Firewall.
Once again Harrison Ford has jumped onto the screen, displaying the same range of emotions and intensity that have plagued his last handful of movies that I actually cared to watch. Now, in certain situations, the rage and intensity is very welcome, however, in Firewall, he takes it to an extreme that reminded me a lot of Air Force One. Not to mention the fact that a lot of it is misplaced.
The general plot of the movie follows a man who works for a bank. He is responsible for designing the software that keeps all the happy little rich people's money safe. It's nice to see them breaking the stereotype that older people know shit about computers. That, or Harrison Ford, and the powers that be, just can't fathom that the actor is reaching the end of his career. Enter a shady character by the name of Cox, played by Paul Bettany (A Knight's Tale, The Da Vinci Code), who Jack (Ford) thinks is an investor looking to employ him and his friend, Harry (Played by Robert Forster, Jackie Brown) as security advisors, or something like that.
However, Cox isn't who he makes himself out to be, and kidnaps Jack's wife and kids. His plan is to get Jack to help him rob the bank that Jack works for of one hundred million dollars. If he doesn't, of course, Cox is going to kill his family. As the story progresses, an either very intelligent, or totally bogus contraption is made, consisting of an iPod, and a scanner from a fax machine, that will steal the account numbers of the accounts Cox would like to steal from.
Jack goes through with the theft, and everything seems to be cleaning up nicely, however, Cox has other plans. Tricking Jack's wife into calling, and leaving a message on Harry's voicemail, confessing her love for him, and telling him how she is leaving Jack, he then kills Harry, with Jack's own gun, making it seem like Jack did it in a fit of jealousy.
Jack decides to strike back, and steals the money back from Cox, and demands a fair trade. So, of course, Cox agrees, and then immediately sneaks his way out, and backs Jack into a metaphorical corner. Luckily, the dog that the robbers took with them for some reason has a GPS system in his collar, and Jack tracks them down. After some lackluster action, Ford and Bettany engage in a battle that looks like it was pulled right from Air Force One, complete with Ford's trademark tackle--which looks more like him collapsing on his enemies from a stroke.
The film ends with no explanation about what happens to the money, and the police arriving quite late, as is the standard. Maybe they heard that Ford was already on the case, and thought he could handle it. Who knows, I sure don't.
Overall, the acting was decent, mainly because Bettany added his touch to the film, which was much better than Ford's traditional mild-mannered-turned-hard-ass characters in this situation. Also be sure to look for the retarded brother from Rat Race, as he makes an appearance as a henchman.
In final, sure, I would recommend this flick if you're looking for something mindless to watch on a Sunday afternoon, like me. But overall, this should be some kind of indication that if you want to see Harrison Ford in a movie, stick with Star Wars, or Indiana Jones.
But he was still the best damn president the United States ever had.
H.
The general plot of the movie follows a man who works for a bank. He is responsible for designing the software that keeps all the happy little rich people's money safe. It's nice to see them breaking the stereotype that older people know shit about computers. That, or Harrison Ford, and the powers that be, just can't fathom that the actor is reaching the end of his career. Enter a shady character by the name of Cox, played by Paul Bettany (A Knight's Tale, The Da Vinci Code), who Jack (Ford) thinks is an investor looking to employ him and his friend, Harry (Played by Robert Forster, Jackie Brown) as security advisors, or something like that.
However, Cox isn't who he makes himself out to be, and kidnaps Jack's wife and kids. His plan is to get Jack to help him rob the bank that Jack works for of one hundred million dollars. If he doesn't, of course, Cox is going to kill his family. As the story progresses, an either very intelligent, or totally bogus contraption is made, consisting of an iPod, and a scanner from a fax machine, that will steal the account numbers of the accounts Cox would like to steal from.
Jack goes through with the theft, and everything seems to be cleaning up nicely, however, Cox has other plans. Tricking Jack's wife into calling, and leaving a message on Harry's voicemail, confessing her love for him, and telling him how she is leaving Jack, he then kills Harry, with Jack's own gun, making it seem like Jack did it in a fit of jealousy.
Jack decides to strike back, and steals the money back from Cox, and demands a fair trade. So, of course, Cox agrees, and then immediately sneaks his way out, and backs Jack into a metaphorical corner. Luckily, the dog that the robbers took with them for some reason has a GPS system in his collar, and Jack tracks them down. After some lackluster action, Ford and Bettany engage in a battle that looks like it was pulled right from Air Force One, complete with Ford's trademark tackle--which looks more like him collapsing on his enemies from a stroke.
The film ends with no explanation about what happens to the money, and the police arriving quite late, as is the standard. Maybe they heard that Ford was already on the case, and thought he could handle it. Who knows, I sure don't.
Overall, the acting was decent, mainly because Bettany added his touch to the film, which was much better than Ford's traditional mild-mannered-turned-hard-ass characters in this situation. Also be sure to look for the retarded brother from Rat Race, as he makes an appearance as a henchman.
In final, sure, I would recommend this flick if you're looking for something mindless to watch on a Sunday afternoon, like me. But overall, this should be some kind of indication that if you want to see Harrison Ford in a movie, stick with Star Wars, or Indiana Jones.
But he was still the best damn president the United States ever had.
H.
posted by H. at 2:57 PM
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