Firewall (2006)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Jeff "

  
  Firewall is a cliché riddled action thriller that doesn't do anything to thrill or entertain you. Firewall is actually quite boring, and the concept, though somewhat intriguing, fails to be thrilling. Firewall disappointed me and I was hoping for something better than this.… More
  Firewall is a cliché riddled action thriller that doesn't do anything to thrill or entertain you. Firewall is actually quite boring, and the concept, though somewhat intriguing, fails to be thrilling. Firewall disappointed me and I was hoping for something better than this. Unfortunately the film ends up falling flat, and is very, poorly conceived. Harrison Ford seems bored in the role he's playing, and the story is clumsy, poorly constructed, and like I said relies on Clichés to create the so called thrills and tension. Firewall is one of the worst thrillers that I've seen in the last couple of years, and the film suffers from a poor script that doesn't have a well developed story, and the end result is a film that is very anti-climactic. The film is pretty boring, and the cast, despite the fact that they are talented, are fairly wasted here. Firewall is a poorly conceived film that isn't good and it really does fail at delivering the thrills. The film could have been much better than, and it had the potential of being a solid action thriller, unfortunately the film falls through halfway in, and there are no redeeming factors to redeem the weak plot and poorly constructed ideas. If you're looking for a solid thriller film, then Firewall is not that film. There are better films out there. Firewall is an uninspired film that relies on a derivative formula to thrill its audience. A very boring, and unimpressive film that could have been much better than this. This was a film that looked promising, but turned out to be a big disappointment. Avoid this if you're looking for a good thriller, you won't find it here.

• Bethany M

  
  Not that bad of a film. Worth a watch!

• Lenny M

  
  Leave my family alone! Get off my plane!

• Conner R

  
  While it is nowhere near Harrison Ford's best attempt, it is a fun movie and highly entertaining. It has beautiful visuals and decent performances. The plot was actually pretty interesting and a different kind of heist attempt.

• Lady D

  
  Quite typical of this style of film, so not particularly original, yet it was easy watching and had some good little technical moments. Definitely a film worth watching, liked the mix of Harrison Ford and Paul Bettany in this.

• Anthony L

  
  This film rips off so much from other films, I feel like I?ve seen it before! Bettany and Ford are quite good in it though!

• Candy R

  
  Harrison's family are taken hostage and he has to hack into the bank to steal money. Paul is a brilliant bad guy. Harrison has to save the day. Bit of a lame ending.

• Dean !

  
  A very good thriller with a well chosen cast, hits all the right spots for this type of thriller. If you liked Hostage, Panic Room you should enjoy this as well.

• Dan S

  
  Saw enough to see it was really awful. Very familiar plot and Ford needs a new character, badly.

• Chris W

  
  A decent and enjoyable thriller with some pretty good moments, but nothing really spetacular.

• Al S

  
  A gripping and totally entertaining movie that never lets up. A fast moving plot with plenty of tricks, twist and smart action. An intelligent and first-rate, edge of your seat action-thriller. Top notch suspense and excitement. Paul Bettaney and Harrison Ford have never been better.

• Lanning :

  
  No real story here. This movie doesn't end; it dies. Thankfully. All we would have needed would be for Bettany to pop up in the ditch, wrench the pick out of his back, and then come at them with the pick from behind as they're walking up the road to meet the police --… More
  No real story here. This movie doesn't end; it dies. Thankfully. All we would have needed would be for Bettany to pop up in the ditch, wrench the pick out of his back, and then come at them with the pick from behind as they're walking up the road to meet the police -- hey, wait a second here. That actually would have made the whole movie. Darn! I wish I'd been able to add that to the script. <p> Hey, look at this. Virginia Madsen has no picture and no fans. Hmmm . . . and there are seven million plus folks on flixster. Interesting. Hey, and don't look at me about putting up her picture or putting her on my favorite actor list so she can have one fan. Hey, Virginia, I think this is a sign.

• Khris N

  
  Okayz i guess... its one of those movies which is just a one-off, i probably wouldnt want to watch it again. Its got some good moments and Paul Bettany is pretty good, but the interest has gone once the movie is over. Just hire and watch - no point in buying it.

• Leigh R

  
  Pretty darn good.

• Dean M

  
  Outstanding! Intelligent action thriller.

• Aaron N

  
  Get off my Firewall!

• Nate Z

  
  [center][color=darkred][font=Arial][img]http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/8967/photo040nn.jpg[/img][/font][/color][/center] [color=darkred][font=Arial][/font][/color] [color=darkred][font=Arial]I?ve seen commercials for [i]Firewall[/i], a new techno-thriller, attached to various TV… More
  [center][color=darkred][font=Arial][img]http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/8967/photo040nn.jpg[/img][/font][/color][/center] [color=darkred][font=Arial][/font][/color] [color=darkred][font=Arial]I?ve seen commercials for [i]Firewall[/i], a new techno-thriller, attached to various TV programs. What?s peculiar is that the commercials are all centered on what Harrison Ford?s character drives in the film. The announcer even says, ?See the new Chrysler in ... [i]Firewall[/i].? The weird part is that I?ve seen more commercials pimping the movie?s car than the movie itself, like the film is an afterthought to the product placement. With such an inconsistent, stupid, cookie-cutter Hollywood thriller that [i]Firewall[/i] is, I?d expect nothing less.[/font][/color] [color=darkred][font=Arial]Jack Stanfield (Ford) is a bank security expert living in Seattle. He?s got a loving wife Beth (Virginia Madsen), a teenage daughter and young son, and his bank is about to merge with a larger conglomerate. Before it does, though, Jack takes a meeting with Bill Cox (Paul Bettany) who has a very important business proposition. Jack will waltz into the bank he?s been working at for 20 years and wire $100 million dollars to Cox?s offshore bank account. If Jack fails, the men currently holding his family hostage in Jack?s home will kill them. To secure their safety, Jack must work different sides, infiltrating his own bank and breaking his own system, all the while trying not to get caught and trying to save his family.[/font][/color] [color=darkred][font=Arial]The film is so cookie-cutter and filled with obvious and/or useless plot details. In the opening minutes we?re introduced to a remote controlled car that disrupts video frequencies. Of course we know this will come into play later. The opening minutes of [i]Firewall[/i] set up all the film?s subplots that will be tidily tied up but only after being ignored. So little of this film feels fleshed out. [i]Firewall[/i] seems to think that just having its villain be British is enough. Beth is an architect and designed the family home they?re now held hostage in. Surely this plot point will have greater significance than a toy car. Nope, nothing ever happens as a result of this extraneous detail.[/font][/color] [color=darkred][font=Arial]Ford looks so bored and he does little to hide it. Once again he?s that reticent hero called into action in the name of his family. He really isn?t given much to do and his action sequences are short bursts that involve a lot of him falling down, even when he?s besting a bad guy. Ford is starting to show his age and I almost expected that he?d follow one of those tumbles by saying, ?I?ve fallen and I can?t get up.? And they?re going to seriously do an [i]Indiana Jones 4[/i]? A perfect example of how bad the writing is, and how lame they?ve made Ford?s character, is an exchange between Jack and Henry (Robert Patrick) shortly after Ford has liquidated his company of millions. Henry confronts him and says, ?You?re not going anywhere. You?re staying here!? And Jack says, like a whiny kid told to eat his vegetables, ?No [i]I?mmmm[/i] NOT!? [i]Firewall[/i], this is your hero.[/font][/color] [color=darkred][font=Arial]The antagonists are another example of how terribly written [i]Firewall[/i] is. The villains are incredibly inept on all levels. Their entire plan is kaput from minute one because they didn?t bother to check that the bank was merging and changing its security access panels. Bill basically points to Jack and says, ?You come up with a plan now.? The villains need the hero to come up with their scheme, how rich. The bad guys come across like they just took night classes in How to Take Hostages and Extort Money 101. Somewhere Bill must have skipped a few classes because he makes some boneheaded decisions. He kills one of his own men for getting tricked by Jack during surveillance. I suppose he?s trying to make an example but why, if you?re holding people hostage, would you decrease your numbers from five to four? Now you have one less person to get things in line. Bill also must have missed a psychological review to screen out that old Hollywood favorite, the one reluctant kidnapper who?s nice. Did Bill put this thing together through an ad in a newspaper?[/font][/color] [color=darkred][font=Arial]Then there?s the dog. Why on earth did the bad guys take the dog with them when they moved the family? It just so happens that the dog has a GPS tracking device on its collar. It?s a plot contrivance so Jack can find his family, but it makes no sense. These big bad men will kill one of their own but take the dog along too? Bill and the gang didn?t have to kill the dog but taking him doesn?t add up. It?s like a serial killer alphabetizing your CD collection.[/font][/color] [color=darkred][font=Arial]The whole hostage situation is laughable. Bill?s thugs turn a hostage situation into a bed and breakfast, implausibly letting the family roam around the house, watch TV, do whatever really. Bill even makes pancakes for Jack?s kids, that [i]bastard[/i]. The most threatening Bill ever gets is when he offers a peanut butter cookie to Jack?s peanut-allergy kid. Dastardly and, oh yeah, the kid didn?t have to [i]choose[/i] to eat what the bad guy gave him! This is the worst hostage siege ever. It is insultingly ridiculous. Madsen is annoying as she tries shaming her captors, proclaiming motherly advice. [i]Firewall[/i]?s chances of thrills are spoiled by inept bad guys and the family being in laughably staged peril.[/font][/color] [color=darkred][font=Arial]The heist itself is given such lip-service that it almost becomes incidental. It plays for a total of maybe five minutes onscreen and lacks any thrills. Why should there be thrills if Jack came up with it? There no reversals, no setbacks, no complications, no nothing. [i]Firewall[/i] needed to be run through a typewriter a few more times, work out a punchier screenplay that actually turns the heist into something tense.[/font][/color] [color=darkred][font=Arial][i]Firewall[/i] should have played more like a cat and mouse game, with Jack and Bill battling for supremacy. Instead, [i]Firewall[/i] feels emblematic of every other stupidly plotted thriller Hollywood feels it can feed to a mass audience because it slaps a star in it. This is shamefully mediocre, stupid, and, above all else, rather boring. [i]Firewall[/i] is your typical disposable Hollywood thriller-of-the-week, just with more tech jargon that Ford looks pained to even speak. If you replaced Ford and Bettany with, say Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Corbin Bernsen, you?d have a movie fit to air late night on TV when the only people awake would be insomniacs. Finally, then, [i]Firewall[/i] would have found its rightful audience.[/font][/color] [font=Arial][color=darkred]Nate?s Grade: C-[/color][/font]

• Mark E

  
  Give that dog an oscar...Indy 4 next please Harrison!

• Jose Z

  
  i like this movie very much. its full of action, it keeps you on the edge of your seat for the entire movie

• Dannielle A

  
  I was on the edge of my seat! Well-written script.

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