Firewall

***Note***
Even the trailer spoils this movie
***EndNote***

Firewall promised to be one of those high tech caper movies but it ended up being a product placement showcase. IPod, Samsung (TVs, and other appliances),Chrysler, Swansons(Hungry Man Dinners) litter the screen for far too long. This was supposed to be an action-type film but the action sequences were anything but. Action movies aren’t food for thought but they should be entertaining.

Harrison Ford is yet again placed in a situation where he needs to sacrifice himself in order to save his family. Ford plays a digital security expert that some meticulous but absentminded criminals, who kidnap his family, extort to steal money from the bank he works for. The criminals don’t expect the meek, mild mannered Ford to fight back but to their surprise he does and he does his best to ruin their plans.

There’s not much to say about this movie because the story was paper thin, the characters were lifeless and the action sequences were bland. The blame rests on everyone involved in the directing, writing and editing. The cast was up to the task of playing each of the simple characters but since they had nothing interesting or important to say, they all stiffly recited their lines and picked up their pay checks. Other than Ford and Bettany, there were some decent actors involved in this movie, Virginia Madsen, Robert Patrick and Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe O’Brian from ‘24’) but they were wasted on one note characters who should have been dropped because they added nothing to the picture. The air-headed wife and obnoxious children in the movie are terrible, if they wanted to make these characters totally unlikable and unsympathetic then they succeeded. I was hoping for a quick resolution to that situation when Ford said he wouldn’t work with the criminals.

This movie barely pushes a 1 out of 10 and deserves nothing more than a 2 thumbs down. This movie gets a 1 out of ten because I liked the final fight scene where Ford just wails the hell out of Paul Bettany and the MacGyver-esque contraption he comes up with to capture the bank account numbers.

Pros:
Ford beating up a pale-faced, pretty boy
Ford does an okay MacGyver impression

Cons:
Weak action
Lame characters
No attachment to anything
No resolution to the story