The Firewall


Firewall
A movie review.
http://www.entertainmentavenue.com/movie_theater/f/firewall/firewall.htm

"Sure, he’s a little bit older, but he’s also a little bit wiser, and now he’s in charge of the computer security for a regional bank in the Seattle area.  He’s Harrison Ford, I mean Jack Stanfield, and the simple advice to would be thieves – don’t mess with his family. He might be a little bit older, but he can still kick some ass, and loves his dog.

"Firewall" gives us Harrison Ford as Jack. He’s been protecting the assets of you and me and the bank for years, adapting to new technology as if he was just out of college. He’s got a hot wife, Beth (Virginia Madsen). She’s an architect and shows that even older men with graying hair can score a good looking wife. He’s also got a couple of kids, which make him happy, but his bank might merge with this bigger conglomerate, and this doesn’t really make him happy.  His buddy, Harry (Robert Forster) has been approached by Bill (Paul Bettany), about maybe going out on their own setting up computer systems to safeguard all of our monies. Harry’s up for it, Jack’s interested, but then it turns out Bill isn’t really on the up-and-up. Nope, Bill has hatched a huge, enormous, please just let it go and let the movie run with it so it doesn’t ruin the movie for you, plan to get about a hundred million dollars, and part of that plan is taking hostage Jack’s wife and kids, while letting Jack figure out a way to get him the money.

But Jack’s not a dumb dude, he keeps trying to get his family free, much to the chagrin of Bill, and finally, Jack pretty much realizes that Bill will probably kill his family in the end anyway. So, yea, Jack hatches a plan to protect his family, screw over Bill and his cronies, and he’s just lucky the bad dudes don’t kill the family dog.

Look, "Firewall" isn’t the greatest movie in the world. You can probably guess that from the trailer. And "Firewall" won’t be breaking any new ground, and you can probably guess that from the trailer as well. But "Firewall" is a nice escape in the movie theater, especially if you saw the movie "Air Force One" and loved it when Harrison Ford’s character gruntingly ordered "Get off my plane!" Instead of his plane, Jack wants his family back and will do what is necessary to get them, and you can guess, that doesn’t bode well for the bad dudes.

I suppose I won’t go too much into this review more than that, because I think you can know what to expect. Virginia Madsen does a good job as the wife/mother, the kids aren’t too annoying, and Harrison Ford is, well, Harrison Ford, doing the things we like him to do. He’s a loving father, sort of, does a good job at his job, and will do whatever he has to do in order to protect the one’s he loves. Sometimes that all that I ask, and that gives the film 3 stars out of 5. Catch a matinee if you can, but it’s definitely worth the DVD rental."

I really enjoyed this movie!  I relaxed, had a sip of shiraz and ate nacho chips with a chunky salsa.  All was marvelous…only four telephone calls and a drive to collect my son from his work at the senior’s residence!

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