swordfish ( 2001 ) 1 1/2 stars out of 4 . starring john travolta , hugh jackman , halle berry , don cheadle , vinnie jones and sam shepard . written by skip woods . directed by dominic sena . rated r . at the outset of swordfish , john travolta's gabriel shear is pontificating about the status of american cinema today . basically , he says , it boils down to a lack of imagination among the majority of writers . how ironic , as travolta seems to be describing his latest venture . swordfish is loud , violent and amoral . it has the audacity to justify murder and mayhem in the name of sustaining our way of life . and how does travolta's gabriel plan to do this ? by robbing billions from his own government and using the funds to out-terrorize terrorists . swordfish is a very cynical movie . it relies on an audience's perception of our leaders as ineffectual and duplicitous and on terrorists as non-human , faceless entities not worthy of compassion or consideration . the movie's plot is preposterous with enough illogical leaps that if the film ever slowed down , you'd actually see how ridiculous it all is . this is a live-action road runner cartoon , moving so quickly that it's over before you can catch your breath to ask any reasonable questions . the storyline revolves around super hacker stanley jobson ( hugh jackman ) , recruited by gabriel to crack the government's computer codes so gabriel can gather billions for his anti-terrorist campaign . talk about whacked-out patriotism . my objections to swordfish are many . the body count is high , but that is expected in a movie of this sort . it's becoming a bore watching anonymous soldiers , police officers and government agents blown to bits . another example is the family dynamics between stanley , his 10-year-old daughter and his ex-wife . stanley , though having served time in prison for hacking , is shown as a loving and caring father , forbidden by his ex to see his little girl . audience animosity is immediately created for his former spouse by showing her as a drinker and smoker who also sometimes stars in her new husband's adult films . thus when she is found murdered late in the movie , neither stanley nor his daughter are allowed any time to grieve . in fact , subconsciously , many in the audience are probably glad she was killed . then there is the sequence involving one of gabriel's henchman holding a gun to the head of stanley's daughter to coerce the hacker to download the key computer program for gabriel . children as pawns have become a most unwelcome cliché in recent films . there is enough violence in the real world involving children without having to make them on-screen victims as well . yea , it's only make believe , but that doesn't mean you have to tolerate it . travolta is cool , deadly charming and flamboyant as the near-crazy gabriel . his character is reminiscent of his villainous characterizations in broken arrow and face/off . jackman looks dour through most of the proceedings . his only moment of any depth comes when he finally is able to create the worm to get inside the government database . his sense of joy and accomplishment is one any computer whiz can appreciate . halle berry is decorative and lovely as gabriel's assistant , while don cheadle is given little to do as the head fbi agent hunting gabriel . swordfish plays like a comic book with a larger-than-life character in gabriel . viewers align themselves with him despite their uncertainty if he is hero or villain . and maybe that is the movie's underlying flaw : there is no real hero to speak of , only those doing their upmost to survive . and that is not enough . this is one swordfish that should have been thrown back in the water . bob bloom is the film critic at the journal and courier in lafayette , in . he can be reached by e-mail at <a href= " mailto : bloom@journal-courier . com " >bloom@journal-courier . com</a> or at <a href= " mailto : bobbloom@iquest . net . " >bobbloom@iquest . net . </a> bloom's reviews also can be found at www . jconline . com by clicking on golafayette . bloom's reviews also can be found on the web at the internet movie database : <a href= " http : //www . imdb . com/m/reviews_by ? bob + bloom " >http : //www . imdb . com/m/reviews_by ? bob + bloom</a> 
