 Last week, I took a break from the channel. I posted no new videos. I didn't even look at the comments. I was completely off the grid. Upon returning to the internet, I was bombarded in the comments with demands and requests to rush out and see sound of freedom. I had not even heard of this film. I didn't know what they were talking about, but they piqued my interest, of course. So I saw the movie and I left with this crazy thought and that was, Adam, is it possible that people online are maybe a little disingenuous about certain things? Anyway, let's talk sound of freedom. Here's the deal, fam. This video is going to come with a major disclaimer. This is a movie review channel. This is not a political channel. This isn't a left versus right debate channel. This is one guy who loves movies, talking films, talking about the acting, the production value, the story, the length of the film, how it flows, things like that, things that I find important and actually care about. Now, if you're gonna come onto this channel and if you're gonna go into the comments and call me a pedophile because I might not think this is the best movie ever made or if you're gonna say I didn't actually watch the movie or if you're gonna say that I don't care about child trafficking because I didn't think this movie was the next Citizen Kane or the next Schindler's List, then you can fuck right off. I also don't want to hear about your conspiracy theories about how the majority of Hollywood are sex-offending, deep state, cabal members and that are somehow led by Barack Obama and Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and for some reason Tom Hanks. I've seen, I've heard all of this stuff. I've heard all of it. We're talking movies on this channel. Let's actually talk about the movie, sound of freedom, what works, what doesn't, and afterwards maybe we can kind of agree on some things. For starters, and I know this is going to be a brave message to some, but I'm anti child sex trafficking. I'm anti pedophilia and if you are as well, I highly encourage you subscribe to this channel because that just sends the message that we're in agreement. Sex trafficking is bad of any kind, especially when it comes to children, they're precious, they're beautiful creatures, we should be leaving them alone. I have two of my own trying to raise them the best I can and if someone even laid a finger on them, that's game over. I laid out this scenario where if you don't subscribe to the channel, you're a pedo because that actually has already happened to me. I put out like a 40 second YouTube short and a TikTok on this movie, leaving the theater giving my first reactions as I'm just walking out and I said, hey, it's got a great message. This is something that should be drawn to people's attention, although I think most people know that this is a thing going on and I'm pretty sure if you polled people, it would be like 99.9% agrees that sex trafficking is bad and should be done away with. I don't think this is like a big hill to die on. That said, this movie has its heart in the right place. It's doing its best to draw attention to this sort of thing and so for that, I commend it. This isn't a left versus right thing, no matter what people say on the internet, which isn't really the real world at all. Normal people don't agree with child sex trafficking. It's awful. It's the worst thing you can do and yet I'm already name called. People accused me of not actually seeing the movie and just pretending to see it. To what end? Like, why? Why do people make a conspiracy out of everything? It's not that deep. All right, let's talk about this movie, The Pros. It looks really nice. Cinematography is solid. I know it's got a smaller budget. They're tricking me. It's a beautiful looking film, front to back. As for the acting, we got Jim Caviesal in this, aka The Count. The Count de Monte Cristo, by the way. Fantastic film. I love that movie. Very underrated, underappreciated. He was also in a small little indie film by Mel Gibson called The Passion of the Christ. You may have heard of it. I think it generated a few dollars here and there. It made a lot of money. I like Jim Boe as an actor. What I didn't care for, the fake blonde hair. He's rocking hair. I know they're trying to make it like the real character this is based off of because this is based on a true story. I put air quotes because I read up on this and I know some of it's absolutely fabricated. And come on. It's a Hollywood movie, regardless of what you want to say about it. They're always going to go over the top. They're always going to go extreme. They're always going to pull in a little narrative that wasn't there before. And that's fine. And that's fine. As long as the message is sound, which in this case, it obviously is. And as long as it's entertaining, I don't put a lot of stock into the based on true story stuff. I'm here to be entertained. I'm here to maybe get educated and whatnot, depending on the film. If I genuinely want to know more about his character, Tim Ballard, I'll go look it up myself. I'll find out about this guy, what he actually did, how he accomplished it and whatnot. In this movie, he's a federal agent. He's got a beautiful wife. He's got a loving family. They jumped to it once in a while. Those parts felt a little like tacked on. They never felt like they're really part of the story. They were just kind of thrown in. One of the scenes actually only lasts for maybe 30 seconds. It's out on a backyard bench. It just comes out of nowhere and it leaves just as fast. He's like, oh, okay. Well, that was something. Regardless, you know, he's a well adjusted, good old fashioned, all American guy. And he's taken down sex traffickers. He's taken down these disgusting pedophiles who are selling kids online, making money, just the grossest profession you could possibly be part of. And they make it known. And I will say the first 20 to 30 minutes of this movie is damn good. It hits hard. I was pretty tensed up the whole time. I mean, the subject matter alone is enough to make you queasy. But I was pretty squirmish here, thinking this is awful. The movie primarily takes place in Colombia. We follow a father and his two children. This guy is suckered by a pretty woman telling him that his kids could be model material. So he takes them to a nearby motel and he has to drop them off for the day, pick them up later that night. Very sus, of course. But when he peeks inside, it looks on the up and up. They got a camera. They got like 20 kids in there already. So he doesn't really think anything of it. He goes to work, comes back and boom, reality sits in. These kids have been taken. And I couldn't help but think of Liam Neeson and taken one through three. The first one's freaking awesome. The second two not so much. But man, if Liam was there, this shit could have been closed down in just a few hours. Unfortunately, this is reality and not some fanciful awesome action flick. So we have to take some time with this movie. We have to take too much time with this movie. It's two hours and 15 minutes long. And I have to say, there is a really good hour and a half film here. But man, the pacing is terrible. And that sucks to say. Because there really is a good movie somewhere buried in the bullshit. But it goes on way too long. And it kind of loses the plot halfway through where the storyline changes a bit. And it turns into setting up a sex hotel. And then he's going off into the jungles. And I mean, it's kind of all over. And you don't really have a chance to emotionally connect with any of these characters at that point. Things feel rushed yet somehow the movie is too long. It's not a very good script is what I'm getting at. So our boy agent ballard gets involved with this case. He takes down the dude. And he finds out that the daughter is still missing. And that's the majority of the plot. I should point out the movie theater I saw that was packed. I honestly couldn't believe it. I looked around thinking, am I at Avengers Endgame right now? What is happening? So the word of mouth is really impressive on this film. Here's the bottom line. I see a lot of movies. And this one just didn't do it for me. It wasn't bad. It just wasn't very good. Like the pacing is so slow. And the parts that were supposed to be emotional just took too long to get to and I kind of fell out. I'm like, where where are we at here with this film? Come on, let's let's move it along. The movie is also PG 13. I wouldn't recommend bringing a 13 year old to it though, just because it's got the 13 moniker on it. There's not really any blood. There's not really any by there's like one or two violent scenes and they're not bad. The camera mostly cuts away from things. Stuff is of course implied. And that's why I say the kids should probably be older than 13 to go to this because the subject matter is very disturbing. And unless you've had conversations with your kids about this, it's hard to even take a 13 year old to I would say maybe 15 or 16. Just just understand them maturity level. And if you've had conversations about this stuff with them, let them know that the world isn't all just rainbows and sticker packs. There's some genuinely terrible people out there. I mentioned the cinematography is good. The score is great too. There's a really good song played throughout this thing. The music's pretty awesome. I will say it keeps you invested. It keeps you on the hook just long enough so you don't fall asleep halfway through. And like I said, Jim's perfectly fine here outside of that bizarre hair color he's rocking. Some of the other characters though, some of the other actors are so over the top, really hamming it up. And it kind of takes you out of it because this is very much a serious film. They do try to throw a few jokes in once in a while to lighten the mood. Something like an Argo I would say, but not near enough competency there. Like Argo does it so much better. This just, yeah, it's just kind of a mediocre film all around which kind of racks my mind even more. And that's why I opened with the way I did with the disingenuous comment. People were flooding my videos that had nothing to do with this film calling me a coward for not seeing it. Like this is some profound movie that's crazy and different. Really? This is like the most mid stuff I've ever seen. There's nothing like amazing about it. It's just like a kind of film. Is it just because it's on, you know, child sex trafficking? There's tons of documentaries on that. Like I said, there's three taken movies. And I know there was some controversy or whatever because Fox owned the rights, but then Disney bought the rights. And there was like a five year hiatus where they didn't know how to get this thing published. I've seen articles both sides of that coin as well saying Disney didn't actually own the thing. It was kind of just in limbo. Taken as well, funny enough, was sitting on the shelf a year or two before it got distributed. It's just a matter of who owns what and if they're willing to put the money in to promote it. And if it's on brand with them or whatnot. Okay, let me know your thoughts, put it in the comments below. Am I wrong? Is this actually like basically shouldn't lose lists for 2023? Is this that good of a film? Or you like me? You didn't get the hype. You went out and saw it. It was okay. Very long though. Very tedious. And the emotional hits didn't really punch how they should have. They tried. Believe me, they tried, but it kind of failed at the end. Let me know. Like the video if you like the video, please subscribe if you haven't. I post tons of movie and TV content every single week. Love to have you stick around. All right, take care.