Review of Swordfish (2001) by Rowan W — 13 Sep 2012

Arriving at the tail end of Hollywood's naive fascination with the imaginary lifestyle of glamorous hackers, this is an utterly ludicrous daydream without even the hint of a connection to reality. It's loaded with stars - Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry and John Travolta (of all people) take the leads, with supporting shots from Don Cheadle and Vinnie Jones - but abysmally acted and thoroughly stiff, narrow and postured.

The plot stabs in all directions without hitting anything substantial, more wrapped up in looking cool than going anywhere, and has its priorities so far out of whack that it actually expects the audience to deify the same character that's shown casually slaughtering dozens of innocents in the very first scene.

As vapid, cheesy, overindulgent mind-numbers go, it's a real jewel.