Customer Reviews

Swordfish [HD DVD]

5 star:		(91)
4 star:		(87)
3 star:		(46)
2 star:		(59)
1 star:		(51)

 

 

Ignore the Amazon editorial review and all the other reader reviews. I don't want to spoil this movie for you by telling you too much about the plot or describing in perfect detail some of the best scenes in the movie but what I will tell you is...
1) Yes, it's true, Dominic Sena's last directorial effort Gone In Sixty Seconds was a MAJOR dissapointment BUT SWORDFISH ISN'T!!! It's a good movie!
2) Travolta is good
3) Halle Berry is good
4) Don Cheadle is underused and
5)Hugh Jackman is a major star in the making.
6) The now infamous scene of Halle Berry topless was probably unnecessary and perhaps gratuitous (but hey, she's a good looking woman with a good body). Sorry, did I say good? I meant great...but if this is the only reason why you'd watch this movie, then you really do need to get a life.
7)This was one of the better films of the summer.
8)It is neither formulaic nor does it lack ambition. Unlike most movies of this genre it challenges it's audience to excercise the old grey matter and it's got a half-decent twist.

Sure it has some faults, like did they run out of money for FX when they shot the scene of the bus landing on the roof? And the change of pace and edit from past events back to present was badly thought out and jarred a bit. BUT you know what? I liked this movie and the directorial set-piece that everybody wants to spoil for you by describing it to you in every detail is excellent. I only wish the moviemakers had been able to take that extra step and made a great rather than good movie. Buy some popcorn, kick back and enjoy this one on a Saturday night at home in front of the TV...

Although I have seen the movie years ago when it was on cinemas across the world and of course on dvd several times, I bought the blu-ray version in order to see the difference. I must admit that the experience was incredible and during the scenes that John Travolta was firing to the FBI agents and Hugh Jackman was driving, it was like that I have been on the street, in the middle of the crossfire.

If you want to experience the blu-ray difference, I strictly recommend the movie. That's how you see the development from DVD to Blu-Ray.

All I will say is this film looks and sounds brilliant on blu ray. A must for your collection.

Simply put, the cinematic vasectomy of a script reeked badly of stale pizza and bong water, complete with its cheerfully care-free grade-school world views.

Not one trite action movie cliche is left unturned --

(1) A smash and crash background score with a lifetime supply of techno
(2) And a Fuji-color sepia tone to go with it...you know, that yellowish brown look-ma-I'm-so-cool kind of film glow, the type used in wannabe hitech movies
(3) An oh-so-cool "hacker" (sigh) who can do it all given enough number of powerful Dell servers, including guessing a 32-hash password in less than 1 minute. It's also a bit tiring to see Hollywood propagate this doozy myth where a single key press brings up screenloads of highly classified information.
(4) Our dear hacker of course lives in an abandoned stilt bus outta town, in abject poverty, being perfectly content with it given his honesty and all
(5) A wrap-on prop of a female (played, gulp, by Halle Berry) who knows everything about everyone at the right time, because well, she is an underdog for the.... [You Know, One of Those Highly Confidential Type Organizations]
(6) A daylight bank robbery with guns bigger than the buses they were carried in, and masks and hostages, a la "Dog Day Afternoon"
(7) A rich man who can afford it all in his swank disco, including promising 20 million to the hacker for this supercool banking hack which'll allow them to interchange monies between all these international banks
(8) A needless gratuitous nudie scene, and then a needless gratuitous nudie scene
(9) Oh, and let's not forget a pulpy twist in the end that so badly defies logic, you have to be a Jessica Simpson to fall for it. Plus, I wonder if US police force has at least a couple of helicopters of its own.

YET:

There is something about the movie that makes it watchable. Thrice. May be it is precisely the kind of pulpy action that us media junkies seem to find our escapism in. It's all in the package:

(1) Mindblowing explosions. I mean, really!
(2) Some pretty edge-of-the-seat chases
(3) Great fight sequences
(4) A helicopter in a high-rise town
(5) A fantastic background score

ALL IN ALL:

A pretty decent fare overall for action buffs. May also be a good male-bonding movie, especially for guys just beginning to "ping" and "tracert." If you enjoy The Matrix trilogy, you just may enjoy this too.

Go for it. And leave your common sense at the door.

This is not a review of the movie itself (there are other comments and reviews in this one and the dvd version) but a review of the video transfer of this Blu Ray. This is a good looking transfer in 1080p/VC-1 video, colors are very well saturated, blacks are rock solid and the contrast is really good. The audio is in English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround and encoded at 640kbps. It has a lot of sorround effects specially in the beggining with the 'Matrix'-esque "girl with bomb explodes" sequence. That sequence in particular is the one you can display to show your blu ray player.
The bottom line... it is a nice (but not excellent) action film that will look good in Blu Ray, specially beign one of the first who came out.

Written in a non-linear fashon, the movie picks up about 3/4th the way through, showing the "big explosion" right off the top. The effects was certainly the best of a otherwise hum drum year, but it all goes down hill from there.
Nothing original here, leaving no cliche plot device untouched. Seriously, this is two hours of my life I'll never get back.
If you want to watch some edgy film style, watch memento. If you want to watch a Hacker movie, see the Matrix again. If you want to watch somehting that just shuts your brain off, pick up anything else, but do yourself a favor on this one.

They did a good job cleaning this movie to make it look so sharp on HD. So sharp I caught myself rewinding Halle Berry's scene a few times before continuing the movie.

Swordfish tells the story of a renegade group of former U.S. government spooks and their convoluted plans to steal hundreds of millions of dollars to finance their mysterious global plans. I don't want to give away too much of the story, but it's a bit far-fetched at the very least.

Hugh Jackman plays a computer hacker who just can't resist a big caper. John Travolta is the enigmatic Gabriel, former black ops agent of the highest degree. Gabriel's scheme is a little foggy and his motives are horribly misguided. Halle Berry is little more than window dressing, her primary role to appear topless or in her lingerie in as many scenes as possible.

All in all, Swordfish is an entertaining action movie that's pretty short on plot and featuring a shady and overconvoluted conspiracy story. The action sequences are well-filmed and exciting, but like so many movies these days, this one depends on the excitement to carry the film rather than the story. It's a fun ride at times, but you come away fairly empty handed.

So you have this very noble idea, eliminating terrorism from the world, but how far would you go? Gabriel (John Travolta) is part of a secret organization to stop terrorism, but he needs more funding. He seeks out a retired computer hacker named Stanley (Hugh Jackman) to crack several mainframes and databases transferring over 4 billion dollars into their account. Stanley, who is in the middle of a dirty custody battle for his daughter (which is brought up at least once every fifteen minutes. Everyone from the FBI to Halle Berry wants to save this kid from her mother and porn-directing stepfather), was recently arrested for hacking by the FBI. If he touches a computer, will be sent to jail...

This movie references several cinematic masterpieces such as "Dog Day Afternoon" and "Sugarland Express." What I found most interesting about the plot is that it borrows so much from these movies, while still being considered original. You almost get the feeling as the bus drives off to the airport; you know what will happen. But just as Gabriel says, "Oh, come on, Stan. Not everything ends the way you think it should. Besides, audiences love happy endings."

This movie was just the right length, had just the right actors, but had too much computer jargon for the regular person to understand. While some may know what a "worm" is, others will be stumped as they (Travolta and Jackman) exchange ideas on 1,064 bit encryption and backdoors. The writers of the movie understood what they wrote, but my girl-friend still a little confused on some of the topics.

Overall, I enjoyed this film immensely. Much better than Battlefield Earth, I assure you!

It has explosions and Halle Barry's [chest]. Despite what the critics say that makes for a movie any man is sure to love. The same critics who bash this because it's totally implausible are the ones who loved "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". Yeah, that's sure plausible to be able to run up the side of buildings and jump 30 feet in the air without any assist. If you want plausibility go watch Schindler's List. If you just want a good time and would like to see Halle Barry's hidden assets then grab some popcorn and enjoy.