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  Matt
  
Willis
Swordfish
USA, 2001
[Dominic Sena]
Hugh Jackman, John Travolta, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle, Vinnie Jones
Action
  
While many see today's action films as little more than increasingly big bangs and crashes, with any element of surprise or intelligence removed lest they hinder the onscreen pyrotechnics, there is occasionally a member of the genre whose head pokes out between the a-typical End of Days and Dolph Lundgren type crap and shows what a truly exciting film should be. The Rock was one such film, utilising a fine cast of distinguished actors, a polished look and a pulsating but not wholly cerebrally-devoid script. Swordfish is another.
Heading the cast is the ever reliable John Travolta, albeit licking his wounds from the disasters of
Battlefield Earth and Lucky Numbers, and, fresh from the success of X-Men, Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry.

Jackman looks set to be one of this decades leading men, capable of handling himself in the action sequences but also oddly touching and vulnerable when confronted with the emotional stress of his marriage breakdown and subsequent loss of his only daughter. The scenes which he shares with that daughter, Holly (Camryn Grimes), far from being to the detriment of the pacing of the film actually imbue it with a charm and tenderness so often bereft from todays modern action fare. Travolta is excellent and his opening speech to the camera, full of subtle humour at his own recent flops, sets an excellent precedent for the rest of the film to build on. Watching it the first time without any prior knowledge of the story, I was actually surprised by the way that first scene developed and the characters sides were so clearly divided, at least in the case of Travolta and Don Cheadle.

'Swordfish'  begins with a bang, a very big and well-executed bang which left the American audience I was sitting with whooping for joy. It subequently turns back 4 days to show us the plot twists and the characters who shaped that scene and gives us an indication of what in fact is going on. Jackman plays Stanley Jobson, a reformed computer hacker eeking out a meagre existence servicing oilwells in the middle of nowhere. Naturally his simple life is not simple for long as Halle Berry's gorgeous form enters and offers him $100,000 to meet up with her mysterious employer (Travolta), enough perhaps to allow him another chance at getting his daughter back from his drunken porn star ex-wife. Roped into producing a sophisticated computer program capable of hacking into any database in the world he gradually realises that not all is what it appears and that his moral values are getting in the way of his $2 million paycheck.

This is the films great plus, it's sparse but impressive plot twists which leave the viewer wondering at the real motives and business of Travolta's Gabriel Shear almost until the end. While the film does a cack-handed job of showing how far up the conspiracy goes this is hardly noticeable amongst the liberally sprinkled violence and macho posturing. Keep your eye out for Vinnie Jones delivering another good performance as a tough, and also for his appalling line about 'sticking a rocket up your arse'.
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