mandag 17. april 2017

Swordfish (2001)

An intro where John Travolta discusses an alternate take on "Dog Day Afternoon" with Don Cheadle... Bold. The immediate twist is quite titillating, though and sets up what is undeniably a very cool flick.

Another thing it does well is tension. There are some excellent build-ups (particularly early on) that keep you on the edge of your seat. They even have a lot of originality and tongue-in-cheek during scenes. Always a welcome feeling during movies.

Chemistry in the cast is excellent. Not only between Jackman and the brilliant Travolta, but also Hally Berry (never sexier than here) and aforementioned Jackman. It's particularly entertaining to see her flaunt her sexuality and self-assuredness one step too long and have Jackman toss her down a flight of stairs. Travolta as utterly cool and ruthless with the greater goal in mind, is always a treat.

Dominic Sena also creates a very nice "out of this world"-world, though he uses a lot of booty and titties with green filters and crap techno and rap in order to do so. But as a man, I suppose it would be ungrateful to whine over excess of booty.

The part of the daughter is a stupid and unnecessary. It's been done hundreds of times, adds very little to the story, and even less to the characters. Other than establishing the protagonist's motives as noble, which is nailed into the ground by making his ex a drug-addict pornstar that constantly neglects their child. And that his unlawfulness was naturally justified. So the point of travelling a yard is made with a Sherman M4. Why, oh why...

Furthermore they make Jackman into a bit much of a rugged macho-man to pass as a credible computer hacker. Particularly ambivalent as he is a whimpering pussy whenever there's action. And action is plenty. It is nicely portioned and quite entertaining a lot of the time, before it overshoots horribly towards the end.

That's mainly nitpicking a film that really doesn't take itself too seriously, though. It wants to be sleek, cool and entertaining. And it succeeds for most of its 96 minutes.

7/10
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