“I’m Still Here Chief”
I’m gonna start doing a couple of throwback reviews of films I have continuously watched over the years. If I get positive feedback, i’ll continue to do them, if not…well I’m still going to do them anyways! But when I saw throwback reviews, I’m talking about films I’ve seen numerous times, and will continue to see numerous times. These are the films that I will share with other people, and hopefully share them with my kids, as my parents did for me. I remember a very long time ago, would’ve now been 16 years ago, that my parents introduced me to this movie called Frequency, saying it was one of their favourite movies that they saw that year and that I would really like it. Well its been 16 years later, and I still watch it…so you could say I like it…a bit.
Frequency is a crime, mystery, drama film about an accidental cross-time radio link that connects a father and son across a 30 year time gap. The son tries to save’s his fathers life, but then must fix the consequences. This is not to be confused with the Frequency TV series, they took the same idea from the movie but made them both cops…I don’t know how I feel about that.
The film is directed by Gregory Hoblit, whose filmography consists of such films as Primal Fear (1996), Fallen (1998), Hart’s War (2002), Fracture (2007), and Untracable (2008). I think that this was Hoblit’s best film, from a purely technical standpoint. His camera angles and movements were spot on, and doing a time travel esque film is never easy, especially when this film takes place on the same street, in the same house, 30 years apart. Hoblit was able to make both eras feel and look unique, and there was a lot of detail in each. It was kinda neat at the end too, when everything kind of came together. You’ll see when you watch it. But I thought Hoblit did a great job directing such a great film, and his touch really made the film a bit more original.
The film was written by Toby Emmerich. Whose only other film was The Last Mimzy (2007). I guess he peaked too soon, as this was a great script. He was really able to bring these characters to life and make them real. Each character had a different personality and it was an extremely well written and well told story. You couldn’t help but love the characters and get wrapped up in the story.
Frequency stars a whole bunch of great actors. The father, Frank, is played by Dennis Quaid. He’s known for such roles as Jaws 3 (1983), The Right Stuff (1983), Wyatt Earp (1994), DragonHeart (1996), The Parent Trap (1998), Any Given Sunday (1999), Traffic (2000), The Rookie (2002), The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Pandorum (2009), Legion (2010), and Soul Surfer (2011). I’ve always enjoyed his acting a lot, and I like his choice in films. He always goes after these really interesting family stories, or the stories where the bond is strong between father and child, whether that child is a boy or a girl as we have seen in films like Day after Tomorrow (2004) or The Parent Trap (2008). I always love rewatching this movie, and seeing Quaid as Frank, as I think this was his best role. The film also stars Jim Caviezel as the son, Johnny. His other films consist of Wyatt Earp (1994), The Rock (1996), The Thin Red Line (1998), Pay It Forward (2000), High Crimes (2002), The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), The Passion of the Christ (2004), Deja Vu (2006), Escape Plan (2013), When The Game Stands Tall (2014) and Person Of Interest TV series (2011-2016). I also think that this is his best role, the chemistry he has with everyone on set is phenomenal, especially with Quaid. Even when they’re talking on the radio you know that the connection is there, and that they play off each other well. The film also stars Elizabeth Mitchell as Julia, the mother and wife of Johnny and Frank, respectively. Her other roles consist of Gia (1998), Nurse Betty (2000), ER TV Series (2000-2001), The Santa Clause 2 (2002), The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006), Running Scared (2006), Lost TV Series (2006-2010), V TV Series (2009-2011), and The Purge: Election Year (2016). I think this her best normal role, but she creeped me THE HELL out in Running Scared, like I remember watching that for the first time, and after the scene where she was in ended, I felt dirty and gross. Not that it was like violent or anything, but the content of her scenes…jeez.
All that acting in Frequency I thought was great. Each actor I felt really got into the mind of their character and was super invested in the story. The story is super interesting, but without good actors to portray the characters then you really don’t have anything to go on, but they all did a great job.
The soundtrack is a great mix of score music and licensed music. The soundtrack really fit each different era of the movie. You had Frank who loved Elvis as it was the 70s and then you had Johnny who seemed to not listen to any music in the 2000’s. It was more score in the later years then it was in the earlier years, Its a nice play on the different types and forms of music that I honestly didn’t really think of until now.
I don’t really know what else to say without ruining this movie, which is something I never want to do in my reviews. I want you, as a viewer to go out and see it for yourself, and If you like it, share your thoughts with your friends and loved ones, then come back to me for another recommendation or review. Because I’ll keep em’ coming for ya!
I give Frequency a 5/5, I love this movie and over 16 years I still think about it, and I have shared with my best friend who ended up loving it, so much so that I bought her a copy for her birthday one year. I don’t know if she’s watched it sense, but thats the thing I love about movies, I get to share an experience with another human being and we get to talk about the experience and what we felt when we watched it. I like breaking a film down to its core to see what makes it up, to see how it comes together to make this experience.
Anyways, I’m out for now!
Thanks for reading!
-Andrew