 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
John Travolta as a James Bond type, is a little difficult to swallow. Actually I guess he would be more of the James Bond bad guy in his latest flick, Swordfish. In this action packed drama, Travolta (A Civil Action) plays Gabriel Shear, a man hired by a Senator (Sam Shepard) to help ‘unlock’ some government funds in order to fund a secret government operation. According to the film a secret government program codenamed Operation Swordfish was run by the DEA to launder drug money in the 80s in order to catch drug smugglers (our government runs secret operations!?). Eventually the program was shutdown, but the money remained in accounts earning interest, so the fund now contained billions of dollars that no one could touch (the government probably lost the password). I am actually getting well ahead of myself, but this helps to lay some groundwork for the story. As to the plot, it begins with the FBI’s capture of cyber criminal Axl Torvalds (Rudolf Martin, Bedazzled) as he tries to enter the country. But the film itself starts with a scene that happens later in the film where Gabriel’s organization has taken over a bank and has some hostages. Now back to the plot where Axl is soon killed by his employers (the organization run by Gabriel) after his capture to prevent his talking to the Feds. Since he is now dead, a replacement hacker is needed. That replacement hacker is to be Stan Jobsen (Hugh Jackman, Someone Like You), a recently released ex-con who is just looking to stay out of jail and get his daughter back from his ex-wife. Stan is contacted by Ginger (Halle Berry, X-Men), who eventually convinces Stan to at least meet with her employer and see if he wants the job. At Stan’s ‘interview’ with Gabriel he gets the job under some intense pressure that includes a gun to his head, and a head to his gun (you’ll have to watch the scene if you don’t get my meaning there, but think sexually). Well that’s enough of a teaser, since you still don’t know why they are after the money, do the bad guys get away with it, and who lives and dies? Swordfish is directed by Dominic Sena, features lots of Heineken, you get to see Halle Berry’s naked breasts, and contains a few good ‘rants’ by Gabriel. This would all be to the credit of the writer, Skip Woods. The other principle cast members are Don Cheadle (seems to play a lot of federal agents in his roles), Vinnie Jones, Camryn Grimes, Zach Grenier, Nick Loren, Timothy Omundson, and Drea de Matteo. Swordfish is far better than Travolta’s last action film, Battlefield Earth. Of course a video of my dog licking herself would be better than that film (actually that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you get my point). In reality there is no point in bringing up that film since the two are unrelated, but I wanted to berate that film for fun. Swordfish brings action, explosions, and sex to a summer movie, all of which are expected (if not demanded). There is a rather cool plot, some good action sequences, and of course intrigue. All of these add up to a decent rating of eight out of ten. Basically it needed more humor to rank up there with great summer action films like the Lethal Weapon series. Finally, as a reminder, yes there is nudity, something I haven’t been able to mention lately. Goodbye.
Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:49:08 AM |