Fishy goings on

For a film that starts off with a diatribe about heist-movie realism, Dominic Sena's B-list thriller certainly doesn't stick to its guns.

John Travolta - replete with Pulp Fiction-style haircut - plays a shadowy terrorist who believes he's fighting for American freedom. He, and his silly beard, are aided and abetted by Ginger (Halle Berry, including gratuitous breast shot) and Vinnie Jones (don't ask). Trouble is, to fund his activities, he needs to get hold of money ... and lots of it.

Step in Hugh Jackman as the world's second-best hacker, a crumpled down-and-out who lost custody of his daughter after being jailed by FBI man Don Cheadle. Jackman is hooked into Travolta's plot to bust into a government slush fund and appropriate the cash, with the aim of getting paid and winning back his daughter from his porn-star ex-wife.

Unfortunately Travolta's plans are somewhat complex, and he drags Jackman kicking and screaming into a situation which ends with the choice between sacrificing innocent hostages or staying away from his daughter. The film, like most hacking dramas, falls foul of the usual pitfall - crunching thousands of numbers on screen isn't ever going to be a cinematic dream, and hackers certainly don't use pretty graphics to demonstrate their dastardly plans.

The offline action, which is stylised and sometimes breathtaking, all too often degenerates into farce. There can't be many films where the hero is forced - gun to his head - to hack into a government computer ... while simultaneously receiving oral pleasure from a young blonde.

At its best points, Swordfish takes its cue from the Matrix - at its worst, it harks back to Sena's previous effort, labourious Nicholas Cage thriller Gone In Sixty Seconds. The spectacular sequences - such as the execution of a hostage, or the escape bus being airlifted through the skyscrapers of LA - certainly show this film has ambition ... it's just a shame that it doesn't realise that more explosions doesn't necessarily mean more box office sales.

There's a lot of moralising about how terrorism should be fought, but the film's ending is ambigious enough to suggest that innocent lives are worth sacrificing if the aim if is to rid the world of America's enemies - a worrying sentiment from such a preposterous movie. (BJ)