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Techtite's DVD Reviews! |
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Swordfish Click picture to order this DVD A Techtite ReviewThe Film: Action films lately are an intriguing lot. Gone are the days when a strong story was not as important as strong action scenes, where the hero would fight a few bad guys, then defeat the main bad guy, and then...that's it. Such classic, B-grade action films could never compete with modern epic scenery (Gladiator), over-the-top FX (Matrix), or perhaps even both (Titanic). Regardless, I often yearn for the occasional, campy action flick, that wishes merely to be fun; is that so bad? That said, I personally liked Swordfish...though it's true that, by modern "action movie" standards, it does have its fair share of limitations. Such limitations include the story. Gabriel Shear (John Travolta) needs the help of an ex-con computer hacker named Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman) to break into an international bank's computer, and steal billions of dollars. He first sends his seductive lover, Ginger (Halle Berry), whose $100,000 advance, "just for listening to the offer," entices Jobson enough to jump on a plane to L.A. In time, he learns that he's in over his head, though as is always the case in films like this, it's too late to back out easily. The bad guys, you see, know all about his 10 year old daughter, Holly (Camryn Grimes); Stan must do what they say, or else. You can pretty much guess how the final scene plays out, right down to the hostages, final confrontation, the lives at stake, yada yada yada. The biggest pluses in this film are the action scenes. An opening scene --actually a flash-forward to a moment during the "final battle" -- is one of the bigger explosions (literally) in films this year. It's sure to keep you interested for the whole remainder of the film, which is little more than a mere 90 minutes as it is. Along the way, see Travolta attack vans in a car chase with a gun that would make even Schwarzenegger take a few steps back. In addition, you see the unlikely (though still intriguing) scene shown in commercials, of a bus trying to escape a police chase, via a helicopter that is able to keep the bus airborne...via a mere two cables! Well, at least it's different. Such a film comes from a rag-tag bunch of crew members. Director Dominic Sena's most recent work is the less-than-stellar Gone in 60 Seconds. Skip Woods is writer and co-producer, and this is only the second time in his career when he's done either. If you're wondering why the film can throw in such buzz words in its commercials as "From the producers of The Matrix," that's because Bruce Berman, Dan Cracchiolo, and Joel Silver are on hand as Executive Producer, co-producer, and producer. However, these are just a few names, in a production list of no less than 10 names. Jonathan D. Crane, while an executive producer for Face/Off (which I personally thought was great), was also one of the producers for last year's Battlefield Earth. I doubt you'll hear of that in any of the commercials. As for casting, well, I personally liked Hugh Jackman in the lead. He was a perfect choice as the popular comic hero "Wolverine" in The X-Men, and he does a good job here. Halle Berry does an equally impressive job in a role that insultingly under-uses her, yet she makes the most of what scenes she is given (yes, as pre-promotional campaigns have already hyped over and over, this even includes her first-ever topless nude scene, which is bound to be as popular with the guys as Mel Gibson's Lethal Weapon 1 scene was for the ladies). As for John Travolta...well, he's not as good of a bad guy persona as he was in films like Pulp Fiction and Face/Off, though it's an acceptable enough performance. I suppose the problem wasn't in his acting, as much as the direction the film wished to be leading...which, much like the recent Hannibal, wants to portray the villain as some sort of quasi-hero, who must "win" as much as he must lose. Personally, I felt this was one of the films' bigger mistakes. Not that the film is without mistakes elsewhere. I just felt they weren't bad enough to mention here. In short, most errors are predictable, and to be expected, from any attempt to re-use the 1980's action-film formula. Admittedly, when looking at the epic grandeur of action films lately, this is a step backward. However, I loved every minute of such films in the '80s, and a salute to those days of "shut up and just enjoy the action scenes" was enjoyable enough to give a slightly favorable rating... The DVD : This is a nicely-packed DVD, though some may be a bit miffed at the methodology for seeing most of the bonuses...ten of them, in fact! You see, in spirit of the password-savvy intrigue from the film, no less than 10 video snippets need to be unlocked for viewing, right off the DVD. Of course, if you have a DVD player (or software) snazzy enough to allow you to play individual files on a disc, you can simply jump to the files named Title 10, Title 19, and Titles 11-18. As for using it the "official" way, via the DVD-ROM software; that stupid Interactual player software has never worked right on my system --which, FYI, is a high-end Pentium 4 with a Geforce 3 Ti 500 graphics card-- and as such, these features were near-impossible for me to see at all. Let's put aside the stupidly hidden 10 snippets for a bit, and concentrate on what can be seen, via the special features menu of the disc. Well, there's listings of all the main cast & crew's prior work, a commentary by the director (which is actually not as snazzy as it could've been, if it included commentary by Halle Berry and Hugh Jackman), a behind the scenes documentary (which was apparently shown on HBO, yet is only as long as 15 minutes), and an additional FX featurette (8 minutes). Oh yes, there's also the film trailer. Are you longing for those 10 hidden clips, yet...? Well, there are those two alternate endings, offered sans "secret password." In alternate ending #1, we see Ginger attempt to get the money and run, only to find out that there is a mere $500 bucks in the account, and not the millions she expected. The cuter part of this ending, though, involves Stanley reunited with his daughter in a coffee shop, as we see him using his laptop to transfer the money to charities online (in the film, this scene is identical, only he's without his laptop, and isn't "getting the upper hand" at the last minute). In alternate ending #2, everything basically happens as it does in the film, only the final "news report" narration isn't used. Either ending would've been acceptable, though it does seem to show one of the flaws with the film as a whole, that not even the writers knew where to go with the plot they had conceived. Regardless, 2 alternate endings is a piffle compared to 10 hidden clips. This is made worse, due to them intended to be viewed solely by DVD drive owners, and solely on PC computers (not Macintosh!). DVD-ROM features should be used only for promotional hype (Phantom Menace's exclusive trailer of the next film, for example), an on-disc demo of the game based on the film, or the web site. DVD-ROM should not be the medium used for over %80 of the bonus material; that's just dumb. So annoying is this concept, allow me to have some fun with the font size button on my web editor for a few seconds:
Passwords...? Oh, I forgot to tell you; even if you're lucky enough to own a DVD-ROM drive, you'll still need to decipher the on-screen hints, for the passwords needed to access the files at all. On the other hand, as I said earlier, you can always cheat and access Title #s 10-19, if your DVD player allows it. Via my PowerDVD software, I merely needed to right click on the video image, and choose the "Go To" menu for the title of choice (lucky me; I would've been unable to see these 10 clips, otherwise). Title 10 is a music video, "Planet Rock (Swordfish Mix)," by Paul Oakenfold. Title 11 is Hugh Jackman, mostly musing over working with John Travolta. Title 12 is Jackman musing over his borderline computer illiteracy, with similar comments from Travolta, Don Cheadle, and Halle Berry. Title 13 is Jackman talking about how the role was originally pitched to him. Title 14 will be a favorite to Halle Berry fans (i.e., just about every male who buys this disc), as she muses how her first-ever nude scene was supposed to be bam-bam and she'd be done, yet took three days to complete. Are you ticked off that these features were "hidden," yet? What's worse, we're only halfway done... On to the next half of the password-hidden clips. Title 15 is of Joel Silver on producing the film, as well as Travolta and Jackman with anecdotes about working with him. Title 16 is of Travolta answering the question of how he decides if a role is "right" for him or not. To hear him say it, Michael and Phenomenon were easy roles to get into, yet all others he's had to sort of adapt himself to play. Title 17 is of Sam Shepard (the corrupt senator in the film), about playing such a role. Title 18 is of director Dominic Sena, and then there's Title 19, which is a slide show of 16 conceptual diagrams used for the film. Now, all being told, I ask you; why was so much intriguing bonus material flushed down the river for anyone other than those of us with DVD-ROM drives...? In the end, you're left with a nice DVD, provided you can get to the bonus material that makes the purchase (or rental) worth it. Otherwise, get the video. Two alternate endings and a so-so audio commentary by the director is a rather skimpy bone to throw to the DVD fans, unless they have the PC hardware that allows access to the hidden video clips. What's worse, unless you can view the title clips directly via your DVD player, you'll be left wondering what the passwords are to see the clips at all. Anyone know...?
Also Available on VHS : Swordfish (VHS)
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