Swordfish

Cast & Crew

John Travolta

Gabriel Shear

Hugh Jackman

Stanley

Halle Berry

Ginger

Don Cheadle

Agent Roberts

Vinnie Jones

Marco

Sam Shepard

Senator Reisman

Drea de Matteo

Melissa

Rudolf Martin

Axl Torvalds

Zach Grenier

Assistant Director Joy

Camryn Grimes

Holly

Dominic Sena

Director

Joel Silver

Producer

Jonathan D. Krane

Producer

Skip Woods

Writer

Jim Van Wyck

Executive Producer

Bruce Berman

Executive Producer

Dan Cracchiolo

Co-Producer

Skip Woods

Co-Producer

Christopher Young

Original Music

Paul Oakenfold

Original Music

Paul Cameron

Cinematographer

Jeff Mann

Production Design

Stephen Rivkin

Film Editing

Geoff Hubbard

Art Director

Andrew Laws

Art Director

Jay Hart

Set Decoration

Ha Nguyen

Costume Design

Lora Kennedy

Casting

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Critic Reviews for Swordfish

Audience Reviews for Swordfish

• Sep 25, 2013

  An adrenaline fueled thrill ride, Swordfish is full of action and suspense. When a rogue black ops group plans a bank heist they have to first coerce an infamous hacker to break into the security network. Featuring Hugh Jackman, John Travolta, Halle Berry, and Don Cheadle, the cast is especially good; particularly Travolta, who brings a lot of charisma to his role and makes for a wonderfully tantalizing villain. Additionally, the action sequences are incredibly intense and dynamic. And, the soundtrack is full of energy, which compliments the action and makes it more exciting. At times it's over-the-top and cheesy, but Swordfish is an impressive and daring heist film that's full of thrills.

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  Super Reviewer
• Apr 10, 2013

  Possibly the stupidest movie title ever? We do find out why during the film but still. Possibly the stupidest look for Travolta? The most camp hairdo? Gotta be contenders huh. This film is basically about hacking computers, stealing lots of money and transferring it here there and everywhere in a flurry of slick sexy sequences. That's pretty much it, Travolta's character tells us its all in the name of national security and for US protection against terrorism, which it does seem to be. So this begs the question why is Travolta and his goons made out to be bad guys when they're working for the US government and hitting back at dangerous terrorists? The FBI finds out about the operation, OK its a dodgy op but what's wrong with it? Apart from being very much like an ensemble 'Bond' flick the film actually offers a few interesting insights. Halle Berry's first topless scene is the big one (no pun intended), doesn't really add anything to the film and feels pointless but its there. This was only Vinnie Jones second major Hollywood film and again he has very little to say, still weird to see him in a Hollywood film at the time though. Twas also only Jackman's second Hollywood action film also, after 'X-Men'. This was one of the earlier films for Cheadle which started to push him further into bigger action films. Likewise this was a film within a string of action films for Travolta that all kicked off after success with a certain Tarantino film. A bland film really with little to show, the action is impressive but doesn't feel required. It also seems way way over the top just for the sake of it. The plot doesn't really make much sense, its simple yet made out to be grand and complex with lots of tech talk and government plots. Thing is you can see right through it, its just an action film with too many big stars that are knee deep in makeup. An odd collection of stars too, none of them really gel together. I really got the impression that certain scenes and stunts are in there just to keep you the audience interested, as none of it serves the plot. At the start where Travolta's character is doing his own little Tarantino-esq bit of dialog, Berry topless as said before, Jackman's character getting a blow job whilst trying to crack a code, sexy ladies asses on display, a car chase where Travolta uses an M60 machine gun (I think) etc...The story could be told without all that. Its like a compilation of sexy smooth cool sequences which is assumed people will like. The actual plot and character development seems to have been added afterwards as an afterthought. The finale typifies how the director tries to make this out to be a clever film. Travolta's character seemingly escapes in a chopper but gets blown to kingdom come by a rocket launcher. We then discover that a body double was in the chopper and Gabriel tricked everyone. But how did Gabriel know his chopper would get shot down? What if Jackman's character didn't use the rocket launcher? He didn't have to, he may not even of thought of it seeing as the weapon was back on the bus. That was the clever twist the film had been building up to! that and another which wasn't exactly groundbreaking. So really the bad guys entire dastardly plan seemed to hinge on whether or not the good guy would use a particular weapon at a particular time, that's some good crystal ball skills right there.

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  Super Reviewer
• Feb 13, 2013

  [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon13.gif[/img] Like most star studded Hollywood movies that try to do something original or quirky, Swordfish fails to cover new ground and subsequently dissapoints even as a generic yet somewhat promising blockbuster. The fundamental flaw with the script is in how it attempts to outsmart it's own premise. I'm sorry, but you cannot allow a person typing away at a computer to take up an entire scene with no clear form of suspense. At least "The Pelican Brief" kept you tense while nothing was happening. But watching Swordfish is like waiting for a video game to download, you wan't it to get the dull and dismal plot points over with so you can get to the explosions and gunfights. That is after all what this movie was made for right? Well, apparently not. The performances and the action choreography is essentially the only saving grace of the film. In the classic neo noir pulp style, there's a scene where Halle Berry (Catwoman in the 2004 flop) is required to expose her breasts in a seductive fashion, but to no effect whatsoever other than a quick chuckle, the fact I found it funny and not unsettling proves how it's merely an expression of style without the sexiness. Writer Skip Woods went on to pen X Men Origins: Wolverine, so it's no surprise the lines are as rusty as they could possibly come. In fact, one of the most interesting moments of the film is the gripping opening, where John Travolta begins to explain the lack of originality in Modern Hollywood action movies. He references the genius of Sidney Lumet's "Dog Day Afternoon" and how beautifully directed, well lit and well written it was and stresses that it wasn't the same old fare that could have had an unbearable lack of "creativity", but didn't. In the first 5 minutes I figured this would be a satire on the cliched Hollywood movie, it certainly looked like it. But within seconds it just staggered completely downhill. The irony of this is that Swordfish is a messy, self indulgent, dull, uninteresting, anticlimactic thriller that goes for edgy and revolutionary but comes across as boringly generic and unbearably camp.

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  Super Reviewer
• Oct 23, 2012

  One of the worst films I have ever encountered.

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  Super Reviewer