Firewall is a decent action/thriller, but the film is far from great thanks to a predictable plot and an aging Harrison Ford still trying to cling to his once “action star” status. There is nothing wrong with the movie, but there is just not much there that audiences haven’t seen a hundred times before in other Ford thriller films.
The movie was directed by Richard Loncraine (Wimbledon), and has a cast that knows how to deliver a good movie including Paul Bettany, Virginia Madsen, Alan Arkin, Robert Forster and Robert Patrick.
In Firewall, Ford plays Jack Stanfield the Vice President of security at a Seattle bank that has just recently upgraded to a new state-of-the-art computer security system (and gives Dell Computers lots of product placement opportunities). The bank is in the process of a merger that has Ford and his partner Harry (Forster) a little uneasy and even thinking about other opportunities.
This feeling is made strong by Jack’s dislike of Gary Mitchell (Robert Patrick) - who is the lead handler in the merger deal. The audience also quickly learns that Stanfield is a good family man with a loving wife named Beth (Madsen) and two typical children Andy (played by Jimmy Bennett) and Sarah (played by Carly Schroeder).
After a quick call home to Beth, Stanfield agrees to be late for “pizza night” at home, and to go with Harry to meet Bill Cox (Bettany) to discuss future job possibilities. Following a short meeting, he gets in his car to head home, but is shocked when Cox jumps in the backseat. The audience knows what is going on because we have been watching Stanfield’s family being brutally attacked in a home invasion. A quick flash of a picture on a Cox’s cell phone reveals the truth to Stanfield.
By the end, Ford is in full action hero mode
Along with a computer hacker and a couple of hired guns, Cox has captured Stanfield and family to help aid the crooks in robbing the bank of $100 million. The plan is simple: rig Stanfield’s house with cameras to keep an eye on the hostages; send Stanfield (also rigged with microphones and cameras) to the bank; have him withdraw money from a variety of multimillion accounts; transfer the money to the crooks’ account; and getaway free and clear. Naturally, none of this works out as planned.
The crooks have done excellent job with their homework and know everything about Stanfield, his bank, and his family. However, they somehow missed that the computers they would need to pull off the heist were replaced when the bank upgraded its security. This forces them to come up with a plan B – which basically means threaten Stanfield to “MacGyver” a way to steal the money using parts from a fax machine and his daughter’s iPod. This sets up the second half of the movie where Ford goes into full on action hero, and a bank executive changes to a white collar Rambo.
Stanfield goes after the money, but quickly begins to discover he is being set up to take the fall for the crime. He uses another cell phone to take a picture of the accounts that he is stealing the money from; finds out his family has been moved; Harry has been killed; and has his secretary help him steal the money back from the crooks. With the ball now in his court, Ford blackmails the crooks for the return of his family and uses his dog’s tracking collar to locate them for a final showdown. You can pretty much figure out how the movie is going to end from there.
Firewall is not a bad movie, but it gets too far fetched and extremely predictable. Sadly, Ford is about the worse thing in the entire movie. He falls into the same old character that he has played in films like Air Force One and those two other movies with a guy named Jack.
While Ford’s performance in Firewall isn’t the worse thing in the movie, (and is better than Hollywood Homicide) it is still a far cry from the actor’s early work. Instead, he comes across as tired and out of touch. It also makes you doubt the odds of seeing him pull off Indiana Jones one more time (even if I will be in line to buy a ticket).
Bettany is truly evil in the film
The film does benefit from an intense and almost downright evil performance from Bettany. The actor holds his own against Ford’s caliber of superstar, and even makes the movie a little exciting from time to time. He delivers his lines with a chilling cold tone (such as when he calls one of his thugs and instructs him to break the son’s knee), and truly doesn’t seem to care about killing anyone that gets in the way of his money.
At the same time, even the villain of the movie is transparent and tired. We have seen this kind of over-the-top bad guy a hundred times before, and know it is only a matter of time before Ford beats the snot out of him.
By the time the film’s final showdown arrives, the plot holes (and there are more than a couple of them) are starting to weigh the film down, and Ford’s action hero is looking even more out of step.
The DVD does come with some decent special features including Firewall Decoded: A conversation with Harrison Ford and Richard Loncraine – which features the actor and director discussing what attracted them to the film and the various drafts that the script went through to keep everyone happy; and Firewall: Writing A Thriller – an interview with writer Joe Forte about his experiences writing the movie in his garage and how different things (such as fear of home invasion, Sept. 11th, and identity theft) influenced aspects of the script. The DVD is presented in 2.40:1 Widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.
While both of these features are interesting, the DVD does lack from a broader “making of” feature or any kind of commentary. It is also interesting to hear Ford comment about how they (actors, director, and studio) were not all happy with the film at any certain time, and how the script had to be doctored before everyone would be satisfied.
Firewall does get a bit brutal at certain points in the film
While Firewall is far from a perfect thriller, it does manage to entertain, and Ford does live up to his action star status (even if he is starting to show a little age). The film benefits greatly from Bettany’s performance and from the “high tech” feel of the caper. I would recommend the movie to anyone wanting a light popcorn thriller or fans of Ford. It is a fun movie to watch even if we have seen the same basic performances and plot in other Ford movies. It won’t disappoint, but don’t expect too much.
Firewall is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a July 24th release. Visit the DVD’s database for more information.
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