Firewall

IMDB

Netflix

Recently, I got me one of them fancy HD-DVD drives for my Xbox 360. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Netflix is already renting HD-DVDs, and that they have set things up so that when you tell them that you have a HD-DVD drive, they automatically change the DVDs in your queue to HD-DVD (if at all available). And from that point on, you just pick films, and it automatically gets the highest resolution format that you own for that film.

When I made this discovery, I upped my netflix subscription and looked for some high definition films to watch. One of them was Firewall, which I remember coming to the theatres but skipped. Ironically, the reason that I wanted to see the film and the reason that I skipped it in the theatre is the same reason – Harrison Ford.

It is not that I think that he is a bad actor by any means. His resume is something to behold (the Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies alone make him one of the greatest stars of all time). The problem is that he seems to pick lemons to star in for no apparent reason. And by lemon I don’t mean flops, I mean the kind of stuff that you don’t feel like driving all the way to the theatre to watch. For example:

• Air Force One – I watched this with a friend of mine, and he still talks about how bad he thought it was. I thought that there was potential, but there were too many cliches in this for it to be truly good.
• Six Days Seven Nights – A bit of a snoozefest for me. I don’t remember much about it, which implies that it was not that engrossing or that I gave up watching it.
• Hollywood Homocide – Anybody who watched this knows what I mean. It feels like somebody made a pitch, somehow got the stars and the money, and then wrote out a script in a hurry to match. And I won’t blame this on Josh Hartnett, because Lucky Number Slevin was a great flick.

I don’t think that Harrison Ford is particularly to blame for the above. He always makes as good lemonade as he can given a subpar script. But after he appears in a certain number of these kinds of films, it hurts his reputation for me. Maybe the problem is that he changed agents around the time of The Devil’s Own or so, and now is appearing in stuff that is not big enough for him. He has a lot of presence on the screen, and blockbusters like Star Wars and Indiana Jones suit that.

Another factor in this film’s favor is Paul Bettany. I first noticed him in A Knight’s Tale, and he was very engaging in that. His next film was A Beautiful Mind, which was an awesome thing to behold, and his character in that film was quite unforgettable. With Wimbledon and The Da Vinci Code he is starting to really come into his own as a big star, and it is very much deserved. Some other cast of mention:

• Robert Patrick of Terminator fame, playing Jack’s new boss.
• Mary Lynn Rajskub of 24 fame, playing Jack’s assistant.
• Robert Forster of Jackie Brown fame, playing Jack’s friend.

The premise of the story is simple enough. Jack Stanfield (Ford), a security guy at a Seattle bank, is blackmailed by Bill Cox (Bettany) into helping to steal money from his bank. If he does not cooperate, his family will be killed by Cox. The film is basically about the struggle between the two as Jack tries to escape from Bill’s clutches without having his family harmed, and without actually robbing the money.

The production of the film is very good, and captures the Seattle atmosphere well (I live in the area, so I can state this with some level of authority). The rainy days and dark nights are there, and Jack’s house looks like the kind of thing a rich bloke in the area would own. There is not much more to comment on in terms of the production values. There is no period or fantastical element to simulate, as this is mostly a character drama. The bank is captured fairly realistically, and although I am not a unix guy or router dude, the technobabble was passable to me. They didn’t even use Movie OS when they showed computers, which impressed me to no end and lended a bit of authenticity to things.

Rather than the production values, which normally have a huge impact on my enjoyment of a film, Firewall depends on the story and the suspense involved with figuring out how the protagonist will get out of the trap that the antagonist has laid for him. It manages to pull this off quite well - there are some unexpected twists and turns to the plot that make it less predictable. The acting is very well done. Bettany plays the cold calculating thief very convincingly, and Ford plays the angry protective father/husband very well too. He has always been his best playing a man under fire in his life, which is probably why they cast him for this.

Overall, a pleasant surprise of a film. Definitely recommended for suspense lovers.

Crank

IMDB

Looking around the offerings this weekend, I noticed Crank in the listings. Seeing something with an ‘R’ rating makes me curious (I think that on average you see more artistic integrity with a film rated ‘R’. You at least know that things are not edited down to satisfy some demographic). And what do I see but Jason Statham in the credits?

Ever since Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels I have kept my eye out for Mr Statham. He never fails to impress me. That is not to say that every film that I have seen him in has been fantastic, but I squarely lay the blame for these incidents on the script and never at his feet. His best offering to date is probably The Transporter, which was the first film I saw that was a vehicle for his unique talents. His girlfriend is very well played by Amy Smart, who is most recognizable to me from Starsky and Hutch, but who has starred in a bunch of other things in places that I never noticed (such as Starship Troopers). Another honorable mention is Efren Ramirez, who looked familiar in the film to me, but it was not until I checked the internets later that I saw that this was Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite.

The cast is set up for a good time, so how is the story? The premise of the story is somewhat unique. Statham’s character, a hitman, has been injected with some potion that means that he will die unless he keeps his adrenaline going (well, not that unique. Think Speed, instead with Jason instead of a bus). Finding out that he has very little time to live has made him understandably angry, so he sets out to find the man who did this to him.

There are very few dull moments in the film. I think that the people who made this wanted a roller coaster ride, and the plot is a very good excuse for one. The story suits Statham well – there is a lot of his trademark extreme, almost comedic action going on constantly in his efforts to keep himself awake. It is interesting to note that the film was directed and written by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, who count Biker Boyz in their previous credits (although not as writers or directors. This appears to be a debut of sorts for writing and directing for this pair). There are some interesting effects put into play during the film to try and give an idea of what the protagonist is going through with his medical condition, as well as for artistic effect (at one point a bar with a fight in it bulges in an almost cartoonish fashion).

The constant barrage of action and the original plot make for a great film. The story is rarely predictable, although I think that it does brush a little too lightly on the goings on of the underworld in which Statham’s character works. The lightness of this part of the story gives the impression that the backstory is just an excuse for the protagonist to break a whole bunch of stuff, but breaking a whole bunch of stuff is entertaining, so I forgive it. There were times where the whole theater was laughing out loud at the antics on screen, and people even clapped at some of it. Even very good films fail to bring this level of passion to the audience, and I think that the passion that I saw tonight in the audience was appropriate. This film was entertainment all of the way.