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The Movie:  They say a Hollywood career can be like a roller coaster, one minute your up, next minute your down. Well in the case of John Travolta this statement has been one he's known all too well. Once a major box office draw in the late 70's early 80's with films like Grease, Saturday Night Fever this former star of Welcome Back Kotter has seen his share of box office failure as well with turns in The Experts (1989), Eyes of an Angel (1991) and Shout (1991). However in 1994, he made a huge comeback in Quentin Tarrentino's Pulp Fiction as Vincent Vega. A role which would once again put him atop the Hollywood A-List. Over the next few years he'd go on to make some good movies and some bad ones. Among the highlights were Phenomenon (1996), Broken Arrow (1996), Face Off (1997) and A Civil Action (1998). On the other side of the coin were such movies as Michael (1996), Mad City (1997)and Primary Colors (1998). With such a mixed bag of successes and failures it would be hard to truly count on John as a sure fire box office draw. In late 1999, John starred in Con Air director Simon West's movie The General's Daughter, a smart thriller with enough plot twists to keep viewers on their feet. It looked like John was back, or was he? The year 2000 came and John's big project was one he believed in quite a bit. Battlefield Earth based on the first half of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's epic novel. A project that came under a certain amount of controversy as some religious groups claimed it to be nothing more then a piece of propaganda for the religion which is popular amongst celebrities. Add to this the fact that it was a pretty bad film. No doubt hurt by Battlefield Earth's box office, the dark comedy Lucky Numbers which co-starred Lisa Kudrow opened amongst little fanfare after being pushed back on the release schedule. Now after a little more then a year since Lucky Numbers, John returns to the big screen in the big budget action/cyber thriller Swordfish from director Dominic Sena (Gone in 60 Seconds). Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman) once the worlds number one computer hacker and a recently released felon is now living in the middle of nowhere Midland, Texas to be exact. As part of his condition of release he is unable to touch a keyboard of any kind so to pass the time he has taken up golf and works a meaningless job. Stanley is also unable to see his daughter Holly as part of the divorce agreement between his ex-wife and himself. Stanley has taken her to court countless times and the case is always thrown out. One day a mysterious women named Ginger (Halle Berry) shows up at his trailer and explains that her employer will offer Stanley a substantial amount of money for just a meeting. She also suggests that there is more money to come and that her boss has both the money and the power needed to gain a court order to allow Stanley to see his daughter again. Reluctantly Stanley agrees. Ginger takes Stanley to a secret back alley club where she meets up with her boss the illusive Gabriel Shear (a long haired John Travolta). Stanley and Gabriel meet and all is well until Stanley asks for the money. Then all of a sudden guns are pointed at Stanley's head and he has to hack into a 128bit encrypted Department of Defense database in 60 seconds or else he will be killed. 60 seconds and a few false tries later just as he is about to be shot he manages to break through and it's clear that Gabriel has found his man for the job . Meanwhile Agent A.D Roberts (Don Cheadle) is trying to piece together the reason why 2 of the worlds best hackers would both be in LA at the same time. When he notices that Stanley has an ex-wife in town it's decided to sit on her house in case Stanley should pop by. The next morning at Gabriel's headquarters Gabriel explains to Stanley what his role in this job is. He is to pop the firewall and hack into a 512 bit encrypted database of a major bank enabling Gabriel to take 9 billion dollars from a bunch of dummy corporations set up by the government. This project was classified as Project Swordfish. Stanley is wondering what is up but the money talks as he really just wants to be there more for his daughter. Suddenly when plans change Stanley is presented with a moral question that could change the outcome of Project Swordfish. John Travolta is some what back on the right track with Swordfish . As his portrayal of a sleazy, no nonsense cyber terrorist, a guy that has others do the majority of the work until things go wrong and actions have to be stepped up is right on the money. His role here reminded me of his work in Broken Arrow in which he played a similar character who stole two nuclear warheads. Hugh Jackman (X-Men) who was last seen in the dreadful romantic comedy Someone Like You appears to be more at home here in this action oriented role. Jackman is good as a man facing a moral dilemma of helping to commit a major terrorist act just so that he can once again spend time with his daughter. Jackman is a star on the rise and one can only hope that by taking the aforementioned role in that dreadful romantic comedy it isn't a sign of things to come. Halle Berry plays Ginger the only real female character in this movie and even then she isn't given much to do here. Although she does appear in her first nude scene in this movie. A scene which she was reportedly paid between $500,000 and a million dollars for alone. The nude scene isn't really integral to the story and while it was a nice little surprise that's about all it added to the movie for me. Berry who also appeared alongside Jackman in X-Men appears to be here just for the T&A factor and to convince Jackman's Stanley to continue to work for Gabriel. In a smaller role the always excellent Don Cheadle who also was a law enforcement member in Steven Soderbergh's Traffic is fine here as well. After these two movies I think Cheadle could play a federal Agent in his sleep, a talented performer who deserves a bigger role.  Director Dominic Sena who brought us last summers disappointing action film Gone in 60 Seconds is back in the directors seat for this one and manages to churn out a far better product this time around. While the action scenes in Gone were somewhat impressive, they weren't anything spectacular. Here they are much bigger, louder, more raw and it works much better. The dramatic sequences were downright painfully to watch in Gone but that was mostly due to the writers dreadful screenplay. This time around writer Skip Woods gives Sena more to work with in the dramatic sequences including a couple of brilliant speeches from Gabriel. While this film won't win any Oscars for drama, it's a lot better then Gone. One of the best things about Swordfish is it's pacing and how it doesn't take itself seriously. It doesn't try and drag itself out, it's fast paced and exciting. It successfully combines the best parts of Hackers, Speed and The Rock while not over wearing it's welcome. It's big, it's loud, it's exciting and it's not toned down for the kids. Plain and simple this is a popcorn movie for adults, this is not your watered down Mummy Returns type of movie. Sit back and enjoy the ride. Review by Mark McLeod, 6/8/2001 |