Firewall [2006]

Harrison Ford
Paul Bettany
Alan Arkin
Robert Forster
Joe Forte

Regisseur

Richard Loncraine

Harrison Ford, bluntly, has seen better days. While once again he gives a tough, gruff performance in the leading role of a Hollywood thriller, the material around him in the case of Firewall is a far cry from what we used to expect of one of Hollywood's most enduring leading men.

It's still fun in its own way, though. Ford is the leader of the technical security team at his local bank, and finds his life is turned upside down when firstly his identity is compromised, and then his family are kidnapped. The kidnappers, led by Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind, Wimbledon) swiftly demand his help to extract $100m, only for Ford to gradually become more and more reluctant to play ball, with predictably fractious results.

It's a fairly by-the-numbers plot at work here, temporarily livened by some interesting set pieces and decent performances by the cast. Yet an unfocused script and an overblown running time mean the film amounts to being little more than a throwaway thriller, ideal fodder for an easy night-in, assuming you've no wish to remember much about it the morning after. By Ford's own standards, that's not great, but it's the best that's on offer here. --Simon Brew