Swordfish ««½
R, 99m. 2001
Cast & Credits: John Travolta (Gabriel Shear), Hugh Jackman (Stanley Jobson), Halle Berry (Ginger), Don Cheadle (Agent Roberts), Sam Shepard (Senator James Reisman). Screenplay by Skip Woods. Directed by Dominic Sena.
Swordfish has all ingredients of an entertaining, fast paced popcorn movie were it not for all the needless curveballs the filmmakers threw at me.
The scriptwriters must have felt the picture was better than that. The film involves hacking into the government’s computer systems and stealing (perhaps I should say wiring) over a million dollars to various accounts abroad. I couldn’t help but wonder midway through if perhaps someone actually hacked into Warner Brothers’ computer systems and tweaked Swordfish’s screenplay with their own ideas.
The picture runs only 99 minutes and quite frankly, I’m not sure that’s enough time to fully cover, much less clarify all the film’s subplots. Watching it, I could either do one of two things. Sit back and try not to make sense of it all. Or ask myself “Are these people really who they say they are?” or “What was it the guy was talking about?” I chose to ask questions instead.
Swordfish didn’t start out that way, however. The film has an impeccably dressed no-nonsense villain named Gabriel Shear, played by John Travolta, who like so many great movie villains of the past, steals the show with the best lines.
The most memorable scene comes in the beginning as the camera is panned in on Shear’s face as he speaks. Before the camera moves away from him making us realize the guy is talking with hostage negotiators, Shear launches into some idle conversation about what’s wrong with today’s movies. He says filmmakers today aren’t brave enough to provide endings audiences will never accept.
He doesn’t waste time getting to the point. In a comment that could well describe the kinds of pictures Tinseltown has been churning out lately, Shear says “Hollywood makes shit.”
Travolta’s dialogue is almost reminiscent of the lines Quentin Tarantino’s written where two people make small talk about tipping in Reservoir Dogs (1992) or who gives a woman the best foot massage in Pulp Fiction (1994).
The film has a reluctant hero played by Hugh Jackman, a former computer hacker recruited by Shear to break into the government’s computer systems. There is also a damsel-in-distress (at least I think she is) played by Halle Berry who seems to work for two different organizations at the same time and Don Cheadle as a persistent FBI agent.
The picture has its share of great chase sequences, one where the FBI agents chase Jackman’s character down the side of a mountain and a spectacularly violent slow motion sequence in the beginning that’s a little unsettling.
What a shame the scriptwriters had to bog the storyline down with intriguing little subplots. There is talk, for example, about a government operation run by a senator (Sam Shepard) whom Shear was employed with but who now wants it shut down. Then Shear tells the Jackman character about how he and his mercenaries set up little wars throughout the world where people aren’t necessarily killed (though that is what’s seen and reported by the media).
Then there is the ending which I won’t give away. (The DVD edition will reportedly feature three alternate endings). The film’s climax is what has been the topic of some discussions between me and one other person I work with. The guy, who did like the film, has explained to me time and again how the ending would make sense if I simply referred back to certain clues provided throughout the movie. I have done just that and it still doesn’t make any sense. Thinking about it anymore just gives me a headache.
Let me put it to you this way. Let’s say you see someone board a plane. You watch that plane take off. Upon take off, you see the plane explode and what’s left of the debris fall to the ground. Obviously that person didn’t survive the explosion right?
That’s the way it works unfortunately in the real world but not in Hollywood, however. That’s probably what Travolta’s Gabriel Shear meant when he told the Jackman character not everything ends the way one thinks it should.
©6/8/01
R, 99m. 2001
Cast & Credits: John Travolta (Gabriel Shear), Hugh Jackman (Stanley Jobson), Halle Berry (Ginger), Don Cheadle (Agent Roberts), Sam Shepard (Senator James Reisman). Screenplay by Skip Woods. Directed by Dominic Sena.
The scriptwriters must have felt the picture was better than that. The film involves hacking into the government’s computer systems and stealing (perhaps I should say wiring) over a million dollars to various accounts abroad. I couldn’t help but wonder midway through if perhaps someone actually hacked into Warner Brothers’ computer systems and tweaked Swordfish’s screenplay with their own ideas.
The picture runs only 99 minutes and quite frankly, I’m not sure that’s enough time to fully cover, much less clarify all the film’s subplots. Watching it, I could either do one of two things. Sit back and try not to make sense of it all. Or ask myself “Are these people really who they say they are?” or “What was it the guy was talking about?” I chose to ask questions instead.
Swordfish didn’t start out that way, however. The film has an impeccably dressed no-nonsense villain named Gabriel Shear, played by John Travolta, who like so many great movie villains of the past, steals the show with the best lines.
The most memorable scene comes in the beginning as the camera is panned in on Shear’s face as he speaks. Before the camera moves away from him making us realize the guy is talking with hostage negotiators, Shear launches into some idle conversation about what’s wrong with today’s movies. He says filmmakers today aren’t brave enough to provide endings audiences will never accept.
He doesn’t waste time getting to the point. In a comment that could well describe the kinds of pictures Tinseltown has been churning out lately, Shear says “Hollywood makes shit.”
Travolta’s dialogue is almost reminiscent of the lines Quentin Tarantino’s written where two people make small talk about tipping in Reservoir Dogs (1992) or who gives a woman the best foot massage in Pulp Fiction (1994).
The film has a reluctant hero played by Hugh Jackman, a former computer hacker recruited by Shear to break into the government’s computer systems. There is also a damsel-in-distress (at least I think she is) played by Halle Berry who seems to work for two different organizations at the same time and Don Cheadle as a persistent FBI agent.
The picture has its share of great chase sequences, one where the FBI agents chase Jackman’s character down the side of a mountain and a spectacularly violent slow motion sequence in the beginning that’s a little unsettling.
What a shame the scriptwriters had to bog the storyline down with intriguing little subplots. There is talk, for example, about a government operation run by a senator (Sam Shepard) whom Shear was employed with but who now wants it shut down. Then Shear tells the Jackman character about how he and his mercenaries set up little wars throughout the world where people aren’t necessarily killed (though that is what’s seen and reported by the media).
Then there is the ending which I won’t give away. (The DVD edition will reportedly feature three alternate endings). The film’s climax is what has been the topic of some discussions between me and one other person I work with. The guy, who did like the film, has explained to me time and again how the ending would make sense if I simply referred back to certain clues provided throughout the movie. I have done just that and it still doesn’t make any sense. Thinking about it anymore just gives me a headache.
Let me put it to you this way. Let’s say you see someone board a plane. You watch that plane take off. Upon take off, you see the plane explode and what’s left of the debris fall to the ground. Obviously that person didn’t survive the explosion right?
That’s the way it works unfortunately in the real world but not in Hollywood, however. That’s probably what Travolta’s Gabriel Shear meant when he told the Jackman character not everything ends the way one thinks it should.
©6/8/01
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