Product Details

• Actors: John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle, Sam Shepard
• Directors: Dominic Sena
• Writers: Skip Woods
• Producers: Bruce Berman, Jim Van Wyck
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
• VHS Release Date: October 30, 2001
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (376 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00003CY0U
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #24,920 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Swordfish is a superficial movie, so let's address the superficial facts: Halle Berry was well paid to bare her breasts in this gratuitous cyber-action thriller, and while Berry's many fans will enjoy a cheap drool at the actress's expense, her brief topless scene doesn't justify this insipid parade of glossy violence from the director of 2000's Gone in 60 Seconds. Add yet another notch in John Travolta's bad-movie belt, and you've got Hollywood bankruptcy in full blossom. Go ahead, marvel at director Dominic Sena's biggest money shot--a 360-degree pan as a robbery hostage is blown to bits by a bomb that pelts a surrounding SWAT squad with deadly ball bearings.

The plot, as if it matters: Travolta's a slick, self-appointed antiterrorist who recruits a top-flight computer hacker (Hugh Jackman) to transfer a $9.5 billion government slush fund into a cluster of secret accounts. Berry's the curvaceous bait who lures Jackman into the scheme; Don Cheadle's an FBI agent hot on their tails; and an obligatory subplot turns Jackman's daughter (Camryn Grimes) into an innocent bargaining chip. By the time a hostage transport bus is airlifted in the film's not-so-thrilling climax, Swordfish will hold your passive attention or put you to sleep--it all depends on your tolerance for Sena's brand of derivative bloodlust. It's pornography of a sort, and efficiently mechanical, but you can bet good money that Berry and her costars didn't cash their paychecks proudly. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker

For about an hour, it's nasty fun. John Travolta, looking like something from "The Planet of the Apes," is a shadowy fanatical patriot who terrorizes innocent people to prove to professional terrorists how tough he will be on them (or something like that); Hugh Jackman is a rather brawny hacker employed by Travolta; Halle Berry, not invariably clothed, is the lure that keeps Jackman in place. The screenplay, by Skip Woods, consists of a series of erotic taunts; the action, directed by Dominic Sena, is preposterous but entertaining. Somewhere along the line, however, the plot becomes so far-fetched, and the digital effects and violence so opportunistic, that one loses interest. The digitally innocent will be excited by shots of a helicopter toting a bus through the buildings of downtown Los Angeles. Produced by the veteran summer-season sledgehammer Joel Silver. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars GOOD BUT NOT GREAT, November 2, 2001

By	Mr. N. Carnegie (Kirkcaldy, Scotland, UK.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Swordfish (DVD)

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...

40 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Swordfish" chums up action and confusion in great heaps, June 11, 2001

By	phimseto (Chestnut Hill, MA United States) - See all my reviews

"Swordfish" opens with John Travolta facing toward the camera, looking contemplative and addressing his off-screen audience. The problem with Hollywood, his character Gabriel dryly suggests, is that it doesn't push the envelope enough. With all that cinematic potential, say like with "Dog Day Afternoon, why have a pointless,(mostly) harmless bank robbery when you could examine how far the cops would go in being uncooperative if Pacino started killing hostages? The problem, Gabriel is told, is that audiences like happy endings and that such tales are morality plays - the bad guy has to lose.

It's an amusing moment, and it sets up "Swordfish" as a counterpoint to that line of reasoning. The movie plays as a postmodern (and by post-modern I mean post-Tarantino) action film, cutting the audience just enough slack for them to decide whether or not they want to root for the bad guy, who is most certainly Gabriel. The film's message, beyond the drive of the plot, is that the audiences root for the bad guy. Whether or not they want/would allow him to win is tested on-screen by Hugh Jackman, playing the "everyman" with certain talents that pull him into Gabriel's high-stakes world.

Unfortunately, "Swordfish" suffers from its own cleverness, much in the same way people disliked Mission: Impossible or LA Confidential. There are twists and turns galore, and every other character is not who they appear to be. "Swordfish", though, doesn't quite pull it off. At one point, Gabriel talks about the greatness of Harry Houdini and the art of misdirection, which serves as a blueprint for this movie. The audience sees what Hugh Jackman's Stanley sees - the misdirection, and there's so much of it that it becomes an exercise in dizziness trying to juggle all the details. In this respect, the magician's trick works. However, as a film, it leaves the viewer more confused than amused, more depressed than impressed, and not caring enough about what happens to the characters since they don't really know who the characters REALLY are at any given moment.

Still, through it all is Gabriel, who may or may not be any number of things. It doesn't affect how he acts, though, and much of the fun in "Swordfish" is watching Travolta revisit familiar and confident territory as the wisecracking heavy. In fact, the strength of "Swordfish" is truly found in the performances. Even as the plot unfolds with its slight of hand, there's enough eye candy and wry humor there to make for an enjoyable film. Don Cheadle and Hugh Jackman are great, playing it all with a straight face (necessary to make an action film work), and Vinnie Jones stops by to look menacing though he is not given nearly enough to do.

"Swordfish" is a tough catch to reel in. It is an ambitious action film that doesn't quite become what it wants to be and, in failing, leaves much of the audience in its thrashing wake. For recommendations sake, if you disliked "The Usual Suspects" or "Mission: Impossible" because of their labyrinthine, snaking plots, you will probably not enjoy "Swordfish". If you liked "Ronin" or "Broken Arrow" because of their pacing and performances, you will probably get a kick out of "Swordfish". The movie never quite gives the audience enough to judge whether Gabriel or his dissenters are right, but it sure has a lot of fun trying to deliver the goods. A true summer film, and a worthy popcorn film for those in need of one.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A SUPERB BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE, April 11, 2007

By	Kivanc Erman (Istanbul, TURKEY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Swordfish [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

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.