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"Swordfish" lovers?

post #1 of 55
1/31/06 at 1:51pm
Thread Starter 
After Jerry Bruckheimer enlisted him for “Gone In Sixty Seconds”, rival Joel Silver nabbed him for the incomparably stupid “Swordfish”. I just found an old DiVX CD of this movie that a friend burned for me back in high school when I doubted the potential to illegally download movies off the internet. Hah. Yes, for the record, it’s still terrible, and the moments featuring the airless sexuality of Halle Berry, oogled by the camera in a way that suggests a thirteen year old’s idea of sex, drag painfully, as she’s not a good enough actress to make her changing alliances seem interesting.

But it's never dull.



John Travolta is having too good a time, and you can tell it might be because of his utterly retarded haircut, and Hugh Jackman plays the most absurd computer hacker of all time: they excuse his crimes as always being for a good cause, and one expects him to be accused of murder, just so he can reveal, “I did it to protect a dying baby!” And the film’s bookended by two great sequences: Travolta commands the first shot and explains to unseen listeners why “Dog Day Afternoon” is not the perfect Hollywood movie, caustically casting stones towards exactly the type of movie “Swordfish” really is, while the end features a flying bus, a rocket launcher, and an improbable Dr. Evil escape by Travolta’s criminal mastermind, ensuring the potential for maybe a DTV sequel? I say, I would rent that sequel. Rent it I would.

Any love for "Swordfish"? Particularly that tumble down the hill chase where Don Cheadle and Hugh Jackman roll for what feels like five minutes to Paul Oakenfold music?
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post #2 of 55
1/31/06 at 2:44pm
Love that opening Ball-Bearing explosion. I have a perverse affection for that sorry film, mainly because I'm a Computer Systems Architect. Any movie that has a guy hack into a system with a gun pointed to his head while getting a Blow Job is alright in my book.

Of course, I like the movie "Hackers" as well, purely for perpetuating the myth that a women as hot as Angelina Jolie would know anything about computers.
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post #3 of 55
1/31/06 at 2:59pm
I do own swordfish. I found it somewhat entertaining I guess (it was one of the first DVDs I bought).


Anyway, if you think the movie is retarded, check out the alternate endings on the DVD.
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post #4 of 55
1/31/06 at 3:01pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by neaux
I do own swordfish. I found it somewhat entertaining I guess (it was one of the first DVDs I bought).


Anyway, if you think the movie is retarded, check out the alternate endings on the DVD.

Since you mention it, am I better off just hearing about them? Or should I actually find the DVD?
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post #5 of 55
1/31/06 at 3:01pm
You guys said it better than I ever could. And I agree with Surge about the opening explosion: simply awesome.

Loved the TVR Tuscan in the movie, too. It's like the movie decided to have a Tuscan in it for no apparent reason other than the fact that it looked cool. No complaints here.
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post #6 of 55
1/31/06 at 3:19pm
I know it has only been 5 years since this movie came out but it is about time for this one to get ROADHOUSE type love (only in SWORDFISH’s case it would be justified love). Often I hear around here about the entertaining stupidity of TORQUE or STEALTH. Well I haven’t seen STEALTH and I couldn’t get past 20 minutes of TORQUE but I still feel very confident in stating that SWORDFISH has them beat.

A lot of the more ridiculous moments have been mentioned. I’ll throw in Jackman immediately being able to drive that one-of-a-kind car Travolta had as if he were Mario Andretti. But that scene works in the end thanks to Travolta busting out his Rambo-issued machine gun. What about Sam Shepherd slumming in this one?

SWORDFISH also contains Carmen Argenziano. I don’t know what else to add to that statement other than I like Carmen Argenziano.
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post #7 of 55
1/31/06 at 3:28pm
I remember watching this movie for the first time. Is it a particulary smart movie? God no. But that opening scene is still one of my favorites.

And God help me....I enjoy a good bus flight. Hell, I enjoy a bad bus flight. The movie gave me the latter.
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post #8 of 55
1/31/06 at 3:29pm
I wouldn't say that I LOVE Swordfish, but I like it an awful lot and will definitely watch it again sometime... maybe soon. It's fun, it's slick, the opening is great, there are some other decent and over the top action bits (eye candy!), I like Hugh Jackman and Travolta is ok too (hamming it up with glee), and I like the idea that the "bad guys" are out to steal money and stuff to go off and kill "other bad guys". The Halle Berry booby shot felt FORCED though, and she usually just kind of annoys me anyway, but I can let it slide...

Heck, I'll go probably watch it again soon, just for kicks.
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post #9 of 55
1/31/06 at 3:50pm
I'll go ahead and put myself out there to be called an idiot, but I still have no idea what the fuck Travolta did at the end. Shot of dead body, shot of him not dead. It's actually the only movie ending I can think of that I still "wtf" when I see it.
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post #10 of 55
1/31/06 at 4:46pm
9/11 killed this movie stone dead. I remember seeing it at the cinema the week before the Twin Towers, and as soon as it happened it got yanked from screens - Travolta's final speech apparently hitting a little too close to home.

Like Rich, I wouldn't say I love Swordfish but it's definitely an indecently entertaining action movie. I'd put it in the same bracket as Con Air and The Long Kiss Goodnight as a dumb movie that's just aware enough of how dumb it is to be shamelessly fun, but not so much that it descends into smart-assery.
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post #11 of 55
1/31/06 at 4:55pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by UserNameIndeed
I'll go ahead and put myself out there to be called an idiot, but I still have no idea what the fuck Travolta did at the end. Shot of dead body, shot of him not dead. It's actually the only movie ending I can think of that I still "wtf" when I see it.
Spoilers?

I believe the brilliant conceit was that he had a bunch of Travolta dummies lying around whenever he had to fake his death. Doesn't explain how he got out of that rocket blast, but I guess he also had teleportation abilities.

Also, Vinnie Jones.
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post #12 of 55
1/31/06 at 5:12pm
The idea is that Travolta faked his death using a frozen corpse that looked exactly like him. He loaded the corpse in the helicopter, knowing that Jackman would blow it up.

I enjoy this film, I just wish they hadn't pandered so much to the teenagers. They mess up the timeline in order to let off the (very cool) explosion in the opening 20 minutes so that the kids in the audience stay awake, I think the film would have worked better if they'd just let the film progress normally.

What I really like about the film, other than the action sequences, is the political position it's taking. Travolta is essentially a Government-funded terrorist, bragging about how he will destroy any foreign city, any country that dares to threaten or harm American citizens. The rhetoric flying back and forth, in the shade of modern events, is quite eye opening. And in the end the bad guy is so bad they've justified the hero being able to shoot him out of the sky with an RPG (even though it was fake). Ultimately the hero gets away and blows up another terrorist just before the credits - the film seems to be leaving the moral judgements up to the audience, which I thought was quite refreshing.


P.S: Inspired, I've tried coding while dancing in front of the keyboard. It's very hard on the wrists.
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post #13 of 55
1/31/06 at 5:14pm
I recall it came out on video a little bit after 9/11 in the states. I was working at a video store back then and there was a lot of talk about how nobody is going to want to watch it and it will hit too close to home. But sure enough come the Tuesday of its release SWORDFISH was in the hands of many. I guess the promise of Berry’s cans are enough to make most forget about people jumping from the towers.

I hope the man behind the the script for SWORDFISH, Skip Woods, ends up directing his script for the “Hitman” movie. I’m a big fan of the film he wrote, and directed, before SWORDFISH called THURSDAY.
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post #14 of 55
1/31/06 at 5:21pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Van Jones
The idea is that Travolta faked his death using a frozen corpse that looked exactly like him.

Yeah, I forget... how did he explain where these came from?
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post #15 of 55
1/31/06 at 5:26pm
A pretty stylish dumb film. A very interesting concept (Travolta's character) but Travolta's over the top antics scuttled everything. Will say this though I love the soundtrack.
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post #16 of 55
1/31/06 at 5:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by fabfunk
Yeah, I forget... how did he explain where these came from?
Well, that was left to the imagination. But I'd assume every Government funded terrorist has a store of identical frozen corpses, for just such an emergency.
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post #17 of 55
1/31/06 at 5:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Van Jones
Well, that was left to the imagination. But I'd assume every Government funded terrorist has a store of identical frozen corpses, for just such an emergency.
Hugh came across a body in the basement of that house that looked just like Travolta. I assumed that rather Travolta making a body to look like him, he simply took over this dudes identity and modeled his appearnce after him. Travolta even says at one point that he's changed his name and appearance so many times he's forgotten who he is.
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post #18 of 55
1/31/06 at 6:52pm

It's one of those so over-the-top bad movies that is alot of fun.

It's an absolute guilty pleasure. Open up your head, take out your brain, and grab some Fritos and enjoy. It's a movie of absolutely no consequence whatsoever...not bad enough to be reviled, not good enough to achieve longevity. It has a great opening sequence, and the gun/blowjob/time-crunch hacking scene with Hugh Jackman is so wildly overdone that it's pure genius. They all had fun making it, you can tell. They didn't take it seriously, why should we?
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post #19 of 55
1/31/06 at 7:59pm
I. LOVE. SWORDFISH.

To me it was actually a return to the 80's action movies I happily grew up with, mixed with a bit of these 90's sensibilities that turned B-flicks into A-Movies thanks to a great cast and huge production values.

Ludicrous as it may seem, to me it was The Maltese Falcon -well, not exactly that movie- meets spy computer thriller. The perfect tech noir (thanks James Cameron) with a huge dose of love for both genres and another one of self parody. Grating as it may be, just listen to Dominic Sena's very gay-sounding DVD commentary and you'll see that he and his actors understood to a T the righteous playfulness of the script.

Really, I love love love Swordfish so much I still say it was the best movie of the summer of '01 (remember Planet of the Apes, Tomb Raider, Pearl Harbor...?) and to this day I still don't see how could anyone miss anything of the plot as in Travolta never really got on the chopper or Travolta had a corpse surgically treated like him -the "real" Gabriel Shear, probably, a Mossad agent he "casually" mentions- to act as a decoy for his evil but "patriotic" plan.

Misdirection, indeed... but 5 more years and as Moltisanti says, maybe it'll be vindicated as it rightfully deserves.
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post #20 of 55
1/31/06 at 8:16pm
I enjoyed it, and I ove these big dumb movies where all the distinguished actors flock to make some quick bank. Berry showed her tits, Sam Sheppard pops in, Don Cheadle occupies space, Jackman is following the "co-star in a Silver or Bruckheimer film" industry formula 101, and Travolta is making an obscene amount of money to be over-the-top bad. Its charming. Oh, and I watch anything with Vinnie Jones.

The opening is a great little scene, and yes, as far as dumb guilty pleasures go, this is right up my alley.
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post #21 of 55
2/1/06 at 5:40pm
The movie's a lot of dumb fun, but I can't help but feel that there's 20 minutes missing from the plot from where the film jumps from Jackman lying on the ground back to him on the floor of the bank. The rest of the movie feels like something happened in between those two events, but they cut it in favor of a cool transition.
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post #22 of 55
2/1/06 at 5:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by PsycheOut00
Really, I love love love Swordfish so much I still say it was the best movie of the summer of '01 (remember Planet of the Apes, Tomb Raider, Pearl Harbor...?)
A.I. and Knight's Tale both came out in the summer of '01, and both are miles better than Swordfish.
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post #23 of 55
2/2/06 at 9:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moltisanti
I’m a big fan of the film he wrote, and directed, before SWORDFISH called THURSDAY.
Good movie, there's also a strangely perverse man-rape by woman scene which is...um...yeah
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post #24 of 55
2/2/06 at 9:54am
This movie is the perfect example of a decent script getting transformed into a mediocre product over the course of making it.
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post #25 of 55
2/2/06 at 11:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daughters
Good movie, there's also a strangely perverse man-rape by woman scene which is...um...yeah
That scene in THURSDAY really makes you wonder if Rick Ocazek is lucky or not.
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post #26 of 55
2/2/06 at 1:58pm
I remember really enjoying this movie quite a bit. The only scene I really remember is the computer-hacking-while-getting-a-blowjob scene though.
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post #27 of 55
2/3/06 at 3:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Davis
This movie is the perfect example of a decent script getting transformed into a mediocre product over the course of making it.
Anyone have a copy of the original script?
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post #28 of 55
2/4/06 at 4:35am
I dug this flick a lot. This was John Travolta returning to Broken Arrow, Face/Off territory, playing a sleazy villain. Out of all of the flicks that he's done in the past 10 years, it's those that I think that he's best at. I'm not counting Battlefield Earth since He was more comical unintentionally than menacing in that one.
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post #29 of 55
2/4/06 at 5:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan Whitehead
9/11 killed this movie stone dead. I remember seeing it at the cinema the week before the Twin Towers, and as soon as it happened it got yanked from screens - Travolta's final speech apparently hitting a little too close to home.
I remember when the film was released on video there were warning stickers on the covers, some BS about "sensitive audiences" and 9/11. I didn't see what a silly Bruckheimer movie had to do with the WTC, so I guess I must not be that sensitive.

I did enjoy the movie. Travolta was right about Dog Day Afternoon.
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post #30 of 55
2/4/06 at 5:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.Eko
I dug this flick a lot. This was John Travolta returning to Broken Arrow, Face/Off territory, playing a sleazy villain..
Personally I love his performances in Broken Arrow and Face Off. Saying that I couldn't help but think Sena let Travolta off the leash into a higher stratsosphere of cheesy camp (although I admit Travolta's dog day speech was the highlight of his performance without question). Which only made me appreciate those two Woo efforts even more.
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post #31 of 55
2/4/06 at 3:26pm
You're right, his bad guy turns in FACE/OFF and BROKEN ARROW were way better than what he did in SWORDFISH. But I wish he'd have been as hands on in THE PUNISHER as he was playing Gabriel Shear.

What an absurd scene when Travolta goes to kill Sam Shepherd while he's fishing. Travolta's looks like he should be reading poetry in the back of some coffee house.

"Thomas Jefferson once shot a man on the White House lawn for treason."
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post #32 of 55
2/4/06 at 4:15pm
I thought Broken Arrow was pretty lame. I'll take Swordfish and Face Off over that. I had to laugh at Travolta's preposterous Looney Tunes demise.
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post #33 of 55
2/4/06 at 4:35pm
Travolta's demise in BROKEN ARROW is terrific. The way he stands ready to accept a nuke to the chest is classic. The only thing better is him killing Bob Gunton and then describing the effect taking a life has had on him. "I don't know what the big deal is, I really don't."
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post #34 of 55
2/4/06 at 4:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moltisanti
Travolta's demise in BROKEN ARROW is terrific. The way he stands ready to accept a nuke to the chest is classic. The only thing better is him killing Bob Gunton and then describing the effect taking a life has had on him. "I don't know what the big deal is, I really don't."
Well sure it's a funny B movie, but not in the same class as Face Off. My biggest problem with Broken Arrow is that it wasn't very Wootastic for a John Woo film. His signature gun fights and stunts are barely glimpsed. And where were the doves?
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post #35 of 55
2/4/06 at 6:23pm
BROKEN ARROW was Woo's attempt to meld his style with a more standard Bruckheimer/Silver American plot and tone. It worked for me, the stunts and shootouts are there. As far as his other American films I don't put it quite as high up as FACE/OFF and HARD TARGET but it is far more enjoyable than MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2 and PAYCHECK.
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post #36 of 55
2/4/06 at 6:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moltisanti
BROKEN ARROW was Woo's attempt to meld his style with a more standard Bruckheimer/Silver American plot and tone. It worked for me, the stunts and shootouts are there. As far as his other American films I don't put it quite as high up as FACE/OFF and HARD TARGET but it is far more enjoyable than MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2 and PAYCHECK.
An enema would be more enjoyable than Paycheck.

I don't know. There was one moment (seen in the trailer) in Broken Arrow, when Slater dove to the ground shooting inside some cave, that screamed Woo to me. Otherwise I didn't see much of The Killer/Hard Boiled/etc in the film. I don't see the need for Woo to do a conventional Bruckheimer picture. He's no Michael Bay.
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post #37 of 55
2/4/06 at 6:42pm
I thought all the stuff at the end on the train was very much in keeping with Woo's talents. It's not as explosive as HARD BOILED but considering BROKEN ARROW was a big budget studio film he did manage to give it some of the feel of his older films even though he was working with a basic "madman wants to blow stuff up" plot. Again, he did a far better job getting that vibe across in FACE/OFF but that had a premise that fed right into Woo's senibilities.
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post #38 of 55
2/4/06 at 6:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moltisanti
It's not as explosive as HARD BOILED but considering BROKEN ARROW was a big budget studio film he did manage to give it some of the feel of his older films even though he was working with a basic "madman wants to blow stuff up" plot..
I'm not sure a big budget was the problem. Imagine how fantastic the epic Bullet in the Head would be with a big budget.

Anyway, let's ask the hard question:

What the heck is up with Woo lately? He hasn't done anything really good since Face/Off, and not even any action films at all since Windtalkers. There's a bunch of projects announced, but it remains to be seen if any of them will actually happen.
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post #39 of 55
2/4/06 at 7:36pm
It's anybody's guess as to what Woo will do next out of the half dozen or so projects that have been rumored. I'd personally just like to see him do what a lot of directors should do after they've had some big misfires, find his footing by making the type of film that brought him success to begin with. There have been so many directors that have tried to film sequences the way he used to that it would be great if he could take a modest budget and just churn out something that shows people the right way to film an action scene. I doubt something like that could found in a movie based on "Spy Hunter."
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post #40 of 55
2/4/06 at 7:39pm
Woo's Hard Boiled is way above all of his American flicks. Even Hard Target. The whole last half in the hospital is like the video game Time Crisis come to life, minus the numbers ticking down at the bottom of the screen. Of all of his movies I think that's his best.

Back on the Travolta topic I love in Broken Arrow how he just emerges from the dust with the cigarette in his hand to that really cool tune that they play almost every time he's on screen. Damn Hans Zimmer really knows how to make his music.

I also loved the bit where after Travolta hits Gunton and he's choking and he says "Hush, Hush".
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post #41 of 55
2/4/06 at 7:57pm
You're right, that Zimmer score was tailor made for Travolta's character. Part of the appeal of the movie is how much fun he seems to be having playing the part ("Care for a Coke or something?"). There is a bit of that same flair out of him in SWORDFISH which does help that film quite a bit. This is as opposed to THE PUNISHER where he just seemed to show up to the set, thankfully Will Patton was able to pick up most of his slack that time around.
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post #42 of 55
2/4/06 at 8:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moltisanti
You're right, that Zimmer score was tailor made for Travolta's character. Part of the appeal of the movie is how much fun he seems to be having playing the part ("Care for a Coke or something?"). There is a bit of that same flair out of him in SWORDFISH which does help that film quite a bit. This is as opposed to THE PUNISHER where he just seemed to show up to the set, thankfully Will Patton was able to pick up most of his slack that time around.
We really should do a thread about the best action composers. Zimmer has to be up there.

I agree about Punisher. Travolta was so much better in Swordfish. He seems heavily sedated in Punisher.
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post #43 of 55
2/4/06 at 9:07pm
I think the case with THE PUNISHER was he figured comic book movies were big and it was shot close to where he lived. But I wouldn't say he was the only one to blame, that character just didn't seem like the sadistic crime boss that Frank Castle should go up against.

As for action composers, Alan Silvestri, Graeme Revell, and the late Michael Kamen are some of my favorites.
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post #44 of 55
2/4/06 at 11:17pm
Based upon this thread I picked up a used copy of "Swordfish" for $5 at a pawn shop today. I hope to watch it again soon.
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post #45 of 55
2/5/06 at 2:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moltisanti
I think the case with THE PUNISHER was he figured comic book movies were big and it was shot close to where he lived. But I wouldn't say he was the only one to blame, that character just didn't seem like the sadistic crime boss that Frank Castle should go up against.

As for action composers, Alan Silvestri, Graeme Revell, and the late Michael Kamen are some of my favorites.
This is a good point. Travolta played it way too straight, which is almost hard for me to say, and the character was seemingly pretty bland on paper too. The Punisher as a character is too broad to have such a cliche mob nemesis.

Oh, and while we talk composers though, Carlo Siliotto's score for "The Punisher" was fantastic.
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post #46 of 55
2/5/06 at 5:03am
Travolta's best scene in The Punisher is when he tells Will Patton "Your job is to make Castle dead, I don't care what it takes, what it costs. Call The Russian."

That is the only scene where he was channeling the energy that he should have had the entire movie.
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post #47 of 55
2/5/06 at 5:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.Eko
Travolta's best scene in The Punisher is when he tells Will Patton "Your job is to make Castle dead, I don't care what it takes, what it costs. Call The Russian."

That is the only scene where he was channeling the energy that he should have had the entire movie.
What? That line was terrible. It was in the trailer and I remember thinking "Is that the best they can do??"

The only parts I thought were half decent was when he kills Patton (after the Bowie lecture) and when he kills his wife. "She had to catch a train" or something like that.
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post #48 of 55
2/5/06 at 5:15pm
Well, I liked the line, because this is where he's really starting to lose it, and his performance in the film could have been better, but then again the movie could have been better also.

I swear, when he doesn't even get to fight with Thomas Jane and Jane just plugs him at the end I felt a bit cheated.
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post #49 of 55
2/5/06 at 5:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.Eko
I swear, when he doesn't even get to fight with Thomas Jane and Jane just plugs him at the end I felt a bit cheated.
Yeah, sort of like how Batman beats the Joker in about 10 seconds.
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post #50 of 55
2/5/06 at 5:33pm
It wasn't much of a showdown between the two at the end but after the fight Castle had with the Russian it would have been hard to believe that Travolta could put up anything close to that type of opposition. That being said they should have been able to pull something from the comics that would have been more interesting than what eventually materialized between Castle and Saint.

Stew is right about Siliotto's score for the movie. I remember a lot of people knocked it when THE PUNISHER first came out but it really does work well with the film.
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