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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 32.39%
Worth A Look: 5.63%
Average: 26.76%
Pretty Bad: 28.17%
Total Crap: 7.04%
5 reviews, 41 user ratings
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Chasing Liberty |
by Greg Muskewitz
"Chasing banality."

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The 18-year-old First Daughter, pampered and cloistered, unknowingly takes off for the Love Parade in Berlin with an undercover agent, when her father betrays her trust and cramps her freedom.(During an Air Force One round of Scrabble, the best that he, the president, can come up with is “h-a-t — hat, eight points.” Is Mark Harmon’s president portrayal to be deemed W. Bushian?) On the young pair’s trail are two incompatible agents, who, of course, are bound to fall for each other over the course of the movie, as are Mandy Moore and Matthew Goode (as the agent posing as a photographer), despite their predictable conflicts and the eventual revelation of his identity — another surefire hump to overcome. Chasing Liberty drones on for two-hours, loaded with pop songs (a desecrating use of Tom Petty’s “American Girl” at the opening, giving something for Moore to bop around to while she tries on outfit after outfit), superficial use of postcard locations, requisite cutsie-pootsie romantic nudges (watching the projection of a movie from a rooftop, brushing their teeth with their fingers on a train, bungee-jumping together from a bridge, kissing under false pretenses on a gondola, etc.), and two really lame non-nude nude scenes. (Speaking of which, how could one be at the Love Parade and not encounter one woman walking around topless?) And for a girl really looking to get laid, as it’s revealed more and more throughout, she sure gets hung up on that identity issue. Neither Moore (looking fleshier than ever) nor Goode are unappealing in their acting, though the same can’t be said for their characters, but little of what they have to offer is utilized. The rest is a contrived, two-faced, and confused attempt to flesh out another identity of which the filmmakers have no clue about. Directed by Andy Cadiff. With Jeremy Piven, Annabella Sciorra, Caroline Goodall, Beatrice Rosen, and Stark Sands.[Not to be bothered with.]
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=8442&reviewer=172 originally posted: 01/09/04 21:45:26
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USA 09-Jan-2004 (PG-13) DVD: 04-May-2004
UK N/A
Australia 08-Apr-2004
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