Fishy tale is all action

Action galore for the smooth-talking John Travolta

By BBC News Online's Olive Clancy

I was a bit apprehensive when I went to see the latest John Travolta movie Swordfish.

The majority of action movies leave me with the feeling that they are all very well if you are in the mood.

But for the first five minutes of this film I thought I might be in for a surprise - an action film with ideas.

Picture a smooth-talking Travolta (and I mean Pulp Fiction smooth as opposed to Saturday Night Fever smooth) holding fort on "The trouble with Hollywood....."

A pacey but clever review of the Al Pacino movie Dog Day Afternoon is worked in and the camera pulls back languorously onto.....mayhem.

Hugh Jackman is John Travolta's secret weapon

Hostages trussed up as human time bombs skitter around the foyer of an international bank, police officers bark nervously through megaphones and a menacing Travolta walks out on peace talks.

The audience have absolutely no idea what is happening but somehow the comic book storyline gets you through.

Panic sets in and next thing you know there is glass, cars and international bankers everywhere.

Even I, not generally a girl for an action film, not to mind disfigured financiers, found it exciting.

Sadly, the film, which is largely spent explaining the events leading up to the explosive opening, never again regains that heady mix of irony, action and sense of something big about to happen.

Travolta plays Gabriel Shear, a dubious patriot hell-bent on getting his hands (illegally of course) on $9.5bn of government funds to further his plans to uphold the "American Way".

Shear - in cahoots with an even more dubious fly-fishing US senator played by Sam Shepard - wants to strike vigilante-style at terrorists who harm Americans.

The money he needs is protected by sophisticated computer walls in banks around the world - codenamed Swordfish - and Shear needs find a hacker who will help him get his hands on the loot.

Halle Berry isn't the only one with her top off

And his secret weapon in luring hacking wonder Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman) is the very lovely, but very unconvincing Ginger (Halle Berry).

So far, so exciting, but then the computer-stuff and the gratuitous heart-string pulling begins.

Lets face it, computer hacking may be a ball to be involved in, but it just does not cut it on screen.

And though Stanley is a very attractive hacker - nice too, he only took the job as he needs money to regain custody of his daughter currently incarcerated with porn-star mom - all he really does is, well, type a lot.

Never mind, as the producer (Hollywood hot-shot Joel Silver, who also made Lethal Weapon and The Matrix) and the director (Dominic Sena, of Kalifornia fame) have thrown in so much action that you may just be distracted.

And the action is impressive - a bus dangling from a Helicopter over Los Angeles being just one spectacular sight - if you like that sort of thing.

A bit of gratuitous nudity is also offered, in the form of a sunbathing Berry, who is reported to have received $500,000 for her pains.

I think we can safely say that half the population find themselves regularly in the mood for that sort of thing.

Popcorn eater

Now I can suspend my disbelief along with the next popcorn eater and all those special effects sure can turn your head.

The running time is about an hour and a half and it certainly flies by.

But the complete disregard for any sort of understandable storyline was a step too far.

Some plots, like that involving Sam Shepard, came and went so quickly I would have been confused if there was enough thinking time available.

It is almost as if a much longer film was made and then edited down to the most exciting final version.

Given Sena's background in commercials (Nike, Apple and IBM are some of his clients) that may not be far from the truth.

Stylish thrills galore then, which is all very well, but don't expect much else.

Swordfish is on general release in the UK from 27 July