Firewall
Harrison Ford, Paul Bettany, Virginia Madsen; Directed by Richard Loncraine
Our hero, Jack, an I.T. expert at a big-name bank, is a successful and highly respected member of the company. And why shouldn't he be? He's Harrison Ford! But when he comes home one day to find his family being held hostage by a first rate criminal mastermind and his third rate cronies, bad things start to happen. And why shouldn't they? He's Harrison Ford! But don't worry, even though the criminals demand that Jack hack into his own security system to steal millions upon millions of dollars, this won't be no tech-jargon laden desk job. With his family under constant threat, and no way to get help from the police, Jack will have to come out fighting. And he does! He's Harrison Ford!
Do you know what your first warning flag is concerning the quality of this movie? The name "Jack". It is one of the most unoriginal, hackneyed, stale, and unimaginative names since the 19th century. Do you know what your second tip off is? Harrison Ford as a brilliant tech-geek. No disrespect to the man himself. Mr. Ford is a very smart guy, but he's just hard to buy as the fighting man's Bill Gates. Another huge thing that bothered me was the casting of Jack's wife, who was played by Virginia Madsen, approximately 30 years Ford's junior. Now I'm not condemning relationships with such big age differences in general, but it's not the first time that Ford's romantic partner has been a woman significantly younger than himself. And it probably won't be the last. There are a number of talented women well into their fifties and sixties, but they seem to get bypassed with every one of his new movies. What's going on?! As for the plot of the film itself, I'll tell you - yes, it is really that weak. The movie painfully prolongs the first thirty generally uneventful minutes, and then dives into...an equally painful pseudo-suspenseful twist where these brilliant criminals find out...SPOILER: They've got the wrong bank!!! Thanks guys. You just made it harder for us as well as yourselves. Instead of ditching the family and hightailing it out of the mess, the spiteful villain (played by Paul Bettany, who's too good for this trite car wreck) decides to drag the family further out into his vengeful web of blackmail, ransom, and verbal eloquence (gotta watch out for that).
The most entertaining things about this whole experience is the DVD extra in which you get to view a conversation with Harrison Ford and director Richard Loncraine. For a good fifteen to twenty minutes, these two gentlemen recount their frustrations with the wanting script, plot traps, gaps in characterization, and a general problem of just making the film interesting in any way shape or form, all the while making subtle jabs of veiled insults at one another. If they didn't even like the movie, why should you bother?
Sad. Skip this. Instantly forgettable.
Grading:
Story = C
Originality = C-
DVD Features = C
Acting = B-
Enjoyability = C+
Visuals = B
Overall = C-
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