Rated R - Running Time: 1:38 - Released 6/8/01
SWORDFISH
Rated R - Running Time: 1:38 - Released 6/8/01
The opening scene of Dominic Sena's action film Swordfish
features a monologue by its star, John Travolta, on the lack of
realism in Hollywood movies, discussing in particular how Sidney
Lumet's 1975 smash Dog Day Afternoon, though admittedly
an excellent film, was somewhat lacking in believability. This
takes immense huevos on the part of screenwriter Skip Woods,
who wrote Swordfish, because it immediately calls the issue
of screenplay credibility into question and puts us on guard to
look for flaws in his own text. (Especially since Dog Day Afternoon
won the Oscar for screenwriting.) Luckily, Woods's sophomore effort,
after his 1998 debut Thursday, is not as riddled with plot
discrepancies as it could be; in fact the scene immediately following
Travolta's diatribe on cinematic realism is probably the best
scene in the film. What is unfortunate is that it takes place
within the first fifteen minutes of the movie, and what follows
is pretty much typical action/adventure fare, though reasonably
well-written and occasionally clever in dialogue. It is, however,
no Dog Day Afternoon.
Rather than beginning at the beginning, Swordfish begins
in the middle, at the climax of a tense hostage situation instigated
by cool criminal genius Gabriel Shear (Travolta), at a big-city
bank where he has wired 20 or so hostages with explosives and
shrapnel, making them "the world's biggest walking claymore
mines." The lead investigator on the case, Agent A.D. Roberts
(Don Cheadle), has assembled a SWAT team, but his hands are tied
since Gabriel has assured him that he will detonate the explosives
if anything in his plan goes wrong. His plan, as we learn through
the main flashback portion of the film, is to hack into the U.S.
government's forgotten "Swordfish" program (in which
9½ billion dollars have been stockpiled) and download the
money into his private account. To do this, he hires super-hacker
Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman), with the promise of 1) a huge amount
of money, 2) getting custody of his beloved daughter away from
his estranged porn actress ex-wife, and 3) possibly being able
to touch the curvaceous, chocolate-brown body of Halle Berry.
That last one is really the clincher.
This film is perhaps on the higher end of the scale when it
comes to lobotomized action blow-up movies; its premise is positioned
on the precipitous edge of credibility, but Woods's dialogue can
at least be swallowed without too many stomach cramps. Director
Sena, meanwhile, who directed last year's painfully stupid but
action-packed Gone In 60 Seconds,
certainly knows how to rachet up the tension with spectacular
helicopter shots, high-speed car chases, and fiery explosions.
The film's cinematic set piece, involving a bus full of panicked
citizens being lifted by a huge helicopter to the top of a skyscraper,
with its tethers snapping and law officers in hot pursuit, is
wildly exciting even if it is far-fetched to the point of laughability.
I couldn't help thinking how realistic Dog Day Afternoon
is compared to this . . .
Travolta and Jackman are both in full action-hero mode, although I found it amazing that Jackman's Stanley has become such a good computer hacker without seeming to know how to use a keyboard. I was far more impressed with his ability to maintain a 3-day beard throughout the proceedings. Berry, on the other hand, is sexy, cool, and smart as Gabriel's associate and possible double-agent; she could be the best human aspect of the film. All in all, in the great restaurant of action film entrées, I would grudgingly recommend the Swordfish, but only if they're out of Dog. ***½