 Director :
Richard Loncraine
Starring : Harrison Ford, Virginia Madsen, Paul Bettany
Trailer for Firewall
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The plot of Firewall
Security specialist Jack Williams (Ford) is forced into robbing the bank he works for, as a bid to pay off the ransom on his kidnapped family.
Firewall Review
Review by Brian Lowry:
At its core a high-tech, wi-fi version of "The Desperate Hours," "Firewall" begins slowly, exhibits hints of promise in the middle and then descends into silliness. Harrison FordHarrison Ford has the whole "Not with my family, you don't" Everyman routine down to a science, but the improbable twists begin piling up before the star finally goes commando. Beyond Paul BettanyPaul Bettany's suave villain, there's not much to distinguish what amounts to an old-fashioned "B" picture, except perhaps its unusually overwrought score. Box office prospects look so-so on a pic that has "rental" written all over it.Ford has aged gracefully into roles where he's the caring dad, CIA analyst or president who has to save his family, country or plane. Still, this is clearly on the lighter end of that spectrum, both in terms of stakes and believability factor.As Jack Stanfield, Ford has an idyllic life, with a pretty, accomplished wife (Virginia Madsen) and two squabbling kids (Carly Schroeder, Jimmy Bennett). All that is quickly upended, however, when a team of gunmen invades the house.The group's leader, Bill Cox (Bettany), has been tracking Stanfield's movements as head of network security for a Seattle bank. Cox plans to take Stanfield's family hostage and compel the patriarch to transfer millions into an offshore account. And while Jack's impulse is to rebel, Cox's elaborate setup includes all kinds of surveillance equipment to monitor his every move.Thus begins the game of cat and mouse, forcing Jack to behave strangely around his assistant ("24's" Mary Lynn Rajskub), another security expert (Robert Patrick) and colleague Harry (Robert ForsterRobert Forster). Yet given Cox's ruthlessness. Review By Dana Stevens:
Firewall (Warner Bros.) is one of those all-purpose, vaguely techy thrillers that roll out of Hollywood studios like colored spheres from a gumball machine, especially in the gloomy, post-Oscar-nomination days. Harrison Ford, in his standard-issue Henry Fonda-style role as aggrieved Everyman, plays Jack Stanfield, a computer security expert at a Seattle bank who lives in a fantabulous waterfront house designed by his architect wife, Beth (Virginia Madsen). Their enviable life includes two children, 14-year-old Sarah (Carly Schroeder) and 8-year-old Andrew (Jimmy Bennett). But as the film opens, we see every moment of the Stanfield's perfect life being observed by hidden cameras, tapped phones, and online surveillance.Who could wield such ominous, all-seeing power—the National Security Agency under new provisions of FISA? No, it's only Bill Cox (Paul Bettany), a ruthless British thief with an arsenal of cool toys and a team of interchangeable thugs at his disposal. Posing as a rich businessman who wants to poach Jack away from his job, Cox soon manages to infiltrate the Stanfield home, where he takes the whole family hostage until Jack agrees to use his security know-how to steal $100 million from his own bank.In order to appeal to the largest possible audience (and therefore, to no one in particular), Firewall has been relieved of even the remotest political or social subtext. This isn't a reflection on the disappearance of privacy or the role of technology in the modern age. |
