Opération Swordfish

I don't know how I would evaluate this film if I had seen it 24 hours earlier. It just happens that I saw it the day after the terrorist attacks in the USA, and I couldn't help connecting it to that horrible event. Travolta's character wants money in order to fight worldwide terrorism - using terrorist methods. After September 11, every bit of the plot seamed realistic.

Apart from that, I think this is a good action movie, more intelligent than most of its kind. My only objection is Hugh Jackman: he is really good in the film, but doesn't look exactly as a computer freak. He's too sexy for that. But then again, why complain?

What is the highest pressure job interview you've ever had?

Well, Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman) a convicted Hacker, fresh out of prison and desperate to see his daughter again, can beat you, i'll bet on it. He has to hack into the FBI Computers in a fairly public place, with a gun to his head and a beautiful woman performing an act of Felacio on him, and he has just one minute to do it. (A Great Scene, Not Explict, just cool)

Anyway, he is recruited by John Travolta to hack into a dormant DEA Fund worth 9.5 Billion Dollars to finance his terrorist activities.

Full of Slick Dialogue, cool Direction and the simply gorgeous Halle Berry, this turns out to be a very enjoyable Thriller, with some clever twists (some of which don't quite work) but are forgivable anyway.

Not a classic, but a good film none the less. 8/10

On paper the casting here looked enough to guarantee big box office returns. Even if John Travolta has come off the back of the biggest flop of his career with "Battlefield Earth" Hugh Jackman was following up his first stint as Wolverine in "X-Men" likewise Halle Berry was following up the same movie. While Don Cheadle was in the Oscar winning "Traffic", Vinnie Jones was in "Snatch" and the remake of "Gone in 60 Seconds". But for some reason it just doesn't come together.

Plot In A Paragraph: Gabriel Shear (John Travolta) is trying to access information that is locked inside a complicated computer system that contains mountains of government secrets - and money. With the help of his companion Ginger (Halle Berry) he hires Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman), a desperate computer expert, who is trying to stay clean to help him hack into the system.

I'll get what I dislike out of the way first. Halle Berry's much hyped first topless scene looks very forced, and looks to only be in the movie for publicity purposes. John Travolta gives an awful performance and following "The Punisher" the last movie I watched him in, this is another hint that "Pulp Fiction" was a fluke. Tate Donovan is an awful actor, but thank funny his role is small. I'm not sure why Vinnie Jones is here, as I don't recall him having any dialogue, except an awful bit at the end. Despite a short running time, the plot is drawn out, and seems to have too much going on at the same time.

Where the movie works is Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry. Jackman is a likable hero, both handsome and charismatic while also having the ability to actually act! Berry looks great and does as well as the material allows.

Could have been worse, but also it could have been a hell of a lot better.

I think people have been a little to harsh on this movie. No it is not revelatory but it is a nice glossy diversion. The all-star cast, especially Hugh Jackman, is more than competent though they aren't really challenged. There are enough special effects and stunts intermixed with a fairly compelling narrative (it is not confusing if you just pay attention) to make the film more than worthwhile. Overall good entertainment, 7/10.

Last night I watched swordfish for the third time. The first two times I thought of it as a good action film and would have easily given it 8/10. Now, a year later, I have seen more films and expect much more from them.

One problem with Swordfish is that that there isn't really enough action in it for an Action film and it isn't thrilling enough to be a thriller. The film opens with a bank robbery. We see a beautiful explosion in Bullet Time (it may look great, but it says The Matrix all over it). After that there's a short car chase and a poorly directed scene of people running/falling down a steep hill. Then we see that bank robbery from the beginning again, but this time the full-length thing and that's all the action I can remember.

Between the action sequences there is nothing very entertaining. The story starts off quite simple. A man with no money is hired to hack into some Bank. But then things become extremely complicated as we find out that the people who he is working with aren't who they say they are. Then we find out that maybe they are who they say they are and so on. By the end I don't really know or care anymore.

Most of the characters were pretty stereotypical. Hugh Jackman plays the same character he did in X-Men, but without the claws. Halle Berry plays the same character she did in Die Another Day, but this time she takes off her top and John Travolta plays the kind of bad guy who can't stop talking. So basically he's the same as he was in Battlefield Earth, but slightly more intelligent. Don Cheadle plays a rather friendly FBI agent and is probably the most interesting character.

The Music in the Film is quite interesting. It's not your usual action movie music that you don't even realize is there. It's different because of the choice of instruments that are used and it reminded me of the Computer game Mafia. Which, by the way, is a great game.

The color of this film is orange. Every scene set during the day has orange sunlight. It looks nice. But it's too much of a good thing and becomes irritating after a while.

Overall, I think this film deserves 6 or 7 out of 10. It gains points for the Bullet Time explosion even though it is unoriginal. But looses points for being too complicated and lacking entertainment between the major action scenes. It is not a must see. But watch it if it's on TV and you've nothing better to do.