Flashback Friday: "Swordfish," Was a Fun Movie, Regardless What Haters Say

You ever remember a movie not because of the plot but because of how great the actors in it were acting-out a story that admittedly was a mess? That's me with, "Swordfish." The, "Story," as it were involves an old government slush fund that a crazy guy (John Travolta) needs a skilled hacker (Hugh Jackman) to break into, yet at some point they also go and hold-up a bank, as we see when the movie opens 3/4th into the flick, before flashing back to the beginning, and then building-up to the 3/4th spot and jumping into the last fourth. Yeah, "Memento," thought it was clever going in reverse? This movie jumps all around in time! Plus, there is Halle Berry as Travolta's parter-in-crime as well as life--and we see her boobs! Halle Berry's boobs in a movie not as depressing as, "Monter's Ball," are always a welcome addition. Seriously, "Monster's Ball," is the second most depressing movie ever with, "Monster," in the title--the winner is simply, "Monster," with Charlize Theron, in case you wondered. Oh, Don Cheadle is an FBI agent in this too, and he's always a treat on the screen. 

"Swordfish," has a plot that makes almost no sense, but it is loaded with action, has Travolta doing his usual over-the-top thing with weird monologues about movies that wouldn't be out of place in a Tartino flick, a pre-Wolverine Hugh Jackman being delightfully understated, it is fun! Oh, and there is a bus that gets carried by a helicopter whilst loaded with people from the bank who are equipped with explosives that cause them to blow-up if they get too far from the bus because this movie literally has everything except coherence. Keep in mind this is 2001 when, "Swordfish," came out too, so you know all the stuff dealing with hacking and, "Cyberspace," is really silly and unrealistic because people in 2021 still don't understand hacking and two decades ago it was really foreign to folks!

A helicopter carries a bus full of people rigged to explode if they happen to fall out.
This movie is beautifully insane.

Based on my post's title you already know that, "Swordfish," has bad reviews. Terrible, reviews, frankly. It sits at a wretched 25% on Rotten Tomatoes and people who rent or stream it years later still feel an urge to post negative reviews on websites these days. Forget the haters, though, this movie is awesome if you come into it expecting a spectacle and are willing to not think too hard about the plot. I loved this movie so much I've watched it with all the commentaries with the cast who could best be described as, "Vaguely bemused, mostly bored," when offering their thoughts. I have viewed the many alternate endings that change little about the actual flick. I am all-in on, "Swordfish," damnit, and I still couldn't explain the plot to you without seeming like that meme of Charlie Day from, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," where he looks crazy trying to break-down a conspiracy.

"Swordfish," is not necessarily a good movie, but it is a fun one. Between the great cast, special effects, and general weirdness of the movie jumping-around in time in a manner to seem clever even if it only confuses us more, I love this flick. It is very dumb, yes, but sometimes we just need something entertainingly stupid in our lives.

"Tomboy" #1 Is A Really, Really Good Comic, and Issue #2 Comes Out Today!

A seemingly cute picture is a lot darker
when you notice what she is holding.

Written and illustrated by Mia Goodwin, the comic, "Tomboy," is one I picked-up based upon having heard some positive buzz and seeing the cool covers it had. Well, I am glad I did because this is one impressive read. Focusing on a young girl named Addison who has just turned 16, the comic seems at first like it could just be the simple everyday tales of a happy girl, but slowly things get darker and more twisted when she learns her best friend (and possible romantic interest), Nick, has been murdered--this leads to a shocking last few pages where it seems Addison may have some dark magical powers that are going to result in a fair amount of death.

In fact, that expertly done balance of cutesy and gruesome is one major reason I love this comic. Whether it is Addison's imagination of a cute Princess Cheery Cherry (a cartoon she loves) telling her to transform into a killing machine, or how the book can go from a peppy and light coloring to dark with some splashes of bright-red blood, it really is some great stuff. The theme of happy world of being young facing the painful realities of grown-ups doing no good (a conspiracy involving a drug company may be to blame for Nick's death as his Father was involved in some questionable business) makes me wonder where things could be going next in this book.

Cute-meets-Grotesque.
I love it!

Another area the comic excels in is really sounding authentically like the voice of a teenage girl when we see our protagonist's narration, or hear her conversations with others. We witness someone who isn't quite an adult, but clearly not a child, and unsure whether she wants to truly be mature or still enjoy the things of her, "Childish," youth before the impeding of reality when her best friend is killed. Whether we see Addison spending time with her Father & Grandfather, or a best friend, we get the feeling that this is a fully-developed and fleshed-out character, one with hopes and dreams...and then a lot of rage.

Were I to have any complaints about the comic, it would be that it does something I find a bit cliché as so many movies/books/comics seem to do it now, where we, "Open," on a scene from the end and then go all the way back to the beginning. I've gotten kind of tired of so many forms of media doing that, "Trick," where we see a glimpse of the conclusion before jolting back to the start, so I could do without that--one thing I'll give a pass for this overused plot device is the movie, "Swordfish," as it opens around the last 1/3 of a movie before going back to the beginning, so that's kind of clever. Oh, and Memento opens at the end and each scene leads all the back to the start, that's clever too.

The bright and cheery colors give way
to darker hues as the issue continues

"Tomboy" is a stellar first issue from Action Lab, a publisher whom I have been hard on sometimes, but which has something really great here. I'm thinking I should look more into their comics and see what else I might like which they put out. I would recommend you go out and buy the first issue of Tomboy, and issue #2 actually is out today too, so grab that while you're at it!
5 out of 5 stars.

Film Friday/Flashback Friday: "Die Another Day," Did Have at Least One Clever Idea

I was reading an article by Kyle Turner on, "Paste," that doesn't argue so much that, "Die Another Day," was good, but had some interesting ideas. The movie came out in 2002 and I recall seeing it in theaters and another time some years later, but that was it. Hence, my memory of the flick is a bit foggy, but I can say it was not very good. Overreliance on CGI, a plot that leaned far too heavily in sci-fi for my liking, and just general messiness. However, one over-the-top element actually kind of works in retrospect. The big villain of the movie is a North Korean terrorist--Col. Sun-Tan Moon--and he's had ample gene therapy and plastic surgery to resemble a white British dude modeled after Pierce Brosnan's James Bond. 

Going by the name Gustav Graves, he's able to gain power and respect now so that he can take those he hates (but resembles) down. As Turner observes in his article, "On a literal level, it’s fascinating and unsettling, racialization inverting itself and whiteness becoming a snake eating its own tail: Graves tells Bond that he modeled his persona after him, with, 'Unjustifiable swagger,' and, 'crass quips,' a funhouse mirror of the man whose love only extends to Queen and country." The big baddie is someone who exists basically as a mockery of everything James Bond is and stands for. That's such a surreal and strange idea that it is one part of the movie which actually kind of works even if to get there you need a bunch of made-up jargon about gene replacement and altering DNA.

Gustav Graves...or is he?

Someone hates Bond and the UK so much that he basically becomes an extreme and nearly parodic version of what he despises and finds himself beloved for it. The whole thing is a bit like when Max and Leo try to make a play so bad it'll bomb in, "The Producers," but they end up with a massive hit because the result is so absurd that the concept strangely works. It's just that in, "Die Another Day," we don't get, "Springtime for Hitler," we get a North Korean terrorist who transforms himself into a WASP-y Brit.

Don't get me wrong, "Die Another Day," is still pretty low on my list of Bond movies I've seen (The Daniel Craig-led, "Casino Royale," is probably my all-time favorite), but I'll admit it does at least one thing that is interesting and clever along with all the less entertaining stuff. To be fair, Halle Berry does what she can with her role as Bond's latest fling, but if you want Berry giving her all in a genre flick, I'd recommend, "Swordfish," anytime over this movie.

Film Friday: Superb Opening Scenes in Films

As We Begin...
I had the ingenious idea to make a post about movie openings I like. I then looked online and saw this topic has been discussed a lot. That didn't discourage me though, because while the posts I saw talked about some openings I had thought of, there are others I feel deserve mention as they are less-known. So, here are three everybody is aware of and three most may not think about (plus one honorable mention which is sort-of known).

3 Well-Known Openings

Inglorious Basterds
For a scene that is basically just two men talking it is amazing how it goes from seeming like a casual conversation to the slowly growing tension as us viewers make the realization that the Nazi played by Christoph Waltz is the worst kind of villain--the sort that lures you into a false sense of security that he can be reasoned with and placated. As Waltz talks to a farmer about missing Jews the anxiety of those watching builds and builds until the horrendous and bloody climax where it becomes apparent the very people the farmer was trying to hide are under the floorboards and he's sold them out. A riveting piece of cinema and arguably one of the best parts of the movie. Director Quentin Tarantino knew to give us his best at the start, and boy does he deliver that.

The Dark Knight
Many movies end with a bank robbery, having that serve as the climax to the story. "The Dark Knight," however, opens with a bank robbery, and a tightly choreographed one at that. In it's amazingly well-orchestrated process we not only hear about the fabled man known as, "The Joker," who will come to dominate the film, we see how much of a mastermind he is with this bank robbery and then get to be surprised as he reveals himself to be a part of the very crew that simply thought he had hired them. In a bit over five minutes director Christoper Nolan has set some incredibly high stakes, bringing us the end of most movies at the beginning, and throwing the antagonist out there before we see even a hint of the hero. It's no surprise that to this day people still oftentimes refer to this as a movie starring the Joker, with guest appearances by Batman. Much of the credit for that goes of course to Heath Ledger's amazing performance, and with Nolan providing Ledger a scene like this to make his splash in, something magical resulted.

James Bond: Casino Royale
When this movie came out folk were feeling a bit down on the James Bond franchise. "Die Another Day," had come along and completely shit the bed, ruining any goodwill Pierce Brosnan had built-up during his time as the character. Fans were concerned this would be another silly jaunt full of weird technology and campy villains. Then we get an incredibly dark opening scene that opens in a stark black-and-white where the new James Bond confronts someone in a quiet room--but that scene is inter-cut with a brutal bathroom fight that the lack of color somehow makes all the more gritty. This scene doesn't just serve as the introduction to the film, it shows us that this new Bond we're getting ain't gonna be like some of the old ones. There really was no better way to put fears to rest, and that the rest of the movie is so expertly done only helps solidify, "Casino Royale," as a classic.


3 Less-Discussed Openings

Assault on Precinct 13 (2005 version)
I know, I know, the remake in no way lives-up to the John Carpenter classic. That said, I love the opening. When I first saw this it was at a movie theater back in the day that didn't have any special screen or, "bumper," to announce the previews were over and the movie was starting, the movie would just begin. For some reason the copy of the film they had lacked any studio logos or such, so it just opened on Ethan Hawke talking excitedly. For the first minute of the film I thought I was watching another preview. This opening on Ethan Hawke in an undercover role talking about drugs was so odd however that as it proceeded I began to go, "What is going on?" until it dawned on me the film proper had actually begun. It was a wild experience that is well complimented by the scene's sudden leap into action-fueled violence. If only the rest of this remake could have been as good.

Swordfish
I would argue this movie is an overlooked gem. Remembered by most people as the other movie where Halle Berry shows her breasts (the much more depressing ,"Monster's Ball," being the other), this actually is a peppy little film that talks about technology (at least as best as it could be talked about in 2001), concepts of good guys and bad guys, and features John Travolta doing that charismatic-villain role he tends to excel at. Plus, it has Hugh Jackman (this time affecting an American accent)! The opening scene though, it is just so wild. We have John Travolta talking about the movie, "Dog Day Afternoon," and how things would be different today whilst casually smoking in what appears to be a restaurant. Then the camera suddenly pans out and we see SWAT officers everywhere whom he commands to move out of his way. Suddenly its apparent Travolta has hostages rigged to explode with bombs and is in the process of robbing a bank himself--not unlike, "Dog Day Afternoon." Of course a bomb goes off and then the movie whisks us back to true start of the film, as we actually opened in the last quarter. It's bizarre to think the flick opens around the last 3/4th and then rewinds before making its way back, but it works and makes the impact of that opening all the more dramatic.

James Bond: Quantum of Solace
Another Bond movie, one with much less respect given to it. Seriously, out of the, "James Bond," films Daniel Craig was a part of this is the one everyone loves to hate. I'm with the folk who defend it however, thinking it is actually a solid piece of entertainment and a worthy entry in the Bond-mythos. The fact it actually links-up with, "Casino Royale," makes it a bit unique in the idea of each Bond film standing alone. There is a huge opening car-chase with Bond and then at the end he pops the trunk and we are surprised to in fact see a villain from the previous film that Bond intends to interrogate in an effort to learn more about the murder of the woman he cared about in the previous film, Vesper. Should someone be going into this film without knowing it was a bit of a direct sequel to, "Casino Royale," they would be surprised not only to see someone was in the trunk of Bond's car during the entire chase, but that they relate to an earlier movie. It is a way to have an opening that jars the viewer, and for that reason it is a great opening scene in a movie I would argue also is solid as well, even though many disagree.

One Honorable Mention That Is Sort-of Talked About

NARC
The movie, "NARC," could be mistaken as being your standard gritty flick about the police investigating the death of a fellow officer, but is elevated by great performances (Ray Liotta always makes a great cop or crook) and some intriguing twists. It's opening is amazing however. It just starts. We join an on-foot chase in process, unaware who exactly is whom, the camera shaking as it attempts to keep-up, no music playing, just intense breathing and footsteps. It's quick, terrifying, and bloody as the man being chased leaves all kind of harm in his wake and the man in pursuit we later learn is an officer played by Jason Patric who follows closely. From that moment on, "NARC," had my full attention and kept it throughout.

Roll Credits
When it comes to watching a movie you of course want it to have an entertaining middle and satisfying end, but I would contend that the most important part is to have an opening that grabs the viewer's attention. These movies--both the popular and lesser-known--do just that, and serve as examples to others of how to make a great opening scene in your film.