Firewall

June 24, 2006

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 116 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

The big problem with movies of this type is trying to keep the audience interested since they have seen it dozens of times before and most really don’t care to see it again. I feel the same way but this one had something the others didn’t, Harrison Ford! The man is known for playing 3 of the greatest action stars of all time so I thought why not; I’ll bite and see what happens.

Firewall The beginning is very much what I expected; Husband and Father Jack Stanfield (Ford) is getting ready for work and is chatting it up with the fam (just like all Ryan films). Typical sit-com/ made for TV crap; Wife Beth (Madsen), Daughter Sarah and son Andrew are bickering, Dad tries to fix everything, kisses their little heads, they ignore him… blah. blah, same old same old. I already told you it was predictable so don’t give me that look. Keep reading, it gets better.

Jack heads into work where we get to meet the rest of the clichéd characters in his world. The clueless boss played By Alan Arkin, Robert Patrick as the intimidating douche bag sent there to make the merger transition a seamless one and last but not least the mouthy secretary. Skip ahead to the end of Jack’s work day where he is accosted by a large man demanding he pay his online gambling debts. Jack is an upstanding guy and claims he not only doesn’t owe the money, he has never gambled in his life. The big guy threatens to sue him and he will see him in court. Of course everyone in ear shot hears this and it draws the attention of above mentioned douche bag, thus planting the needed motive to rob a bank later on in the story.

Jack turns to old friend and ‘cleaner’ Harry (Forster) to clear up his little misunderstanding about debts owed and packs up to go home for the night. Tonight is Pizza Night and he has to get home to the family.

Harry catches him just as he is leaving and asks him to join him for a drink so they can meet a potential financial backer and go into business for themselves once the merger is complete. They head to a bar where they meet Bill Cox (Bettany) and discuss this and that. Meanwhile, back at the ranch the family’s dinner arrives in the form of yummy pizza, but instead of Johnny the local pizza boy, this pizza is delivered by 4 heavily armed men intent on wrong doing. The bad guys tie up mom and kids and take pictures of them on their cell phones. But where will these pictures be sent you ask?

The meeting concludes and the 3 split to go their seperate ways. Jack to go home, Harry to catch a plane and just as the cab carrying Harry gets out of sight the back door of Jack’s car opens and Bill gets in. Jack asks what he wants and without saying anything pulls out a gun points it at him and shows him the picture of his family. Of course the bad guy responsible for Jack’s bad day is in his backseat and the movie kicks in from here. It would seem the baddies want Jack to help them rob the bank from the inside using wire transfers and if he does not cooperate they will kill his family.

That’s the plot and the story although very, VERY predictable is pretty well written. Firewall has some decent acting in it… from the main characters anyway. The technology scenes are not as ridiculously idiotic as the ones you have seen in other High-Tech thrillers like The Net and Swordfish; So, at the very least they treat the geeky audience members with some respect - Don’t get me wrong here, you will have to suspend disbelief a lot, you just won’t shake your head like you did with the others… you know who you are by the way. Last and most importantly of all, Harrison Ford gets to kick a little ass and smack fools which gives me hope for Indy 4. Harrison does look old as hell from time to time in this one, and you might half expect him to get sleepy and take a nap between scenes, but fear not my internet friends.

Ford is still Jack Ryan, Indiana Jones and Han Solo all rolled into one… it’s just packaged in an older box for this movie.

Posted by J.C. Edwards | Filed Under 3 Stars, Action, DVD, Harrison Ford, PG-13, Paul Bettany, Robert Forster, Thriller, Virginia Madsen