Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

Firewall Blu-ray Movie Review

A by-the-book thriller makes for a pretty forgettable Blu-ray.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman December 11, 2007

You do anything to hurt her or my children and you won't get a dime!

Harrison Ford (The Fugitive) appears so washed up that he could be a seashell Sally is selling on the seashore. Hopefully he will redeem his downfall with the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but his 2006 techno-thriller Firewall marks the low point in the famed actor's fine career. Simply reciting lines and running around, obviously having seen better days, Ford is merely cashing a paycheck in this film, going through the motions in this dull, barely passable movie that banked everything on Ford's presence. What we get is a convoluted mess of a movie that never surpasses even the lowest of standards, failing to improve on and surpass even weak and similarly themed films like The Net.

Harrison Ford angrily responds to one of the critics who lambasted 'Firewall.'

Jack Stanfield (Ford) is a family man and a top executive at a bank. Arriving at work one morning, he is confronted by a debt collector who informs him that he owes $95,000 in gambling charges racked up on the Internet. Of course, clean cut Jack would never do such a thing, and his boss offers to take care of it for him. What a nice man. It's pizza night at the Stanfield household, and he wouldn't miss it for the world, but he can be late to hear a business proposal at a bar. While he's there, his home is assaulted by armed men who take his wife Beth (Virginia Madsen, The Astronaut Farmer), daughter Sarah (Carly Schroeder, Mean Creek), and son Andy (Jimmy Bennett, The Polar Express) hostage. As it turns out, the meeting with Jack was simply a ruse to keep him out of the house long enough to get in. The man Jack met is the ringleader of the group, Bill (Paul Bettany, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World). The next day, they send Jack to work, but they have every corner covered. They are watching, listening, and monitoring his computer usage. He has nowhere to run and can turn to no one for help. It turns out the bad guys have decided to use Jack as a means of ripping off the bank's wealthiest customers. Their plan is to steal $10,000 from the bank's 10,000 richest clients. I love when numbers work out with such nice congruity, like when there are 30 or so hostages on the 30th floor. Anyway, Jack's family will be killed if he doesn't figure out how to get them the money. Will Jack save his family and the fortunes of people who will probably think the missing $10,000 went into their daughter's text-messaging fund, or will the bad guys walk away with millions, killing Jack and his family for sport?

There's not a whole lot to say about Firewall. It's one of the most formulaic motion pictures I've ever seen. Everything is paint by numbers including the script (it was a struggle to find a decent quote to put at the top of this review), the direction, the music, and the acting. It's all bland and forgettable, not to mention almost wholly predictable. When a remote control car causes interference with a televsion set at the beginning of the movie, you just know that will be important later on in some attempt at resolving the conflict. When the dog needs to go outside and Jack loudly says something about not forgetting its new collar, you just know that will be important later on in some attempt at resolving the conflict. This movie tries very hard to be tense, exciting, and dramatic, but it fails, mostly because we've seen this type of thing before. It never breaks any new ground, never tries to put some life into a tired scenario, and the movie lacks any energy at all. There is little sense of urgency from any of the characters. A few tears are shed, especially by young Andy (who early on thinks the bad guys are pretty "cool" until Bill poisons him with cookies containing nuts [Andy is allergic] in an attempt to get Jack to do what he wants done). We have the typical characters--the main bad guy who is more bark than bite, the bad guy henchman who wants to kill everyone, chanting "Marco! Polo!" when he hunts a character down, and the bad guy with a conscience. The pseudo-tension is nearly laughable. If this movie is good at anything at all, it's good at following this tired formula so precisely.

Firewall Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Warner Brothers has released Firewall with a decent 1080p high definition transfer. Presented in it's original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.40:1, this image is fairly representative of the average high-definition image even though this film contains a few odd coloring and lighting schemes throughout. The film is very dark, seemingly intentionally poorly lit throughout, and there is a green tint to the image. This tint struck me as either an homage to or ripping off of the visual style of The Matrix but it was certainly more subdued than it was in the sci-fi blockbuster. Here, it comes off as more of a gimmick than anything else. Nevertheless, the transfer handles both well, staying true to the overall look of the print I saw in theaters a while back. As for the rest of the look, flesh tones appeared overly red throughout and the image was at times a little softer than one would expect, but with the artistic licenses the director chose in the film, this may very well be intentional. Black levels were solid and the print used for this transfer is spotless, as one would expect for such a recent film. With the overall look being rather drab and lifeless, colors don't especially stand out, but they are all reproduced just fine nevertheless. The image lacked any three-dimensionality and appeared flat and, well, boring. Firewall certainly has a unique look about it that is faithfully reproduced here. Aside from a few nagging flaws, the transfer is fine. I've seen better, but I've also seen a lot worse.

Firewall Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As per the norm with most older Warner Brothers Blu-ray titles (and even some new ones), Firewall contains no high definition soundtrack. A run-of-the-mill Dolby Digital 5.1 track is all we get here, and it happens to be one of the more pleasant DD 5.1 tracks I've heard on Blu-ray. This is not a top tier track by any stretch of the imagination, but it gets the job done, and admirably at that for the most part. The track features solid use of bass and excellent ambience and use of the rear speakers where there always seems to be something going on. The track does have a few drawbacks. Dialogue tends to get lost in some places where the is already a good deal of sound, such as a scene during a downpour in rainy downtown Seattle. It doesn't help that dialogue sounds rather tiny and understated to begin with the entire runtime of the movie. Though bass is generally solid, a big explosion in the final action sequence was rather unimpressive. For the most part a fine track, but one that certainly could have been better with a more impressive mix and either a PCM or TrueHD option.

Firewall Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Not that a movie such as Firewall screams out for a plethora of extras, but what is included here is rather miniscule, short, and uninteresting. Firewall Decoded (480p, 15:26) is a conversation with actor Harrison Ford and director Richard Loncraine. They discuss how there was always opposition to the script and some of the challenges of making the script believable. Some of the intricacies of the plot and how the characters play off of one another are also discussed. Next is a feature entitled Firewall: Writing a Thriller (480p, 3:16) with scriptwriter Joe Forte. He discusses writing in his garage, getting kidnapped for the purpose of the movie, and writing the script after 9/11. I think a good interview with the scriptwriter is a great idea. Unfortunately, this is neither the writer nor the script I would want to learn from. The theatrical trailer (480p, 2:14) for Firewall finishes off this feeble offering of extras.

Firewall Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Firewall is a wholly forgettable film that marks the low point for one of the biggest stars of the final two decades of the 20th century. It sports a trite plot filled to the brim with clichés and cookie cutter characters. This Blu-ray rendition is pretty nice. The video and audio reproduction is just fine, but slightly underwhelming. The supplements are rather short and don't add any value to the film or the disc. I'd recommend giving Firewall a rental if you are interested in seeing perhaps the most unoriginal movie in motion picture history.