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Swordfish [2001]
from Warner Home Video
starring John Travolta|Halle Berry|Hugh Jackman|Don Cheadle
directed by Dominic Sena

Features:

• Dubbed
• PAL
• Widescreen

Editorial Review:

The sort of action thriller for which the phrase "high octane" could have been conceived, Swordfish stars John Travolta as Gabriel Shear, an enigmatic criminal operator who is as admired as he is feared. Using sexy sidekick Ginger (Halle Berry) as bait, he pressgangs Stanley Jobson, (Hugh Jackman) the world's greatest computer hacker, into helping him relieve the world banking system of a few billion dollars to finance his own enterprises. Jackman agrees, on the promise that Travolta will help him regain custody of his daughter.

The numerous explosions and set-piece exchanges of high calibre gunfire tend at times to blowholes in the narrative fabric and sense of Swordfish, a film that nonetheless engages through its extravagant silliness. Vinnie Jones is under-used as a fearsome minder, a close-up of Halle Berry's breasts isn't entirely integral to the plotline, while Travolta enjoys himself as the dapper ringmaster of this orgy of techno-chaos, especially in scenes in which he blasts away a brace of pursuing assassins with improbable aplomb and during his opening, Tarantino-esque monologue. By the end, he has shown himself in his apparently true colours in such a way that events of September 11, 2001--although made prior to them--lent the film an eerie sense of prescience. --David Stubbs

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0

• Not credible, nor convincing
  This movie makes a lot of promises all along, but does not manage to materialize them.
  Despite some special effects (not all so special in fact), stunting, violence, a bit of glamour, pseudo-cyber links, it does not manage to provide a convincing result.
  Some of the characters are well played (namely Ginger (Halle Berry) and Stanley (Hugh Jackman)), John Travolta comfortably plays his proven and apparently preferred tough guy role. But that is not enough.
  A movie where people are killed... more info

• Trying to be cool
  This is a seriously flawed movie. It so wants to be cool, but misses the target by a long way. Sure its fits the critera of a high octane movie, but it has no soul. That said, for its time (2001) its not without intelligence. The concept of external non-government privately run organisations in the U.S. being involved in taking out terrorists etc is now a virtual fact (Blackwater).
  Furthermore Travolta IS cool, especially in the riveting opening sequence. Halle Berry looks great and overall Hugh... more info

• Total pap - steer clear
  I was thinking how I might best deliver the vitriol and contempt I hold for this film. Fortunately the previous reviewer has provided me with so many points which aren't true that I think I'll just address them one by one and save myself having to think about review structure or stylistics.
  2) Travolta is neither good nor bad but shouldn't have been in this film at all - there's no particularly solid acting on his part and his lines contain nothing you'll remember after watching.
  3) Halle Berry is... more info

• Tricksy wellmade thriller
  Possibly the best first 8 minutes I've seen in a long while kick this off. The club scene, wrong but weirdly sexy.
  Other reviews have told you the outline so as with many of my reviews I won't bother!
  You will need to pay attention to the plot to or you will end up wondering what the hell is going on. Yes the hacking is very movie style but it keeps the action skipping along. The club scene, wrong but weirdly sexy.
  Jackman, Berry and Cheadle handle themselves very well.
  I was less... more info

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