"The Freelands" is an above-average indie with really good action scenes, so good in fact they approach professional quality. If Hollywood wasn't so biased against outsiders, all the major players involved in T.F. would be well on their way to successful careers in the industry by now. The movie is better than at least 80% of the stuff that Amazon Prime shares with it's subscribers. To be more specific, it's a better movie than "Collapse", or "Dragon Day", or "Amerigeddon", all of which are free for Amazon Prime subscribers.
"The Freelands" is set in the U.S. ten to twenty years from now after an attempt to make bio-chipping mandatory caused a violent backlash culminating in civil war. When the film begins, the civil war has been stalemated for years with Fedgov holding the cites while large areas of the countryside are under the control of a rebel movement called the URAF (United Resistance for American Freedom). Although the people of URAF began as idealistic rebels, they have been brutalized by years of war to the point where they're almost as abusive as the fascist government they fight against. The main character of T.F. is Hunter, an ex-federal soldier who defected to URAF early in the war out of disgust at the atrocities he witnessed but has become deeply disillusioned with the rebels. Although he lives in URAF-controlled territories and still works for them when he has to, he no longer believes in their cause. Hunter carries an impressive AK-47 which is featured so prominently in the film, it ought to be listed as one of the cast.
Like most indies, TF's main weaknesses are it's amateur cast and it's low budget (incredibly low in this case). If you can look past that, you'll find a well-made action movie that actually has some ideas in it's head. My rating is 7/10.
