MAIN REVIEW:
"Firewall" is not as bad a movie as the many critical reviews would suggest. Its horrible rating of 19% on RottenTomatoes.com. is one of the many examples where their scoring system fails to give a adequate indication of a movie's overall quality. The abysmally low rating of 19% would suggest that this movie is awful when in fact it is not. This is not one of the worst movies of the year, but rather a case where a decent, though thoroughly unoriginal, film ends up with lukewarm reviews and this lack of enthusiasm by the critics translates into negative votes since RT only tallies up or down ratings for each film.

I enjoyed this movie but I cannot really recommend it to you, especially if your going out to a theater will also entail a dinner, drinks, popcorn, and all of the necessary side items that make the movie going experience so enjoyable. A date night consisting of a dinner and a movie will easily cost $50 or more and because of this I would suggest that seeing this film quickly falls into the rental counter genre.

This is a modestly entertaining film, especially if you have had a drink or two and don't question the many plot holes that always seem to exist in films like this. There are lots of square pegs being shoved into round holes here.

More problematic for me is the fact that Harrison Ford has been playing these kinds of action roles for 30 years now and I feel that it is high time that he stretch a little as an actor and try something different. There aren't a lot of 62 year old action figures out there. Years ago people were laughing for a long time about a possible "Rambo 27" coming out with Sylvester Stallone as its decrepit star. Well, surprise, surprise! Stallone is more than 2 years younger than Harrison Ford.

Okay, so maybe I am a little jealous that Ford is older than I am but in far better shape...

Paul Bettany and Virginia Madsen both save this film from utter mediocrity since the story itself offers little or nothing of interest. Bettany nails it down pat as a cool villain who is as cold and calculating as his ice blue eyes would suggest.

I enjoyed Virginia Madsen so much in her role in "Sideways" that I am thrilled to see her return to the silver screen in her performance here as Beth Stanfield, the wife of Ford's Jack Stanfield. She plays a highly successful architect who conveniently happens to have designed the multimillion dollar bay side mansion in which they all live. Well, that makes it all the easier for them to escape from their captors and for us to be manipulated when they are again discovered and recaptured when the kidnapers really shouldn't have had a clue. She must also be a very successful architect to be able to afford to live in this home since her husband is merely an officer of a mid-sized regional bank and not a hired technological gun from Silicon Valley.

Another depressing element about this movie is the fact that the vast majority of the scenes are filmed in the pouring rain. Now, I know that it rains a lot in Seattle or Vancouver or wherever this story is supposed to take place, but come on! Is it really this dreary? No wonder the suicide rate is so high there. I will never again complain about the erratic weather here in Chicago.

Jack Stanfield is the CTO of a mid-sized West Coast bank that has just been taken over by a giant national financial services firm. In preparation for the merger, Jack has just completed the encryption interface that will serve as the security system for the newly combined bank.

He gets along well with his immediate boss, Henry Romano (Robert Forster), and the CEO of the bank, Arlin Forrester (Alan Arkin), but he views with considerable mistrust Gary Mitchell (Robert Patrick), the new CEO of the combined bank. Mitchell picks up on his negativity and questions his loyalty to the new regime.

One afternoon Henry Romano introduces him to a Bill Cox (Paul Bettany), with the description that he could be an important asset to the bank. Jack takes Henry at his word as the two have always been close, but Cox soon shows his colors by dropping his charade of respectability. A telephone call home shows that Jack's wife, Beth, and his two children Sarah (Carly Schroeder) and Andy (Jimmy Bennett), are all being held hostage by two of Cox's associates.

Bill Cox informs Jack that he will have to break into the security system of the bank, the very security system that he himself has just designed. Cox demands the account names, numbers, and passwords to the 100 largest accounts at the bank and a means to transfer $100 million from these accounts to his secret account in the Cayman Islands. Knowing full well that Jack can't be trusted in spite of his family being held hostage, Jack is wired so that all conversations will be heard. He is also forced to wear a miniature pen-sized camera hidden inside his vest pocket so that they can monitor his every move.

Jack knows full well that they will all be killed after the money transfer has been completed since none of the perpetrators wear a mask, thus making all of them easily identifiably after the heist. He has nothing to lose and everything to gain by seeking to foil their plot. Unfortunately, all of the actions that he takes to protect himself and his family are immediately viewed with great suspicion by Gary Mitchell and others at the bank. They all begin to think that he is up to no good and soon the police are after the one good guy instead of the kidnapers and extortionists.

A movie review by Carl Zapffe (03/02/06)