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Movies / On DVD / Swordfish
Swordfish

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Swordfish (2001)

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Reviews Counted:134

Fresh:34

Rotten:100

Average Rating:4.3/10

Consensus: Swordfish is big on explosions, but critics dislike how it skimps on plot and logic. Also, the sight of a person typing at a computer just isn't that interesting.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for violence, language, and some sexuality/nudity

Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Jun 8, 2001 Wide

Box Office: $68,760,155

Synopsis: There exists a world within our world. A world beneath what we call cyberspace. A world protected by firewalls, passwords and the most advanced security systems. In this world we hide our deepest... There exists a world within our world. A world beneath what we call cyberspace. A world protected by firewalls, passwords and the most advanced security systems. In this world we hide our deepest secrets, our most incriminating information, and of course, a whole lot of money. This is the world of Swordfish.

Gabriel Shear (JOHN TRAVOLTA), a charismatic and dangerous spy wanting to finance his own brand of patriotism, needs inside this world. If he can get in, billions in illegal government funds wait for the taking. To actually steal the money, however, heíll need a superhacker, someone whose talents make even the most airtight security systems of the world look like childís play.

That ís where Stanley Jobson (HUGH JACKMAN) enters the picture. One of the two best hackers on the planet, Stanley has been forbidden to get within 50 yards of the nearest electronics store after doing time for wreaking havoc on the FBI's controversial high tech cyber surveillance operations. Now Stanley is living out his life in a broken-down trailer, penniless, alone and without the two things that give his life meaning his computer and his daughter Holly, whom he lost in a divorce.

Gabriel and his beautiful partner Ginger (HALLE BERRY) lure Stanley into their clandestine world, baiting him with the one thing he can't have a chance to reunite with Holly and start a new life. But once Stanley enters their world, he realizes that nothing in this operation is what it seems and he has become a pawn in a plot that's a lot more sinister than a high tech bank heist.

From producer Joel Silver, who has brought to the screen some of today's most successful and acclaimed films, including the Oscar-winning smash The Matrix, and Jonathan D. Krane, whose roster of over 40 films includes Phenomenon and Primary Colors, comes a dark counter-espionage action thriller about power, money, sacrifice and 21st century breaking and entering. -- © 2001 Warner Bros. [More]

Starring: John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle

Starring: John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle, Camryn Grimes, Vinnie Jones, Sam Shepard, Zach Grenier, Drea de Matteo

Director: Dominic Sena

Director: Dominic Sena
Screenwriter: Skip Woods
Producer: Joel Silver, Jonathan D. Krane, Dan Cracchiolo
Composer: Christopher Young, Paul Okenfold
Studio: Warner Bros.

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Release:

Oct 30, 2001

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Reviews for Swordfish

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101 - 120 (sorted by date)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >> >|
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Superficially diverting and ultimately empty, an exercise in technique without content.

Full Review Source: Kansas City Star | comment Comment
06/08/01
Robert W. Butler
Robert W. Butler
Kansas City Star

It's skillfully mounted and fitfully intriguing.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
06/08/01
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Flaunting his bad guy talents ever since his Pulp Fiction comeback, Travolta streamlines that pathological persona as an online obsessed, virtual one man crime wave.

Full Review Source: WBAI Web Radio | comment Comment
06/08/01
Prairie Miller
Prairie Miller
WBAI Web Radio

The most mesmerizing and refreshing action film of the last three years.

Full Review Source: CinemaSense.Com | comment Comment
06/07/01
Cornell & Petricelli
Cornell & Petricelli
CinemaSense.Com

A meticulously choreographed bang-by-the-numbers action fantasy that I would accuse of peddling evil if the film weren't so dumb and incoherent.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
06/07/01
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Sena is too wrapped up in making every explosion a work of art that he never seems to notice how hollow it all is.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
06/07/01
Sean Axmaker
Sean Axmaker
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Date Movie? Bring one who can help you talk back to the screen.

Full Review Source: IFilm | comment Comment
06/07/01
Dave White
Dave White
IFilm

Relentlessly mediocre, and belligerently determined to hide its mediocrity under sleek production values and cocky attitude.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
06/07/01
Maitland McDonagh
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide

By the end ... I was praying for one giant cataclysm of ruination in which everyone would perish.

comment Comment
06/07/01
Lawrence Toppman
Lawrence Toppman
Charlotte Observer

It's all guts, no story.

comment Comment
06/07/01
Terry Lawson
Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The liveliest and most engaging time killer to come out of Hollywood in a long while.

comment Comment
06/07/01
Rene Rodriguez
Rene Rodriguez
Miami Herald

Oops, I think one of the flying bodies belonged to a screenwriter, the one who was meant to supply clever dialogue and plausibility.

comment Comment
06/07/01
Gary Thompson
Gary Thompson
Philadelphia Daily News

Stylish dreck disguised as a hard-core action flick.

comment Comment
06/07/01
Carrie Rickey
Carrie Rickey
Philadelphia Inquirer
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The story is mostly about what happens to various objects (plate glass windows, SUVs, senators) when they are riddled with bullets or detonated by explosives.

Full Review Source: Mr. Showbiz | comment Comment
06/07/01
Cody Clark
Cody Clark
Mr. Showbiz
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A film that is too clever by half and is without the common sense God gave a game fish.

Full Review Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | comment Comment
06/07/01
Duane Dudek
Duane Dudek
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Whatever interest the film creates is squandered via the smug, showy amorality that runs through it.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
06/07/01
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

If you like dumb fun and explosions, see this right away.

Full Review Source: Greenwich Village Gazette | comment Comment
06/07/01
Eric Lurio
Eric Lurio
Greenwich Village Gazette

Has a great opening, an exciting finale and in between it rarely bores and often entertains.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment Comment
06/07/01
Tom Maurstad
Tom Maurstad
Dallas Morning News

John, John, John -- one more bad-guy role in a bad movie and you're going to need another comeback.

comment Comment
06/07/01
Sean Means
Sean Means
Film.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It's the adrenaline rush of the year.

Full Review Source: San Jose Mercury News | comment Comment
06/07/01
Glenn Lovell
Glenn Lovell
San Jose Mercury News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
101 - 120 (sorted by date)
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Latest News for Swordfish

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When Latino Review took a look at the first screenplay for the (eventually) upcoming G.I. Joe movie, they definitely did NOT like what they saw. But with Transformers making all... More...

May 23, 2007: Someone REALLY Hates the New "G.I. Joe" Screenplay
Apparently Paramount and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura commissioned a "G.I. Joe" script from "Swordfish" screenwriter Skip Woods -- and someone out there... More...

April 13, 2007: Halle Berry Says "No, Again" to Catwoman
Just a few weeks ago Halle Berry was telling everyone that there would never be a "Storm" spinoff movie (as if anyone actually expected one), and now she's on record... More...

April 06, 2007: Halle Berry Nixes a "Storm" Spinoff
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