-SPOILERS-
I kind of liked Swordfish the first time I watched it, but I just saw it again and realized how stupid it is.
Hugh Jackman plays a paroled hacker (Stan) who wants custody of his daughter. Now, obviously he has to be portrayed as the 'good guy,' so he explains midway through the movie that he was jailed because he hacked into and destroyed an FBI program that was illegally gathering info about people. But we also have to believe that the courts refused him any access at all to his child and sent her to live with a porn producer instead. OK... but it gets stupider. The way he can supposedly get his daughter back is by getting tons of money to hire a better lawyer, and that's why he works for John Travolta's terrorist organization. What a hero. Of course, he doesn't get any punishment for single-handedly enabling the entire bank robbery, because he did it to get money to hire a good lawyer to overturn a court case that was ruled repeated against him.
John Travolta's character, Gabriel, is even stupider. Gabriel runs a radical anti-terrorist terrorist group. He wants to 'protect the American way of life' by retaliating for terrorism with even harsher terrorism, to make 'rogue states' stop harbouring terrorists. Gabriel is willing to kill as many people as it takes to preserve 'the American way of life,' including Americans. But Gabriel doesn't lead the American way of life, he lives in a mansion full of sluts, alcohol, and techno music. This movie came out before 9/11 so it is not clear what Gabriel is even retaliating against. He is the biggest threat to the American way of life. Not to mention that murdering civilians in countries that harbor terrorists will do nothing to change the minds of the dictators who rule those countries. Gabriel has a bone to pick with the government (in this case the FBI) so why doesn't he realize that all the other anti-American terrorism is caused by that same government?
The other actors aren't very good: Halle Berry is a bimbo, Don Cheadle is awful and so is Vinnie Jones. The plot twist at the end is poorly explained (why is Halle Berry still alive?) and the action sequences are dull. All in all a poor attempt to rip off Tarantino and Guy Ritchie. John Travolta's description of bad movies at the beginning of the film will ring true by the time you have finished watching it.
I kind of liked Swordfish the first time I watched it, but I just saw it again and realized how stupid it is.
Hugh Jackman plays a paroled hacker (Stan) who wants custody of his daughter. Now, obviously he has to be portrayed as the 'good guy,' so he explains midway through the movie that he was jailed because he hacked into and destroyed an FBI program that was illegally gathering info about people. But we also have to believe that the courts refused him any access at all to his child and sent her to live with a porn producer instead. OK... but it gets stupider. The way he can supposedly get his daughter back is by getting tons of money to hire a better lawyer, and that's why he works for John Travolta's terrorist organization. What a hero. Of course, he doesn't get any punishment for single-handedly enabling the entire bank robbery, because he did it to get money to hire a good lawyer to overturn a court case that was ruled repeated against him.
John Travolta's character, Gabriel, is even stupider. Gabriel runs a radical anti-terrorist terrorist group. He wants to 'protect the American way of life' by retaliating for terrorism with even harsher terrorism, to make 'rogue states' stop harbouring terrorists. Gabriel is willing to kill as many people as it takes to preserve 'the American way of life,' including Americans. But Gabriel doesn't lead the American way of life, he lives in a mansion full of sluts, alcohol, and techno music. This movie came out before 9/11 so it is not clear what Gabriel is even retaliating against. He is the biggest threat to the American way of life. Not to mention that murdering civilians in countries that harbor terrorists will do nothing to change the minds of the dictators who rule those countries. Gabriel has a bone to pick with the government (in this case the FBI) so why doesn't he realize that all the other anti-American terrorism is caused by that same government?
The other actors aren't very good: Halle Berry is a bimbo, Don Cheadle is awful and so is Vinnie Jones. The plot twist at the end is poorly explained (why is Halle Berry still alive?) and the action sequences are dull. All in all a poor attempt to rip off Tarantino and Guy Ritchie. John Travolta's description of bad movies at the beginning of the film will ring true by the time you have finished watching it.