Firewall Movie Review

Tonight I caught a preview of the upcoming movie Firewall with Harrison Ford. Harrison Ford plays Jack Stanfield, a bank IT security businessman type character who quickly morphs into a Jack Ryan type superhero once his family is kidnapped. Paul Bettany plays the somehow likeable yet malicious omnipresent smart villain, using Jack's family as collateral to get Jack to extract millions from the bank electronically. Jack's assistant is Chloe from 24 (the actress literally plays the same exact character), doing her typical puckering and pouting facial expressions.

The movie is shot/paced like a good thriller, some scary moments, lots of hand to hand fighting, and psychological thriller aspects as well with the kidnapped family. I was bothered by the completely unrealistic view of Jack's office with a constant flow of people moving about the cubicles, like a 1940's newsroom. At times I thought that Harrison Ford might be a bit too old for a role like this. Some of the plotlines were a bit cliched (particularly the ending, which drew unintentional laughter from the crowd) but somehow overall the movie was quite enjoyable. Firewall opens in theaters on Friday the 10th.
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