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Firewall (2006)
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Movie Review by Tony 
June 11th, 2006
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FIREWALL is what you call your typical Hollywood spring/summer thriller. 2 or 3 of these come along during this time period. They look the same, sound the same, and pretty much unfold the same. We saw it last year with HOSTAGE. You got your grizzled, old and intense father. Got your wife in distress. You got your cutesy movie kids who get tied up and cry on command. You got your evil, cartoonish villain. Got your twisty and turn plot with overly complicated nonsense. Now all you need is a negative review, which I'm ready to hand out.
We open up the film with a look into the life of Jack Stanfield (Harrison Ford). He is a security specialist at the bank he works at. He is there to protect them from hackers, and people trying to get their money. His wife is played by Virginia Madsen, and his two kids are played by Carly Schroeder and Jimmy Bennett. This is your everyday normal house. Father goes to work, mom is cooking and cleaning, the kids are bickering. But they are about to be taken on an unpleasant journey.
Jack and his fellow employee Harry (Robert Forster) are meeting with a possible business partner named Bill Cox (Paul Bettany). This is not your average business partner. Don't let his charms fool you. He takes Jack and his family hostage and wants him to break through the firewall he assembled and get him and his friends the money. If Jack does not do everything that Bill asks of him and does not get the money, he will kill his family. Along with the family dog named Rusty. Who barks too much.
Hearing the set-up for FIREWALL, you know this is familiar territory. Familiar territory can be good, if you are in good hands and the performances can help lift the material above it's screenplay. The problem is Harrison Ford is far too old for this role. He is laughable. He growls, and tries to look intense, but he appears to be trying far too hard. This used to come natural for Mr. Ford. But his charms are gone. He is resorted to picking up fire extinguishers and blenders as weapons and yelling out lines out such as "Change of plans a**hole!" This is truly sad. Madsen is wasted too, as she is just a do-nothing wife who just cries in the background. Give her more of a role and place in this film. She's an Academy Award nominated actress.
Bettany, who I usually really enjoy is too cartoonish to get into. I kept expecting him to have steam come out of his head, or laugh evilly. Jimmy Bennett was just in this movie last year with HOSTAGE, and he finds a way to crawl through ventilation systems in 2 movies! Now that's talent. The characters in this film are all very, very dumb and make stupid choices. Ford and Madsen make choices in this film early on that could have gotten them and their children killed. These are not good parents.
The soundtrack and score of this film also drove me mad. It is loud, noisy, unnecessary and over bearing. Every time a scene gets intense, they really pound you with it over the head. I know those are commonplace in these thrillers, but ease up on it! The camera work is also very sloppy and I grew annoyed of the freeze frame shots of violence or people screaming. This film has zero style or slick thriller traits to it. Has the look of a straight to video thriller.
Don't get me started on the dug Rusty, who somehow founds a way to live in a situation where any dog would be killed.
The last 30 minutes of the film take a lot of twists and turns, some I liked, some I did not. But you need to build to those scenes and the build up of this film does not work. It does not work since you have dumb characters and a plot that is completely dead in the water. Then it just goes down the familiar fight scenes with good guy vs bad guy. It gets loud, violent, and just kinda stupid. FIREWALL proves that Ford needs to start taking the Nick Notle and Morgan Freeman wise old guy roles. His tough guy days are behind him.
Tony Farinella
Grade: D
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