‘we are deep and we are invisible all the way up to the mayor’s office,” announces Robert De Niro as he again parodies his long-ago days as a great actor in this hokey NYPD melodrama, now getting a token theatrical release before it hits the video graveyard Aug. 21.
There are lots of other corny lines like that one as De Niro sleepwalks through his role as the leader of a squad of rogue cops that does dirty odd jobs for a drug dealer (Pedro Armendáriz Jr., in one of his final roles — he died late last year).
De Niro’s latest recruit — played by top-billed Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson — is the son of his former partner, who died in the line of action. At least that’s Bob’s story, and despite his bellowed threats — “the only way out is the sound of body bags and bagpipes” — things aren’t pretty when Mr. Cent’s character learns otherwise.
Forest Whitaker gives more than this crummy film deserves as the officer who trains Mr. Cent in the ways of corruption and topless women, and Dana Delany looks vaguely embarrassed as the widow of a prosecutor.
Ineptly directed — with New Orleans unconvincingly standing in for the Big Apple — by Jessy Terrero from a hackneyed script credited to L. Philippe Casseus, “Freelancers” is De Niro’s second-worst film of 2012 after “Red Lights.” God help us; he’s got two more to go.