Firewall (12A)

Time Out says

Tue Mar 28 2006

Harrison Ford simmers in a suit, again, except at 63 he’s getting a bit long in the tooth for this malarkey. Jack Stanfield (Ford), chief of security at a bank in the Pacific Northwest, is targeted by fiendishly scheming Paul Bettany and his gang of gun-toting computer geeks, who hold his architect spouse (Virginia Madsen), children and dog captive in the family home she designed (plot point alert!) while hubby uses his electronic expertise to siphon off six-figure sums into the baddies’ offshore account. It’s a pick-and-mix thriller plot packed with ingredients that were stale already, and the techie twist signalled by the knowing title turns out to be laughable in the extreme, especially for anyone with an iPod. Ford’s features are etched throughout with the furrowed concentration familiar from, say, ‘The Fugitive’, but since this clunky affair lacks the same snap, its formulaic moves seem particuarly tired. Perhaps the result will warn the star to fight shy of the same old same old, but does he have the technique – or indeed the inclination – to offer anything else?

Author: Trevor Johnston