Firewall: Critic Reviews

If you feel like you've seen it before, it's because you have -- action heroes beating the crap out of people in the pious name of protecting their loved ones.

Firewall, a thrill-challenged thriller starring Harrison Ford, manages to entertain mildly only because it gives moviegoers ample opportunity to test their action-movie I.Q.

Harrison Ford needs a better agent. Or a sharper pair of reading glasses for perusing scripts. He just seems to keep choosing the same tired heroic roles, and ends up coming across as a caricature of his younger self.

As we watch Ford reprise his trademark mannerisms, we no longer enjoy the ring of familiarity. We just hear the tolling of a bell -- Ford's.

There are other plot holes (four days indoors and the dog doesn't have to go?) but, dispiritingly, Firewall is one of those movies where every detail in the first act is designed to pay off by the third.

As for Ford, autumn is upon him.

For every movie based on a clever screenplay that takes years to get made, there are a dozen like the formula hostage thriller Firewall.

If you're in the mood for a thriller, Firewall will suffice -- barely.

Do Clear and Present Danger or Air Force One ring a bell? If not, get thee to Blockbuster, as those films follow a similar outline to greater effect than does Firewall.

Firewall gives us little reason to bestow deeper meaning on what is essentially a pre-owned Ford vehicle.

The movie gets a lift from Mary Lynn Rajskub in a glamorized version of her nerd's wet dream Chloe on 24, which is also better this year with the Chloe quotient pumped up.

Firewall is an ingenious attempt to update an old plot with new technology, and it is made with competence, skillful acting, and the ability to make us feel cleverer about digital stuff than we really are.

An efficient time-passer at least until the plot starts obsessing over the fate of the family dog.

It's not long before the timely issue of identity theft takes a backseat to old-fashioned Hollywood villainy, unnecessary (and nonsensical) red herrings, and stuff that doesn't make sense.

Director Richard Loncraine and screenwriter Joe Forte run out of ideas. So they turn to the action-movie mainstays -- guns, fisticuffs and explosions -- in an over-the-top showdown that tries to make up in mayhem what it lacks in credibility.

This film is so formulaic, so thoroughly what you'd expect that by the time you're done watching it you feel like you've just seen it for the second time.

As a techno-thriller, Firewall fails to surmount the obstacle that plagues such films: How do you make tapping at a computer interesting?

Firewall is barely worth seeing, despite its above-average cast.

It kept me alert, terrified and royally entertained.

Beyond Paul Bettany's suave villain, there's not much to distinguish what amounts to an old-fashioned "B" picture, except perhaps its unusually overwrought score.

Expect the predictable series of attempted double crosses, frame-ups and escape attempts that will be wearyingly familiar to anyone whose seen last year's Hostage.

Thrillers aren't just about action and surprises, they're about fear and fury. And for a film with fire in the title, you expect a lot more heat.

Firewall is the flaming arrow of truth that Harrison Ford is fully in the throes of what worried scientists are calling the De Niro Syndrome.

Harrison Ford is outshone by his costars in this crisp, conventional thriller.