Liberty Stands Still (2002)

The wife of a gun manufacturer is held hostage by a man seeking revenge for the death of his daughter in a high school shooting incident.

Director:

Kari Skogland

Writer:

Kari Skogland

Stars:

Tanya Allen, Hart Bochner, Fulvio Cecere

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tanya Allen	...	May
Hart Bochner	...	Hank Wilford
Fulvio Cecere	...	Burt McGovern
Gregory Calpakis	...	Vince (as Greg Calpakis)
Terry Chen	...	Officer Tom
Garvin Cross	...	CIA Henchman #1
Roger R. Cross	...	Officer Miller
Martin Cummins	...	Russell Williams
Keith Dallas	...	Young Man
Linda Fiorentino	...	Liberty Wallace
Marrett Green	...	Gary P. Evans - Reporter #2
Darcy Laurie	...	Drunk Guy
David Lewis	...	Businessman
Robert Lewis	...	Fireman Frank
Brian Markinson	...	Rex Perry

Storyline

A gunman ties up an actor and locks him in his dressing room just before a performance. He also puts a bomb with a 90-minute timer next to the actor. Then, he goes to a room above an LA plaza and draws a bead on the actor's lover, international arms dealer, Liberty Wallace. Calling himself "Joe," he calls her cell phone, demonstrates that a rifle is pointed at her, and tells her to cuff herself to a hot-dog cart nearby (the cuffs are there). Over the next 90 minutes, the story unfolds: as a result of his daughter's death, he wants a public debate on the Second Amendment. As Liberty begins to bond with Joe on the phone, he gets some truths from her - and his revenge.

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Plot Keywords:

Bomb | Cell Phone | Hostage | Sniper | Gunman | 

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Taglines:

In the game of life and death... you only lose once.

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Genres:

Thriller | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and language

Details

Country:

Germany Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 May 2002 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Appel au meurtre

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$11,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lions Gate Films, Cinerenta Medienbeteiligungs KG, Pearl Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

Despite Liberty changing the direction she's facing several times during the initial stand-off with Joe, the red dot of his laser sight remains on her chest.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Liberty Wallace: [on phone] I'm not wearing any underwear, and you going to be able to concentrate?
Russell Williams: Not if you're aren't here.
Liberty Wallace: [laughs] I'm on my way.

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Connections

Referenced in Bad Movie Beatdown: Blade Trinity (2012)
another Wesley Snipes film

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Soundtracks

"Creatures"
Performed by Carmen Rizzo
Written by Carmen Rizzo, Christina Calero, Ashley Slater and Joel Shearer
Published by Povi-Lu Music

User Reviews

Liberty really needed to move around.

Some direct-to-video movies are a chromosome away from being acceptable popcorn fare in U.S. theaters. So out of the thousands in this category of movies, why did I begin my comment with the previous sentence for this particular one? Two reasons: Wesley Snipes and Linda Fiorentino. A couple of Hollywood's finest are not on the silver screen. They should fire their agents.

Contrary to what most IMDb'ers said, Snipes the sniper isn't all bad. I'd rather see him as Blade, but whatever, he's fine. And the divine Ms. Fiorentino, well she isn't bad either, and I rather liked her sniveling in the face of death. The Liberty Wallace character is a direct opposite of her Wendy Kroy character from "The Last Seduction". It's a damn shame that these two never once share a camera shot. It made me pine for a "Bad Company"(1995) type movie, starring these two. Imagine how cool *that* would be!!!

Anyway, the biggest problem with this cat and mouse movie is that there isn't a real chase. Just a bunch of redundant questions and talking that becomes kinda boring. What should have been done, and what may have ensured a theatrical release, are couple o' things. If it were something like "The Most Dangerous Game" or "Die Hard with A Vengeance", but still keep the political, 2nd Amendment spin. Even better, as I said, put these lead actors in the same room. Joe kidnaps Liberty and then the resulting "TNT We Know Drama" probably would have changed everything bad that looms in this movie. Too late, we got Six Degrees of Joe the Sniper; that is, a movie with too many ridiculous connections among the main characters. In the end, however, it's not god-awful. It does however, have the look and feel of something that goes directly-to-video.

Oh...yeah...right, well there you go, then.