Swordfish *** (2001, John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry) Classic Film Review 1186

Director Dominic Sena’s 2001 action thriller stars John Travolta, who is good fun as Mr Evil, the nasty boss of a crime syndicate, who finds that hacker Hugh Jackman is just the bloke to crack a computer code to accounts worth $10billion.

Cue non-stop shooting, chases and explosions in the style of Gone in 60 Seconds, as Jackman’s daughter is kidnapped to ensure his help when his fixation on syndicate sexpot Halle Berry evaporates.

Travolta has slimmed down nicely, but leaves all the running around and chest-exposure to Jackman and Berry, who make a handsome, vibrant duo. Berry was apparently paid half a million extra to go topless. Supposedly she agreed to the topless scene, for an extra fee of $500,000 on top of her initial $2 million, because she wanted to overcome her fear of doing nude scenes.

The plot’s idiotic and the dialogue ludicrous, but action fans won’t care, what with stuntmen and effects guys working in overdrive, Vinnie Jones as Mr Evil’s enforcer and so much blood and guts.

Written by Skip Woods, it’s trash with flash. And as such, it’s a typical lusty movie of its producer, Joel Silver. Don Cheadle, Sam Shepard, Drea de Matteo, Tate Donovan and Ann and Margaret Travolta also co-star.

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 1186

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