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Swordfish (2001)
Rate:
8
Viewed:
4/06, 1/26
4/06:
I've enjoyed the unpredictable Swordfish.
Without John Travolta, it would've been a boring cyberpunk picture. I love his villainous character. It has
an intriguing story that likes to push the envelope. I'm usually against CGI because it always looks contrived.
But this time, Swordfish gets it right for the most part.
All in all, thanks to John Travolta, Swordfish is fun to watch.
1/26:
My rating is now upgraded from '7' to '8' for Swordfish.
It's still a well-made movie that's never bombastic, but the special effects, when things blow up, are cheap.
The casting of John Travolta as the mysterious Gabriel is perfect, bringing back memories of how he was in
Broken Arrow with a Vincent Vega look. I love his opening scene when he
said the following:
"You know the problem with Hollywood? They make shit. Unbelievable, unremarkable shit. I'm not some wannabe
filmmaker, searching for existentialism through a haze of bong smoke. No, it's easy to pick apart bad acting,
shortsighted directing, and a moronic stringing together of words the studios term as prose. No, I'm talking
about the lack of realism. Realism. Not a pervasive element in modern American cinematic vision."
Ironically, that's sort of the trouble with Swordfish. Then, Gabriel goes on to rip
Dog Day Afternoon by not "pushing the envelope enough." I disagree
with him on that point. Plus, the event did happen for real, so why make up stuff? The last thirty minutes is
almost a repeat of the aforementioned film but in an ingenious way.
However, Swordfish can be a bit jumpy in editing. Halle Berry was on a serious roll, but her role
eventually got minimized. That's a mistake there. Hugh Jackman's character is too average to care about, and he
has a big corny scene while alone working with seven monitors.
All in all, Swordfish is better than Hackers with shades of
Fight Club.