Film Scouts Reviews: Swordfish

We begin in the middle of a bank robbery, with hostages all wired to explode by John Travolta's psycho bad guy. When one of them does, with the camera following up every gruesome consequence, we get the film's best bit. We return to the explosion later on. The plot burns up the screen time in-between.

It's too chunky and bitty, with too many undernourished sub-plots, such as Operation Swordfish being controlled by a corrupt Senator. Although the visuals are breathtaking, by the time we get to the film's next big explosion, we've lost any empathy with the characters.

Travolta is very convincing as Gabriel, the film's chief bad guy. Halle Berry excels in a pitifully underwritten part as his moll. Hugh Jackman and the ever-watchable Don Cheadle are superb as the good guys but there's no escaping that this film is all surface flash and no substance.

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"Swordfish"

by Jonathan Robert Muirhead