Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Sadly Over-hyped

Better Late Then Never

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

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.

I always find it difficult to knock independent films since they frequently display a vision or a touch of originality that other more larger budget films do not care for. To make a film is difficult but to make one on such a low budget is almost an ordeal; so independent film-making from my point of view, should always be given some benefits of the doubt as they do not have such a large margin or error to work with. Here, Canadian director Kari Skogland has taken on a fascinating subject matter and attempted to make it into a taught and interesting thriller with a message; unfortunately, he fails to do so on the scale I expect he wanted to.At a time when the Washington sniper was at large, it seems interesting how this film managed to sneak under the radar the way it did. The film opened in a mere 49 cinemas in Italy and pretty much went straight to DVD in America; bar a film festival premiere in Palm Springs. At a time when Schumacher's Phone Booth (itself being put back due to the Washington sniper) and Moore's Bowling for Columbine attempted to tackle the idea of America's gun obsession, I am surprised Liberty Stands Still was the ghost film that it was. The film is outgoing; giving us two protagonists to map onto: there is Liberty (Fiorentino) who despite being the victim and embodying an innocent persona, is 'guilty' merely for the fact it is her company that made the gun that had Joe's (Snipes) daughter killed by another child. This is an interesting dilemma for the audience: do we side with innocent but on a larger level guilty female or black male victim who has suffered great loss. As far as prioritising its lead characters, Liberty Stands Still does a better job than Phone Booth which gives us the option of: obnoxious everyday man vs. psychopath; but this is just about all Liberty Stands Still does better than Phone Booth.The film is surprisingly unexciting; maintaining a steady if not unspectacular atmosphere throughout. Its attention to pace and subject matter directly on screen is another area that plods along at a gentile rate. The film's one item of suspense that it would like to think has us on tenterhooks the entire time is in the form of a bomb in a hot dog stand Liberty is ankle cuffed to. Hitchcock once said if there are two men in a room, at a table with a bomb underneath and it explodes, that is action; but if it does not explode, that is suspense. Well, delete 'two men' and replace with 'one woman' and replace 'table' with 'hot dog stand' and you have the premise for this film. Given that quote, the bomb is supposed to have us feeling uneasy and nervy but we are told it is powerful enough to destroy an entire two blocks or something; this raises two questions: If the bomb is detonated at any time during the film, the film ends there and then because I assume that since we're seeing the action in the immediate vicinity of the device; if it does go off the screen would just go black and that's the end. Secondly, I never for one moment got the feeling Joe was a mass-murderer nor would he ever detonate the bomb since he would also be killing himself. Joe is focused on Liberty and the fact she works for the company - he's not interested in everyone else.So in this sense, the film's main weapon of suspense it has; its 'ace' so to speak is a bit of an anti-climatic Macguffin since you don't get the feeling Joe is as crazy as, say, the sniper in Phone Booth who would have put a round between Farrell's eyes if he'd wanted to. Consequently, when various people wonder up to Liberty like police men or people looking for burgers or indeed Bill (Scarfe) who for some reason gets involved in the game, the atmosphere is anticlimactic: Joe cannot shoot these people because he will give away his position and he won't blow the bomb since the film will end there and then. That said, one such person is shot next to Liberty but the film is so wrapped up in its false knowledge that it has us on the edge of our seats that it doesn't even play out events in a realistic manner to the shooting. Where were the ambulance crews and police cars swarming around; someone maybe rushing to her without her giving so much as a chance to shout at them.Liberty Stands Still is a film that although has one man stand up against the society that sold the person the gun that killed his daughter, it does not ever give its characters much to speak about. I hate to talk of Phone Booth again but if Farrell's character was being made aware of his sins and being corrected, fair enough since there is evidence to suggest that; here, Joe and Liberty banter about this and that before her husband gets involved and Joe has to shoot some policemen on other roofs. Where wrongs should be made right and characters change, the film beds down into a negotiation situation more than anything else. The film has us believe that no one would notice the gun fire and ricochets that occur at certain times; nor does the film create much atmosphere as the music we hear is of the weird and electronic variety; totally zoning us out of anything we should be feeling. Whilst not a bad film, Liberty Stands Still feels like a genuine missed opportunity; an opportunity that given what was happening in Washington and Columbine at the time, could've changed how American's look at their gun ideas even more than what they eventually did.

While a somewhat interesting drama at times it is often ruined by the preachy tone it takes with guns. In this film the root of all evil is the second amendment. All the other ones are good but the founding fathers blew it on the second one. It is Hollywoods attempt to help spur gun control. The problem with the film is that it mentions nothing about personal responsibility and this was done on purpose. If the matter of personal responsibility were brought up then Hollywood would be one of the biggest offenders. With the high body count films....including this one Hoolywood is selling violence, gun violence for profit. If personal responsibility were brought up Hollywood would have to asks to many questions of itself. So it was dropped from the film entirely. So we have an ex-CIA sniper blaming everyone for his daughters death..despite the killer, never-mind the he was the killer of many, many people...it was his job.We also get the blurring and distorting of the second amendment, which means that because our government has guns we should as well, lest we become under the thumb of another tyrant. Much like King George was to the colonists. It does not mean only a militia should have guns, which is what some would have you believe. When constitution was written nearly all citizens had guns...they had to, they need to put food on the table by hunting for it. Gun violence is by and large committed by those who do not follow the law or have personal responsibility. That said I am all for gun locks. If you have kids in the home and your kid dies because you did not use one you should be punished.I think if this film would have added personal responsibility into the mix it would have been a much more interesting film. Instead Hollywood will not have anything to do with personal responsibility, it is bad for the bottom line and looking in the mirror they my find that they are the biggest offenders when it comes to gun violence. Funny how when Oliver Stone was called on this very fact he brought up personal responsibility. Tickets please!

Kari Skogland's "Liberty Stands Still" kept reminding us of a similar film, Joel Schumacher's "Phone Booth". The clue for understanding what the director's message seems to be, is seen in the opening credits. We are shown part of the US Constitution. Ms. Skogland is preparing us for what will follow.The only thing that doesn't make the film as suspenseful, as it could be, is the fact we know from the start who is behind the power rifle in a building overlooking the square where much of the action will take place. We don't believe, for one second, that Joe, could have prepared this caper that has placed two exploding devices in the theater, as well as in the hot dog stand. Wesley Snipes is only seen in closeups.The other thing that doesn't make sense is to watch a cool Liberty Wallace, a woman who can die at any moment if Joe decides to put a bullet right smack in the red spot over her heart. The way Ms. Fiorentino plays this woman doesn't seem to add anything to the tense situation Ms. Skogland has prepared for us to see.It's clear to see why this film went to video without showing in theaters, or if it did, it might have lasted a week, the most. As a video, or in cable, one is willing to take the chance. The film is not horrible, by any means, it shows a director who will do better in the future.