Firewall (2006)
Wednesday, July 12th, 2006
Directed by: Richard Loncraine
Cast: Harrison Ford, Paul Bettany, Virginia Madsen, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Robert Patrick, Robert Forster, Alan Arkin, Carly Schroeder, Jimmy Bennett
Runtime: 105 min.
Rating: PG-13
Trailer
Jack Stanfield (Harrison Ford), a security specialist for a large bank, has his home invaded by a daring group of criminals hell-bent on using Stanfield’s knowledge of the bank security system to rob it of millions. Besides being a tired and generic plot to most thrillers, which for some reason always involve Harrison Ford, Firewall barely rises above the hokey episodes found on television dramas and succumbs to a total lack of originality. The criminal mastermind Bill Cox (played by the always competent Paul Bettany), is less a cunning thief than a mere boob. He owes a lot to the Hollywood standard practice of utilizing a young and dashing European as its only requirement in creating an interesting villain. This is also known, in some circles, as Hans Gruber Method, thanks to Alan Rickman’s role in the first Die Hard. The script, written by Joe Forte, is bereft of any real suspense or imagination, relying instead on cliché ridden scenes that either focuses on family drama – complete with a child allergy to peanuts – or piggybacking standard thriller conceits: dull car chase sequences, stealing and downloading secret computer files, characters framed for crimes they didn’t commit, and the inevitable super-human macho fist fights. Most of the actors are wasted, including Virginia Madsen as Jack’s wife, Beth, who succumbs to simple variations of helplessness and pleading in almost every scene she’s in; Robert Forster, Alan Arkin and Robert Patrick round out the rest of the cast and it’s unimaginable that such a great pool of talent would look lost, but in their defense, they don’t look as out-to-sea as Harrison Ford. Middle way through the film, Paul Bettany’s character orders Jack to fire his secretary, Janet Stone (Mary Lynn Rajskub), not because he hates her but simply because he doesn’t care. Well, my thoughts on Firewall echo those sentiments exactly.
Richard X
© Cinephile Magazine, 2006
