Firewall

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Warner Bros. make this film available in three different disc formats, each available separately: standard-definition widescreen, standard-definition fullscreen, and the HD-DVD and DVD Combo reviewed here. In the combo, you get the film in widescreen only but in both SD and HD on flip sides of the same disc. By providing both SD and HD, the studio says it is giving viewers the chance to use the disc in any SD or HD-DVD player of their choice. They also provide viewers who have not yet bought an HD-DVD player but are thinking of doing so the opportunity of having their cake and eating it, too.

First, let's talk about the movie. There is no doubt that Harrison Ford has made more high-octane action films that have earned more money over the past three decades than any actor in Hollywood. So it's been something of a disappointment to see him missing from the action scene for the last few years. "Firewall" is his return to the genre that earned him his living, or maybe it's just a warm-up to "Indiana Jones 4," it's hard to tell. In any case, in "Firewall" he does everything we expect from him and more. It's just too bad the film itself and the character he plays weren't more innovative or intriguing.

Yes, it's good to see Ford back in action, especially in the kind of role he has honed to perfection over the years. Be it a mild-mannered college professor who goes all superhero in pursuit of ancient artifacts or an outer-space gunslinger who saves the universe or a family-oriented CIA agent who merely has to save the country, we can always count on Ford to make the situation at least partly credible and always entertaining. So it is with his 2006 release, "Firewall."

In terms of his derring-do, I had no problem with Ford's now being in his sixties. Perhaps because he's close to my age, I'd like to think I could still take on the world, too. However, there is the matter of his wife and kids in the movie. The wife, played by Virginia Madsen, is about twenty years younger than Ford, and his children in the film, played by Jimmy Bennett and Carly Schraeder, are eight and fourteen. From a practical point of view, these people are young enough to be his daughter and grand kids. Still, it is not uncommon to find wide age differences between spouses these days, and in any case I suppose we have to grant a certain degree of cinematic license here. We have to assume that Ford's character is younger than Ford's real age. Besides, it's a fine old movie tradition that older male actors romance younger women. Think of Bogart and Bacall, who married in real life and lived happily ever after (or, at least, until Bogart's death); better yet, think of Bogart and Audrey Hepburn years later in "Sabrina" or Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn in "Love in the Afternoon." The difference in ages in these latter films was close to thirty years, and nobody seemed to mind. Anyway, I'm overemphasizing a trivial point. It's not Ford's age that is an issue in "Firewall"; it's the stock character he plays and the run-of-the-mill plot.

Ford plays Jack Stanfield, a good, honest family man, working as the head of network security for a big Seattle bank; a man who is forced to help a team of baddies rob the place because they've taken his family hostage and threaten to kill them if he doesn't cooperate. This is a part that Ford or Mel Gibson or Bruce Willis could have played in his sleep.

Things begin to go south when Jack arrives at the bank one morning to find that somebody has stolen his identify and racked up $95,000 worth of gambling debts in his name. Odd, considering this guy is an expert in computer security. Then the movie marches straight into its central conflict when the villains invade Jack's home and hold his wife and two children captive. Their aim, with Jack's help, is to hack into the bank's server, withdraw money from a number of accounts, and have $100,000,000 transferred into an offshore account of their own.

If Jack doesn't go along with the plan, he figures the baddies will probably kill his wife and kids; they seem to mean business. If he does go along with the plan, he figures the baddies will still probably kill his wife and kids. It's a no-win situation for Jack, so for the audience it's just a matter of time before we expect him to do something.

The movie and Jack are rather passive for the first hour, the action finally beginning when Jack decides to fight back, which is fairly late on. This wouldn't be so bad if the first hour's business were more involved; if, for instance, the scheme to rob the bank were more intricate or more clever. We might be fascinated by the dastardly plan if there were more to it. But there isn't. It's just as I explained it, more or less. So most of what happens in the movie's first half is purely mechanical; we have to watch the obvious set up of the plot and wait impatiently for it finally to develop.

And it's not as though the villains were very villainous, either. Indeed, they are hardly villainous at all. Paul Bettany (Silas in "The Da Vinci Code") plays the lead villain, Bill Cox. We know he's the head baddie because he has a British accent. But what does he do to prove he's really bad? He shoots some of his own gang. Dang, that'll teach Ford's character a thing or two! He'd better watch it, or Cox will kill another one of his own men.

Then, too, there are any number of fine actors virtually wasted on throwaway parts. Robert Patrick is a rival banker, Gary Mitchell, involved in a merger with Jack's bank; but like Ford, the most Patrick does is look grim most of the time. Robert Forster is Jack's best friend and business associate; but he, too, has little to do in the story but mindlessly carry out the plot. Alan Arkin is Jack's boss, Arlin Forester, a character hardly needed in the story, let alone needed to be played by such a fine actor. It is probably Mary Lynn Rajskub as Jack's secretary who has the best role in the film, yet hardly anyone in the audience will recognize her unless they watch "24" or other TV fare.

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