Sword Fish... |
|
Movie
Review: Sword Fish
Starring: John Travolta, Hugh Jackman,
Halle Berry, Dominic Sena
|
Swordfish asks us to buy Hugh Jackman as the worlds greatest computer
hacker. So much for credibility; |
|
Jackman looks like someone who spends far more time honing
his washboard than tickling his keyboard.
Which, come to think of it, makes him perfect for a leading role in Swordfish, a big, dumb
action movie that goes bang a lot and concerns itself less with making sense than with
making noise. In that regard its a pretty typical Joel Silver production. Like
Silver masterworks Demolition Man and Lethal Weapon 4, the film places a premium on plot
developments that result in shattered glass while |
|
taking only token swipes at character development and
narrative coherence.
It does, however, blow stuff up in magnificent fashion. Swordfish opens with a tense
hostage standoff that |
leads to perhaps the most spectacular movie explosion of all
time. John Woo and Michael Bay, eat your hearts out.
Fleshy John Travolta plays Gabriel Shear, a rogue government agent who
masterminds the cyber-theft of billions of dollars from a DEA slush fund. Travolta does
nothing to improve his stock here, delivering many of his lines in a hushed, soulless
monotone. But while his character does some bad things, he says some smart things, so we
grudgingly kind of like him. |
|
|
Shear needs an assist from Jackmans super-hacker Stanley, who agrees to
help because he needs |
|
money to battle his ex-wife for custody of their daughter.
Halle Berry plays Travoltas partner-gal pal. She looks almost as incendiary as the
choreographed fireballs.
We never lose sight of the fact that Berrys character is totally superfluous. But
eye candy is all we have to sustain us while we mark time until the grand finale, an
impressive bus-helicopter getaway.
This overcooked Swordfish wont satisfy the discriminating palate. |
|
But it opens and closes with panache, and provides enough empty calories
in between to keep the hunger pangs at bay until a more substantial action film comes
along.
|
|
|