Here's a film that moves from the very first shot and never lets up!
Swordfish follows a reformed hacker as he is pulled back to crime with the promise of getting his daughter back. By working this angle the hacker is always the hero we want to see win.
John Travolta is the bad guy with the bait. He's a counter-terrorist who uses terror to finance his missions. Sound strange? That's the point of the film. The only way to battle terrorism is with terrorism. One then becomes what he hates most. or as Ghandi once put it, "An eye for an eye, just leaves the whole world blind."
Another notable performance is that of Halle Berry. We never really know whose side she is on. Berry helps keep this picture on track and the audience interested.
I think the strength of the film is that you never really know what will happen next. The film keeps changing before you can become bored.
Swordfish is fun. The action never stops, and you never mistake one character for another. Better yet, no one in this movie is really stereotyped as being stupid. Even the cops are portrayed as smart, they're just out classed in strategy.
Swordfish has a James Bond-type of reality so even in a very gory "Bullet Time" shot, you never forget that this is a fantasy. As a summer film, this is a superior movie.
