"Swordfish"

John Travolta
Hugh Jackman
Halle Berry
Don Cheadle
Sam Shepard
Vinnie Jones
Drea de Matteo
Rudolf Martin
Camryn Grimes




R           99min           2001

“Swordfish” is about a computer hacker (Jackman) commissioned to write him a program by a mysterious figure (Travolta) and his associate (Berry).

“Swordfish” is a movie that when it came was one of the first to take advantage of the “Matrix bullet-time” to create one of the most outrageous movie sequences on the film. The action is over the top but you go with it. The story is one that could be believable.

This has some of the best action sequences in the film. The open sequence using “Matrix Bullet-time” is one of best sequence in film history. Action is continuous, dynamic lets you know that you are about to go for an interesting ninety minutes.

The action is at time gratuitous and over the top but you go with it. Most lines in the beginning is exposition and based on that exposition it’s a world that most people don’t live in and won’t understand. Once you take that at face value you can get behind the rest of the film. How can say there aren’t men in the world like this, they all can’t be like ‘Jack Bauer’.

One of the reason I went with the story is on the basis of the opening monologue by Travolta.. Although Travolta is made out as the bad guy I felt that he was a hero. Everything that Travolta does is about it protecting out freedom; a message I could get behind. He’s doing anything to protect our way of life. Travolta asks a question toward the end of the film: “How far would you go to protect our way of life?” If you drop the preconception and just go with the film, it is be satisfying and enjoyable.

I give it 4/5 Gs.