Swordfish

It's too bad, but the quote listed above is very true now that money-grubbing-corporate-minded-blockbuster-fiends rule the golden streets of Hollywood. In a way, it's somewhat ironic that a movie that has this as its very first line is made in the most blockbuster-minded sense. Swordfish plays no games, it knows where it's strengths are. The strengths are in the action, the tough-guy characters, and the technical wizardry of its effects. Oftentimes these things combine to make a movie that is, well, shit, but in the case of Swordfish, it thankfully doesn't apply. Swordfish plays strictly to its strengths and it does so in convincing fashion, making a somewhat conventional but almost always enjoyable thrill ride.

It's a guy movie to the core. Featured is gratuitous killing and explosions, gratuitous nudity and sex, and over-the-top production design, all combined with a pulsing techno soundtrack. Add in some more doses or technical jargon and computer programs and you've finally got what amounts to the core of Sena's latest film. The technical dialogue sometimes tries too hard to "wow" you, the sex is at times tasteless to the point of being funny, and the high-profile nudity is there for the arousal of the male audience. Yes, Halle Berry does briefly expose her breasts, much to the delight of every guy in the audience. As could be expected, they're very nice, seeing them does little to add weight to the story, and they're shown so briefly that the publicity surrounding their exposure is unnecessary. However, the pair accomplishes what the producers wanted: they landed men in the seats.

Swordfish has a pretty dazzling beginning. The beginning of the film actually plays closer to the middle of the story, and supplies some pretty apparent technical wizardry. It's obvious that Joel Silver is the producer, as the effect that dominates the beginning of the film has its origins in the special effects that made The Matrix revolutionary (a previous Silver production). But, rather than being an exact bullet-time replication, the camera spins around the action while time is moving very slowly, allowing us to see the effects of an explosion while it happens. It's a great visual treat.

The acting is what could be expected. John Travolta always makes a pretty good bad guy (except in Battlefield Earth) and is a lot of fun. Hugh Jackman continues his expansion since X-Men made him a star. In an appeal to the female audience members, Jackman always seems to be without his shirt. And Halle Berry is, well, Halle Berry. She isn't expected to do all that much more than flash a great body and be a cunning sextress in skimpy outfits. That's exactly what we get.

Dominic Sena, his last outing being the horrible Gone in Sixty Seconds, improves. He's directed the film with an obvious blockbuster mentality and in the case of Swordfish, it's actually welcome. He's shot the film in an interesting exposure scheme, making the film seem saturated with subdued colors and brightness. Skip Woods makes his Hollywood film debut with a pretty decent script. It's a script geared toward technical tidbits, action sequences, and complicated situations. It mostly succeeds, only occasionally making us wonder about some of the action and dialogue of the characters.

Swordfish is the type of film that I usually loathe. I usually can't stand films with mindless action, but thankfully Swordfish has a brain behind it. It's a somewhat complicated, very gratuitous display of male filmmaking. Because it knows what it wants to accomplish, Swordfish actually pleases more than it disappoints.

On a scale of 1 to 10 bandwidth hogs : 6