Review of Paranoia (2013) by Thomas W — 06 Jan 2014

Eye-rolls and unintentional laughs should not accompany a film like Paranoia, a supposed high-stakes suspense/thriller that takes place in the high-tech-meets-media billion-dollar business world. Starring Liam Hemsworth (The Hunger Games) as a regular guy with big ideas who finds himself manipulated by a corrupt boss to spy on a business rival, Hemsworth does little more than walk around shirtless, feign surprise and pretend to be savvy enough to outwit the dastardly dudes that populate the cut-throat business world of NYC.

Hemsworth is the good guy because he is nice and handsome, young and thus-far uncorrupted ... and from Jersey. His boss is played by Gary Oldman (The Professional) who will do just about anything to get his hands on the new technology being created by his rival-and-one-time-business-partner, Jock Gardner (Harrison Ford - 42).

Hemsworth's Adam is torn once he discovers Jock is a nice guy with a tragic past he doesn't want to deceive nor does he wish to hurt his new girlfriend Emma (Amber Heard - The Rum Diary) who has a high-profile position within Jock's company.

Decisions, decisions ... Adam's options become even more limited when his father's life (Richard Dreyfus - Jaws) is threatened by his evil boss. Queue eye roll! Paranoia has a very good but ill-used cast which also includes Embeth Davidtz (Schindler's List) and Josh Halloway ('Lost').

The film is flashy and looks nice -- it is a high dollar world so it would have to -- but little logic was applied to any of the thought put into the screenplay. I guess one could watch this and be entertained; but just don't think about what you are watching.

Like ... at all. Thinking about the holes hurts more than the film itself.