Liberty Stands Still" is better than "Phone Booth" simply due to the fact that there is not as much swearing as there is in "Phone Booth", also the plot for "Liberty Stands Still" is more mature, the bad guy is not over the top and the techno film score is even better than the score from "Phone Booth"."Liberty Stands Still" does have a few disturbing pieces of dialogue, as a Christian i did not like what was said about God at the beginning, and as an animal lover the dialogue about the Deer and the Deer cub is upsetting.It is clear "Phone Booth" got more hype than this film, it is highly likely that everyone has heard of "Phone Booth" and not many have heard of "Liberty Stands Still".The performances, scenarios, directing in this film is fantastic, and it is more gritty than "Phone Booth".

Good lord is this an awful movie. The characters and say nothing that any human being would do or say. It's amazing that a lady who is head of a major gun manufacturing company is someone no one misses when she is held in the park. She is trapped chained to a hot dog stand....where of course she never has to pee...and which has conveniently placed Coke products for product placement...and the only people she speaks to are the sniper and the next the next important character needed to move the plot forward. No one calls her about missing a facial appointment or anything like that.Of course there is a bomb in the cart. Yet...with hundreds of people walking by all the time not one damn one of them ever notices that she is chained to a hot dog cart! And...with a sniper trained on her...which means there is only one single angle to shoot from but no one can figure that out...and a cop shot dead in the street for at least 12 minutes before any rescue can arrive....so nice of the dreck to inform us...NO ONE IS TAKING CHARGE OF THE AREA TO SECURE THE AREA! Not only was any legal context of the Second Amendment ever researched before writing this crap...law enforcement 101 was also skipped.This is an amazing exercise in convenience. Nobody's cell phone dies at the wrong time and the calls are not interrupted. The master villain knows everything about everyone and knows exactly when they will show up. Everything is so "pat" it is just silly.

Enjoyable film showing that Wesley Snipes can, indeed, act when given a good script.Losing a daughter to a punk with a gun, he decides to hold the wife of a gun dealer as hostage. Linda Fiorentino gives a credible performance as the wife who knows she is going to die.Oliver Platt is the husband that we only see a couple of times. He is really not interested in putting himself in harm's way, even for his wife.At the same time, the wife's lover is hooked to a bomb, and we wonder if he will make it.Not for action fans, but for those who like suspense and reflection.

Some people are saying that Kari Skogland could be the next Kathryn Bigelow. And LIBERTY STANDS STILL just might be the turning point that could make it all happen. This was Kari's first movie with a bigger budget and a few well-known names in the cast. But since this movie dates from 2002 and Kari since then never did make anymore movies with a big cast, I begin fearing that her rise to fame simply will not happen. Still, I wish her a lot of good luck, 'cause with LIBERTY STANDS STILL she made a damn good movie.It's about a man, who calls himself Joe, and appears to have excellent shooting skills and a lot of connections. He takes hostage Liberty, the wife of a corrupt arms-dealer. He does that by cleverly having her cuffed to a hot-dog stand in a park which contains a bomb. Meantime Joe himself has a sniper-rifle pointed at her from a nearby building and keeps in contact with her through a cellphone. Now that's what I call an original hostage situation. I won't tell anything about Joe's motivations or demands, 'cause I don't want to spoil the plot. But I can say that the movie pulled me right in from the start and kept my interest 'til the end. And that was a pretty difficult thing to do, since the movie's story almost entirely takes place in real time on one location and the protagonist (Linda Fiorentino) can't do anything throughout the whole movie except standing still, being cuffed to a hot-dog stand. But a lot of things do happen, and I must say that Linda Fiorentino was perfectly cast and very believable as a women that would keep her head cool under such extreme circumstances. Then there's Wesley Snipes as Joe, the sniper. And, man, he was good. He never leaves the room he's in but delivers his lines with great finesse. And the conversations he had with Liberty over the phone were almost debates with good arguments from both sides. Now I was expecting the predictable with Joe starting to loose it at one point or another, making him do irrational things and making mistakes (something that usually happens to the bad guy in these type of movies). But Joe never broke a sweat and kept thinking clear until the end. Also Oliver Platt was decent as ever, as Liberty's husband, the man you would rather not want to have as a husband.Director/writer Kari Skogland clearly doesn't like guns and with this movie criticizes the American Second Amendement (the right for all people to buy and own guns, I believe). And her message comes across very clearly with a lot of good points. I didn't think it became tedious at any point and it didn't feel like the viewer was being force-fed with liberal ideas concerning the subject. So all those non-liberals should stop complaining about the movie's message. Freedom of speech, remember? But I can clearly see why any right-winged gun-nut hates this movie. But I do think that this movie might just be a little bit too politically correct when it comes to who dies and who stays alive in the end. But that's just a minor complaint.LIBERTY STANDS STILL simply is a decent, tense and thought-provoking thriller that, for once, doesn't rely on spectacular action-scenes or big explosions. Just a rather original hostage-story, a good setting, a decent cast, good filming and editing and an enjoyable electro-soundtrack by Michael Convertino (which reminded me of early music by The Chemical Brothers).