Firewall

Plot synopsis:
Jack Stanfield is chief of security of Landrock Pacific Bank in downtown Seattle. He is visited by a collection agency, claiming he owes $95,000 to their online gambling site. Believing the incident is due to an identity theft, Jack entrusts a colleague to take care of the claim. He goes out for a drink with Harry Romano who introduces him to Bill Cox, a potential partner. After they leave, Cox follows Jack into his car and forces him to drive home at gunpoint.
At home, Jack finds his wife Beth and two children unharmed, but under surveillance by Cox's henchmen. The next morning, Jack is given instruction to transfer $10,000 each from the bank's 10,000 largest depositors ($100 million total) to Cox's bank account. Cox rigs Jack with a camera and microphone to make sure he cannot ask for help without them knowing.
At Landrock Bank, Cox visits Jack, reintroducing himself as Bill Redmond, a potential partner. Cox asks Jack to give him a tour of the bank's security system. On the way back home, Jack attempts to bribe a henchman to betray Cox, but Cox kills the henchman. At home, Jack attempts an escape with his family, but his attempt is foiled. In retaliation, Cox gives Jack's son Andy a cookie containing nut products, sending him into an anaphylactic shock. Cox withholds the treatment (an EpiPen), until Jack acquiesces to their plan.
The next day, Cox forces Jack to fire his secretary Janet, fearing that she is growing suspicious. Jack initiates a wire transfer to send the money to Cox's offshore accounts. Before leaving, Jack uses an employee's camera phone to a picture of the account information on the screen. Cox then begins wiping his tracks. He forces Jack to delete security data and surveillance tapes, and use a virus to cripple the building's system. into disarray. Returning home, Jack finds the house empty except for Liam, one of Cox's men.
Realizing Cox has no intention of letting him live, Jack kills Liam. He tries to call Harry, but his colleague doesn't answer. Jack goes to Harry's house to inquire about Cox. However, Cox kills Harry with the gun he had earlier confiscated from Jack. Beth, held at gunpoint, leaves a message suggesting an affair on Harry's answering machine. This implicates Jack in Harry's death. In addition, the false $95,000 debts will be considered motive for Jack embezzling the bank's money.
Jack turns to the only ally he has left: his secretary Janet. She helps him retrieve the phone with the picture of Cox's account information. Jack calls Cox and announces a change of plans. Jack has hacked into his Cayman Island accounts and threatens to transfer the money away, unless Cox frees his family. During the conversation, Jack hears the family dog in the background, and realizes he can locate his family by the GPS tracking unit in the dog's collar. The signal leads him to an abandoned house. He tells Janet to call the police and approaches the house.
When one of his henchmen takes pity on the family, Cox kills him. Jack's daughter Sarah runs out of the house. Another henchman chases after her, but Jack runs him over with Janet's car. Cox, seeing that the tide has turned, panics and takes Beth and Andy to the upper floor. Jack enters the house and after a confrontation, he manages to kill Cox with a pickaxe, saving his family.

Tags: realism, violence, suspenseful, murder

Review:
Firewall offered nothing very new in terms of plot outline, as it contains modified scenes from even Ford's own works like Air Force One (the family's survival being threatened, and it's up to one man to save the day) and The Fugitive (the frame up and one man's run from the law).
However, as the saying goes, almost 80% of intrusion are committed knowingly or unknowingly from the inside, and with a head honcho part of the act, you can be sure that he has the know-how to siphon out cash if he wants to.In comes Bill Cox (Paul Bettany), scheming con man, who with his team of merry men, take Stanfield's family hostage and lapses into the usual psycho-mumbo-jumbo routine.
To jog your memory, Ford has been making a living playing essentially the same character in similar situations for years, thanks to the aforementioned "Patriot Games", "The Fugitive", and "Air Force One"."Firewall", directed by Richard Loncraine, concerns the tale of Jack Stanfield, played by Harrison Ford, being forced through the methods of Bill Cox (Paul Bettany), into electronically stealing from the bank he keeps hackers out of on a daily basis.
The support cast features very minor turns from faces such as Forster, Patrick, Arkin, Rajskub and a few others of note  not sure what attracted them but they add a bit of class to the film anyway.Ultimately director Loncraine cannot make the most of all these bits and, while doing a good job, he doesn't really ever get the tension ratcheted up to the level of any of the many better "normal guy in peril" type roles that Ford has done over the last few decades.
However, being a fan of Harrison Ford, I decided to give it a shot.The storyline isn't spectacular or out of the ordinary, so that won't be something you would want to watch the movie for.What initially interested me was the entire computer security angle.
Turned out to be a disappointment as I found the movie to be less on computer security and more of action and drama.Harrison Ford has been in the movie business for around twenty years (read grown old) and so he fit into the character of Jack Stanfield perfectly.
I saw that 'Firewall' was coming on TV a couple of nights ago and wanted to catch Harrison Ford in action, as I'm a huge fan of his and I had not seen this.
The plot is not so much different from the other films of this genre, but what stands apart from the rest is Harrison Ford's and the antagonist, Bill Cox's very real performances and some clever twists.Computer security specialist Jack Stanfield (Harrison Ford) works for the Seattle-based Landrock Pacific Bank.
It has everything you can ask - big explosions, smart thinking actors, great acting (only by Harrison Ford and Paul Bettany).
First off Harrison Ford is still capable of playing these roles, he certainly did not come off as unbelievable for the most part.The first hour or so of the movie is top notch and plays out exactly as any good action film should, the bad guys outmaneuvering the good guy at every turn so the audience hates them even more.Unfortunately the second half of the movie is nowhere near as strong and I believe part of this is because Paul Bettany just does not play a convincing bad ass.
I didn't realize how tall he (Paul) is until this movie, (he is a good inch taller than Harrison Ford, who is over 6 ft) The film was a bit slow in parts, but the ending makes up for it.
In this case, the 'normal guy who has started to arrive' at the rewards of his life's work is played (as perfectly as he has in so many similar roles) by Harrison Ford.The plot them revolves around placing this character into a situation that we, if given the same stakes, would like to believe that we could also work through.
The price to be paid, the extent to which his journey ends nicely (if at all), and the lessons learned (at least by the viewer) would require spoilers to disclose....suffice to say that some are predictable and some are not.In the end, as long as we (the "average viewers") continue to watch the 6 to 36 movies per year that we do and as long as our lives continue to only cross the path of Hollywood on occasion, films like "Firewall" will continue to be an excellent escape for us and (I hope) we will continue to reward the studios for producing them without apology.Unfortunately, the career critics will continue to become more and more distanced from the sensibilities of regular people and they will continue to discount such motion pictures as "below them".For me, this is just fine....in a strange way, the critics are still serving their purpose: providing guidance as to what I should or should not view.
Yes, Harrison Ford has done this type of movie before, but it was great to see him make a quality action/thriller again.
Jack has been working at a Seattle bank and knows his way around IP addresses, bank security, and wire transfers.Starting with Six Days Seven Nights (1998), Harrison Ford has played some cheesy roles that fizzled.
Hollywood Homicide?) In Firewall, however, Director Richard Loncraine stages some intense scenes between Ford and villain Paul Bettany (who played Geoffrey Chaucer in A Knight's Tale and the Surgeon in Master and Commander).The pacing of the film feels more like Patriot Games, or my Ford favorite: The Fugitive.
Harrison Ford nails the white-collar character of Jack Stanfield, and Paul Bettany plays a believable (yet somehow lovable) bad guy.The movie is filled with surprising plot twists and a few action sequences that made the audience I was in gasp with emotion.
If Harrison Ford was not in the film, I don't know if the movie would have worked as well.
But the man is gifted at showing vulnerability and drawing in an audience and playing the role of hero against bad guys I guess, then, if you're a Harrison Ford fan, go see the film.
He pretty much runs the gamut of emotions from highly enraged to enraged when he plays these roles, be they in "Frantic" (1998), "Patriot Games" (1992) or "Air Force One" (1997), all of which I enjoyed far more than "Firewall." Once again, Ford plays someone who has to rescue his family from danger and get the bad guys at the same time.
A man, claiming to be a bank executive, turns out to be the head of the gang terrorizing Ford and his wife and children.Harrison Ford shows depth in his acting and Virginia Madsen is great as his wife forced to cope in this hostage situation.The gang's plan begins to go awry as the bank had been sold a week before and new technology was brought in.A high speed chase only brings more excitement in this action packed film.Alan Arkin plays an aging executive who is suspicious of Ford's erratic behavior.A must see film.
One would have to be the biggest computer geek going to understand even half of what the characters are doing at any given time in this film, though it scarcely matters since the story itself is so distressingly hackneyed that one is already watching the screen with an eye half-cocked to one's watch anyway.Poor Harrison Ford, looking like he hasn't slept in days (and this is BEFORE his family is kidnapped), seems to sense that he is indeed at the nadir of his career and thus turns in a performance that is so lacking in energy and interest that he seems more bored with the material than we are.
The trailer for this movie is awesome,but the movie is totally pathetic and a big deception.Harrison Ford made a pathetic film after another pathetic film called Hollywood Homicide.The movie is a copy of Hostage,an excellent movie with Bruce Willis.But that movie was more original,more fun and more unpredictable.This film is totally predictable and Harrison Ford is very old for this kind of characters.I slept on a part of this pathetic movie and I was so bored I did not pay much attention to this film.I do not recommend this horrible movie and if you want to see a great thriller film watch Hostage.I cannot believe that Harrison Ford was on this movie..
The basic story line is the rather poor "A man's family is kidnapped to force him to do something he would never do on his own free will" theme, that has been told countless times, the characters are portrayed pretty colour less and even Harrison Ford gives the impression, that he'd rather be fishing or playing golf, than making a movie.
Any VP of Networking that writes security software and programs routers isn't going to be hunting and pecking like Harrison Ford.The most laughable technical aspect of the movie is where Jack takes a fax machine scanner head and plugs it straight into an Ipod.
I know that teenage girls are usually pretty boring (Lisa Simpsons, Meg Griffin, etc.) and that this fact is often made light of, but come on.This wasn't really a horrible movie, overall, but I can't help thinking that if it were anyone but Ford in the lead, it might have been.** (two stars out of four).
Jack Stanfield {Harrison Ford} is half time owning a bank and half time taking care of his family, but what he doesn't know is back at home his family is being taken hostage by Bill Cox {Paul Bettany}.
Throughout the whole movie, it was great to see how Jack Stanfield (Harrison Ford) coped with all the problems, that Bill Cox (Paul Bettany) presents him with.
He and his five man crew take said Jack Stanfield's (Ford's) family hostage (with Virginia Madsen as his beautiful- and in real life twenty years younger-wife), in order to get 100 million out of a bank that he works at.
But then at some point then the story takes its turn, and I just sat back waiting for the inevitable to come around.The storytelling of the film isn't too much of the problem with Firewall, but its not the same really enveloping, truly tense territory of the Fugitive or Air Force One. Not that I would complain too much, I'm sure I'm maybe part of the audience that would go see a Ford picture just for the fact that he's in it doing what he does in his successful 'escapist' way.
The main criminal seems ruthless which I like and his followers seem to hold their own which made it seem way more believable to me.Harrison Ford's acting was useful to the movement of the movie because honestly to it would have dragged on if it had been a lesser actor.
The script is mediocre to say the least, but the actors do a good job with the material though.Richard Loncraine's film is about a banker named Jack Stanfield who is forced to steal $100 million dollars from his bank while his family is being held captive at home.
Harrison Ford, looking way too old to be playing a family man with two young kids, stars as a software security expert coerced into carrying out a virtual bank robbery with the aid of a villainous gang.
Supposedly sympathetic characters – such as the peanut-allergic kid – come across as nothing more than whiny brats and Ford is so unenthused that he barely bothers giving a proper performance, instead sleepwalking through his part.While it's fun to see Virginia Madsen (ALIEN) back on screen again, her character is left on the sidelines and the only actor who comes away giving anything like a half decent performance is Paul Bettany, whose British villain is far too much of a nice guy to be imposing in any case.
These probably originate from the fact that, at any given time, certain types of film will be more in vogue than others, so two male stars who are near-contemporaries of one another (Ford is two years older then Douglas) are likely to be offered similar roles.Both came to fame in the early eighties as the hero of action-adventure movies, Ford in the "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" franchises, Douglas in "Romancing the Stone" and its sequel, "The Jewel of the Nile".
There is no real reason why these films could not actually be set in Canada, but it would appear that American audiences are not interested in watching films about foreigners, even about their neighbours across the forty-ninth parallel.Like Douglas in "Don't Say a Word", Ford plays a professional man in late middle age, married to an attractive wife about two decades younger than him and with a young family.
Loncraine's suspenseful film about a bank's security specialist(Ford) being blackmailed into stealing money for a criminal (Bettany) is at times exciting, gets the job done, but lacks the creativity needed to be regarded as a great films.
I was very disappointed with "Firewall" because I think that it had a good premise which was completely wasted with some bad directing and rather lame acting.Harrison Ford is Jack Stanfield, a man who has to help a group of mercenaries rob a bank - the security of which he designed himself - in order to save his family which is being held hostage.
After a few shoddy action movies such as "Hollywood Homicide" Ford is back and in a near perfect role as bank operator Jack Stanfield.
A lot of people think that Harrison Ford is getting too old to be an action star,but I'm not one of those people.People also SPOILERS thought the ending wasn't good enough,and I'm not one of those people.When I first see a movie,I expect it to be really good and it usually is.I recommend that when you see this movie if you haven't already,you try to enjoy it.
Harrison Ford's character Jack Stanfield was a good hero and Paul Bettany's character Bill Cox was a good villain..
The only good acting in this movie is done by Virginia Madsen who plays the wife of Harrison Ford and really does a good job of playing a mother that is concerned with her family's well being.
All of these things that Jimstradamus predicted happened, yet Jim could not help himself from paying for this piece of garbage.First Hollywood wants us to believe that 85 year old Harrison Ford has the ability to stop the bad guys by beating them up.
The plot was slightly unrealistic, but what Harrison Ford movie isn't, actually what action film now a days isn't, but it wasn't totally out of the question.
"Firewall," though, rarely gets beyond someone pointing a gun at Ford's Jack Stanfield and telling him to type something.The film tries to affect a breathless urgency that would leave little time nor need for character development, but very little actually ever happens.
It was difficult 15 years ago to pass Harrison Ford off as a husband of a woman half his age & with kids young enough to be his Great-Grandchildren & we're still at it now.He fitted the role, broadly speaking, very well, but appalling casting for the rest of the family with a wife more convincing as a daughter, kids more suited to grandchildren and Ford just constantly looked too old for all the leaping around, fighting & wrestling.Even before the kidnapping, Ford looked a bit bored with the whole thing, as if he'd been through all this plot so many times before - as indeed we all had.It actually wasn't that bad a film at all, it dragged a little in the middle, Bettany did his best with a villain who wasn't that villainous & the rest of his were a bit reminiscent of Frank Spencer or the Chuckle Brothers.There were a few good twists, and the plot moved very well, unfortunately it was Harrison Ford in an exact role & character name we've seen about 6 times previously with the core of the plot (man at bank has family kidnapped for money) being one that has been exhausted even more.I do like & highly rate Harrison Ford & I can put up with him in these type of roles but at leas make him a Grandad.
It's one of those movies you are either going to love or you are going to hate and Firewall more or less has not hold up well.While it does feature a tense thriller story line plot which would hold your attention that's as far as it will go it is the same basic story line you have seen many times before but this one just fells like one apple that fell way off the tree.The only performance worth noting is Harrison Ford who plays the lead protagonist the rest of the acting in this film is just trying too hard and half of the antagonists in this film are not even that good nor interesting and to think that Paul Bettany plays the villain in this motion picture.
Although it's not the best thriller in the world, it's none too original concept, is done from a different approach of setting, this time being a security specialist office, where hot shot Ford, who's still in top form and great to watch is forced to rob a bank via his computer at his company, where he must use his smarts, where he doesn't follow through, his family, held hostage will die, where he go back into work as if everything's normal, where his home becomes quickly occupied by many bad guys, setting up house, taking it over, led by Paul Bettany, in a standout role, where you must admit he has the look for it.
Harrison Ford, (Jack Stanfield) played the role as a big executive at an International Bank and lived in a beautiful home designed by his wife, Beth Stanfield, ( Virginia Madsen) They have two children, a young boy and a teenage girl and they all get along like a typical family.