Writer: Skip Woods
Composers: Christopher Young, Paul Oakenfold
Starring: John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle, Sam Shepard, Vinnie Jones, Drea de Matteo, Rudolf Martin
More info: IMDb
Tagline: Log on. Hack in. Go anywhere. Steal everything.
Plot: When the DEA shut down its dummy corporation operation codenamed SWORDFISH in 1986, they had generated $400 million which they let sit around; fifteen years of compound interest has swelled it to $9.5 billion. A covert counter-terrorist unit called Black Cell, headed by the duplicitious and suave Gabriel Shear, wants the money to help finance their raise-the-stakes vengeance war against international terrorism, but it's all locked away behind super-encryption. He brings in convicted hacker Stanley Jobson, who only wants to see his daughter Holly again but can't afford the legal fees, to slice into the government mainframes and get the money.
My rating: 6.5/10
Will I watch it again? No.
It was OK when I saw it fifteen years ago (and then it was to see what the hubbub was about with Halley Berry baring her chest...it was nice) and it's surprisingly better now. At least it's entertaining albeit over the top. Travolta is in full on having-fun-Travolta-bad-guy mode and that helps. Nothing dates a movie like technology and the computer hacking is utter bullshit but you have to take it like it's a dumb Hollywood movie. The heist action is fun. It's no classic but it is fun to a degree.
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