I wish Harrison Ford's upcoming vehicle Firewall didn't look so damn generic, or at least so much similar, to last year's Bruce Willis vehicle Hostage. But at least Willis' was based on a cookie-cutter formulaic beach read by Robert Crais. This one's based on nothin', and nothin's what I fear I'll get out of it.
The movie's titular subject matter (Identity theft — dum dum DUM!) threatens to give the movie a Pet Rock shine to it even before it's released. ("See? There's this thing, it's called the Internets? And on it there's these things called, um, firewalls?").
The trailer does nothing to dial down this paint-by-numbers deja-vu I'm having. Right out of the gate, the movie challenges one's ability to suspend disbelief.
Even with Paul Bettany involved, I'm having difficulty buying this. The director, Richard Loncraine, has nothing much in his resume that demonstrates he won't be anything less than outmatched and way over his head in dealing with the techno, the thriller, The Ford™, or the action parts of this flick.
The biggest and saddest part for me is how bored and chewed up Harrison Ford looks, and has looked, for years. Where have you gone, Han Solo?
Because Harrison Ford was, for a solid half of my life, in my most formative years, my favorite actor ever. He was a double-double of critically-acclaimed thespian while still giving great Popcorn action. I wanted to BE Han Solo. I wanted to BE Indiana Jones. I wanted to BE Rick Deckard.
The zenith was when he made (and was Oscar-nominated for) Witness the year after he made Temple of Doom. As John Book in Witness he's a revelation: good cop, white knight, action star, smoldering romantic lead — simply at the height of his powers.
He even went to eleven and showed he could pull off light deft romantic comedy with Working Girl.
Article comments
1 - DeeDee
Unfortunately, I think you're right. Even so, I'll be in the theater on February 10th to see Paul Bettany. It's been a long 16 months since his last movie. :-/
2 - Tiffany Leigh
Agreed. Bettany rocks. I heard he did this as a big favor to the director, who also directed him in Wimbledon. Besides, villains never get trashed in bad movies, so I'm sure this was foolproof for him. I assumed the checks cleared.
If he needs to perfect that "Just Give Me My Freaking Per Diem" mailed-in look for this movie, he need look no further than Harrison Ford, who pioneered that look in Return of the Jedi.