Reviews

I didn't catch this one when it was out in the cinema but had seen the trailers for it back in the day and had heard good things about it so I checked it out on DVD the other day, but wasn't at all impressed with what I got for my buck.

The basic premise for the plot is quite interesting: A very shady guy (played by Travolta) needs the services of a super hacker (Hugh Jackman) in order to gain access to and snatch a whopping amount of Dollars from highly suspect government accounts. It also has a fine cast – John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Vinnie Jones and Don Cheadle, and apparently a sizeable budget to throw at some furious action as well. All the ingredients are here for a fine flick, even a great one, if all the basic ingredients were tied together with a good and well-told story – but this is where it all goes down the drain for me.

The basic premise is good, but way it is realised is very disappointing. The characters are all superficial beyond belief. Travolta's character is by far the best – a psycho who is nigh on impossible to get a read on. He is obviously nuts and does a great deal of bad things, but he appears to believe that he is working for the greater good – in his book, two wrongs seem very able to make a right. He has some fun lines and some of the dialogue is even mildly thought provoking. If every aspect of this movie were up to the standards of Travolta's acting and the realisation of the character he is playing this would indeed be an interesting flick, but this is where the fun stops.

Hugh Jackman's character, for example, is almost as bad as Travolta's is good. Jackman's acting isn't to blame, but the way we get to view this character, his motivation and personality never really catches on with the viewer. I think we are supposed to root for him and his getting to be with his daughter, but because he is so superficially portrayed, we never really get to feel for him or his relationship with his daughter, and if things are put bluntly, this could just as well have been cut from the story altogether. The movie would have worked just as well, if not better, had Jackman been in it for the money alone and not for his daughter.

The additional characters in the story are even more superficially portrayed. We never really get to look inside the head of any of the cop(s) who seem to be our basic good guys or the government suits who seem to be our basic bad guys. Why Cheadle's character or the bad senator even have names must be down to simple convenience of reference, rather than any desire to bring the viewer closer to them as characters. They could just as well remain nameless as they are totally generic and without any depth of character beyond a face and a name. The motivation and behaviour of all the side characters in this movie are pretty much nonexistent.

And what if you aren't into characterisation and stuff like that? Is the action alone enough to get a slight kick out of the movie? Personally I don't think so. There really isn't a lot of it, and again, the execution of it isn't above par.

To surmise, I was rather disappointed with the movie. If you look for a story-driven plot, you could well be frustrated by the lack of character depth and the way the story is put together and presented, and you are likely to be disappointed by the lack of plausibility that comes in the wake of the misgivings presented above. You will wonder, "why did that guy do that", "why didn't he do that instead" and "why didn't we get to see what happened there" far more often than you will enjoy an occasional fun comment, a good bit of action, or Halle Berry's fine bod.

This could easily have been a worthwhile movie, if only the story was better put together and executed. But as it is, the most positive way I can describe it is as a below average action movie with a plot and characters that are totally neglected.

3/10