Firewall

Apparently bad guys have still not figured out that Harrison Ford, while 60-some years old, will simply not stand for anyone threatening his family/national security/powerful religious relics/peace throughout the galaxy.

This time Harrison Ford plays Jack Stanfield, a high-tech banking executive who relentlessly devotes his life to protecting the customers at his bank, no matter what. He's a loving husband and father, of course, and therefore always ensures that he is home on time for pizza night, no matter how busy his day at work. After spending the day fending off would-be hackers with clever firewall protection and convincing the new president of the company, Terminator T-1000 (Robert Patrick), that any amount of fraud loss and/or stabbing of customers with one's metallic arms is simply unacceptable, his business partner and friend, Harry (Robert Forster), talks Jack into a quick meeting with a potential new business partner, Bill Cox (Paul Bettany). While this will make Jack about a half hour late for pizza night with the family, he agrees to hear the guy out for a minute or two. Unfortunately, the meeting turns out to be a setup, and Bill Cox threatens Jack with a gun and instructs him to drive home, whereupon he finds his family tied up. Cox then informs Jack that he will either help Cox and his evil henchmen steal $100,000,000 from the bank, or they will kill Jack's family. Ohhhh, big mistake, pal. Nonetheless, Jack is forced to do as the henchmen say for the time being, and he sets to work trying to thwart Cox's plans in the least violent way possible. At first. This proves to be somewhat of a challenge, however, as Cox and his henchmen have put together a fairly solid plan to manipulate Jack into the theft. Apparently this evil-doer is a little more prepared to engage Harrison Ford in a battle of wits and might than some of his evil predecessors.

But still, the man did threaten Ford's family, which is usually the worst of all offenses one can commit against Harrison Ford. Nonetheless, Jack is still willing, at this point, to continue playing nice with the bad guys, and after attempting and subsequently failing in every trick and escape strategy of which he can conceive to save his family, Jack reluctantly resigns to rip off the bank's richest customers in order to ensure the safe release of his wife and kids. Or does he?

All in all, I really enjoyed this movie. While I felt safe in my assumption that everything would turn out ok for Jack and his family in the end, I still found myself quite nervous and tense throughout the last hour of the movie. For a thriller, I was really quite surprised at how suspenseful Firewall turned out to be, as I was fully expecting the same ol' same ol' from this movie. Harrison Ford does his usual, convincing job in the portrayal of an ordinary man pushed entirely to the brink, and while there were a few minor plot holes, the storyline was relatively believable. At least, enough so that I was not irritated with complete implausibility and ridiculousness. To a certain extent, thrillers are supposed to be ridiculous and outside the realm of reality, but this one was a great balance of outlandishness and believability. I highly recommend Firewall, as it is thoroughly suspenseful and pleasantly well-written. Plus, who doesn't like to watch Harrison Ford give bad guys their deserved comeuppance?