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Swordfish

Swordfish

List Price: $14.96
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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Tasty, but not satisfying.
Review: What do you do when you need to get your hands on $9.5 BILLION? You contact the world's best hacker to steal it for you.

That is the basic plot of Swordfish. It's your typical summer blockbuster movie that plays all the parts it's supposed to but never quite "gets there".

There are numerous explosions, high speed chases, guns going off and a scene in which Halle Berry bares her breasts. So what went wrong? It had the makings of a hit with it's big stars, gratuitous action and a director that has shown us he can "do it" but none of these could quite pull it off.

The characters were two dimensional at best, the high speed chases were tacked on, the entire "hacking" thing was a joke (anybody who's ever really used a computer could tell) and the subplot just didn't wash.

It's better than it could have been, but not quite as good as it should have been.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good
Review: Good movie, don't take the kids, but take yourself, sit back and enjoy...funny and scary it can all be real...watch your back and watch the movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Swordfish is OUTSTANDING, UNIQUE, AND A MUST SEE!
Review: All I can say for Swordfish is an excellent film from beginning to end. From its opening scene it captures your attention and demands your respect!

From sexual humor, to outstanding breakthrough visual effects and riviting plot twists, Swordfish is more then just another action movie. It is in a class all its own, capturing and displaying all the aspects of a movie, we all come to expect!

In a world of flimsy over hyped, under written, special effects bogged films, Swordfish is a must see if you TRULY are a person who loves a great plot, believable characters, and nail biting suspense. GO SEE IT FOR YOURSELF!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A good summer action yarn!
Review: "Swordfish" is a thrillride in the tradition of such thrillrides as "Speed" and "Speed 2," giving us a so-so plot while building up momentum with action sequences that will have you laughing in disbelief yet breaking a sweat at the same time. The plot borrows from other action films, and is intelligent yet flawed; the action is enjoyable yet, at times, unbelievable. But, despite its flaws, it can still be a very entertaining ride in its own testosterone-pumped way.

The movie begins with an adrenaline-charged bank heist, led by Gabriel Shear (John Travolta), who, four days earlier, employed the services of ex-convict Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman), once imprisoned for computer hacking. Stan falls under the spell of gratuitous amounts of money offered to him by Gabriel, and also becomes enticed by the mysterious Ginger Knowles (Halle Berry), who is not what she appears to be. Stan's mission: to hack into a high-tech computer system and transfer money from simultaneous locations to Gabriel's various foreign accounts.

The movie ties Stan's actions to an emotional twist: afdter his arrest, he was denied the privilege of seeing his young daughter. Gabriel uses this as a ploy in order to keep Stan willing to help him out, while Los Angeles cop A.D. Roberts (Don Cheadle) attempts to use it as a tool to worm information out of him. Soon realizing that he is in over his head, Stan must make the choice of continuing his work or getting out for good.

And there you have it: a so-so plot that is more complex than it seems, with spaces to place action sequences and thrill scenes. There's really nothing totally special about the movie: we've pretty much seen a lot of this sort of material done in many other movies. But, not looking too far into it, like "Speed 2," it can be a lot of fun, and I admire its guts.

Right from the beginning, the movie sets us up to believe one fact about a certain character. There are certain clues, visible to us yet seemingly distant from the overall plot, done so in order for us to conceive in our minds a picture of what the ending will bring. As it turns out, this is one of those movies where, in the end, all those clues come at you at once, and when you finally figure out the rest of the puzzle, it all comes to light in a surprisingly satisfying climax.

Acting for this movie is first-rate, boasting another winning performance from Hugh Jackman, whose acting in "X-Men" proves he is more than just another actor. John Travolta pulls his career out of the catacombs of "Battlefield: Earth" with a bad-guy role that brings out the best of his ability since "Face/Off." Like that previous role, Travolta is cocky and witty, but retains a certain amount of charisma and charm. Halle Berry is commendably sinister as Ginger, her most revealing role, and Don Cheadle plays a good cop once again.

As with any action thriller, there's going to be lots of action crowned by a climax of explosions and unbelievable events. "Swordfish" has all of this, but plays it out so well that it's hard not to be slightly impressed by its guts. A bank heist full of hostages wearing explosives is taken directly from "Speed," while a bus flying through the air attached to a helicopter, dropping exploding hostages on its way to the top of a skyscraper, is very reminiscent of the cruise liner destroying the island community in the climax of "Speed 2." Combine that with lots of machine-gun action, car crashes and high-speed chases, and what you have is a very nice package that is flawed yet equally intense.

However, the movie is pretty prone to logical errors. In one of the beginning scenes, two thugs are able to slip into a police station just a little too easily to murder a key suspect. A high-altitude fall in a chases ends without a single broken bone on any of those involved. And then there's the whole bus-on-a-chopper ordeal, which is more laugh-provoking than it is believable.

Stan's ability to hack into secure computer systems is, for the most part, left in shadows. Most scenes involving this exercising of criminal activity are merely typing on keyboards, shouting at monitors, and drinking expensive wines. The story might be more intriguing if this had been better explained.

Watching "Swordfish" is a lot like going fishing: the wait for the fish can be long and trying, but the payoff of catching the fish is well worth the wait. There's enough error and hokey twists in the movie to keep it from being great, but in its own right, it's still pretty fun!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Holy Cow, it was incredible
Review: Simply put, this is the best action movie of the summer. I liked Tomb Raider, but I loved this film. Not just because of a topless Halle Berry. That didn't hurt the film by any means, but it turned out to be just ANOTHER great part of this film. There was the right blend of action and story to make this film probably the best film of the summer. The opening scene made my decision about buying this on DVD when it is released. A definate must add to my DVD collection.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best Travolta film to date.
Review: It wasn't until I saw John Travolta in Face/Off that I really cared to watch him as an actor. I'd watched him in other movies but really didn't care for their genere. I love action films so when I heard that John Woo was directing a new movie called Face/Off I was pretty excited but a little apprehensive with Cage and Travolta. I don't think that I could have been more wrong. They were GREAT! It hasn't been since then that I've enjoyed a movie that much, UNTIL the realease of Swordfish. This movie RULES! Being an IT Professional it was great to hear them use real terminology rather thatn made up ones. Being sold as Pulp Fiction on steriods, this movie is a MUST SEE!!! and a must have DVD (when available). I encourage all of you to go watch it today! You will not be dissappointed. After all, you do get to see Halle Berry's (<--right???) breasts! db

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: solid action flick
Review: I like Hugh Jackman... he's Wolverine after all. I was impressed, since I hadn't seen him in anything but the X-men and he carried the leading role lightly, no problem.

Halle Barry was beautiful... it seemed like a strange role for her, especially with the nudity, but she was, as she always is, an excellent fit for the character she played; she was intelligent, georgeous, tough.. she pulled it off well.

John Travolta was the evil genius, ruthless, cruel and more than a little twisted. Still, he was a leader and people followed him, he was working for the greater good, even if it meant hundreds died. I also like John Travolta, he was very similar to his character in Broken Arrow, but more calculating and thoughtful.

The actual content was interesting, if a little unbelievable. This is especially dissapointing especially after Gabriel (Travolta's character) talks about realism in movies in the first scene. Still, the action was constant and entertaining.

As with most movies about computers, the computer stuff was completely ridiculous. The random clicking on the keyboard was annoying, since there's no way that kind of mushing of the keys would ever produce anything coherent. I realize that most of the audience doesn't care and I'm biased since I'm a programmer. I forgive the film makers for that flub.

All in all a fun trip out to the movies. I can recommend it to the action fans. I wouldn't bring kids to it, since there is so much hard core sexual content (hinted at in conversations and just off camera), and some of the violence is quite personal.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: "Swordfish is action packed,you won't fall asleep.guranteed!
Review: The film is a very fun movie to watch. It is about this famous computer hacker Hugh Jackman (X-Men) who is the best in the world.One day a clever computer thief John Travolta (Battlefield Earth) and his girlfriend Halle Berry (X-Men) find Hugh Jackman and want to use him to hack into a computer and steal 9.6 Billion dollars.Also Starring Don Cheadle (Traffic), Vinnie Jones (Snatch), and Drea de Matteo (tv's The Sopranos).

- Michael Margetis

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not as bad as Battlefield Earth... :(
Review: The average of the intro of a Tarantino film, the special effects of The Matrix, some of the plot of Hackers and Special Suspects, and a large part of the action from Speed.... but overall, it was bad!

The plot at times is pointless, and ends in such an odd way... but, as most people have said: "Not as bad as Battlefield Earth," whatever that is.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the BEST OF THIS SUMMER
Review: One word sums up this movie basically and the word is AWESOME!! GO SEE IT


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