Hollywood Blogger

Harrison Ford has built his career on playing heroic, identifiable, and very memorable characters. Of course topping that list are Han Solo and Indiana Jones, but there are plenty of other fine roles such as John Book (Witness), Deckard (Blade Runner), Jack Ryan (Patriot Games), Dr. Richard Kimble (The Fugitive), and President Marshall (Air Force One), among others. Jack Stanfield from Firewall is not one of them. In fact, director Richard Loncraine’s movie may very well be the weakest picture Ford has been in.

Stanfield is the head of security at a bank, where he designed an elaborate and very secure computer system. After work one night, as he gets into his car to go home, he is attacked by Bill Cox (Paul Bettany). At the same time, some of Cox’ associates have ambushed Jack’s family at home and are holding them hostage. Their intent is obvious from the start (though, strangely, it takes Jack longer to figure it out): they want to use Jack’s expertise to steal money from the bank. With his family’s life (and his) at stake, he goes along with it. There appears to be no way out of it though, as Cox and his henchmen have bugged him and are watching and listening to his every move at the bank. Once he transfers money into Cox’ offshore accounts, him and his family will be home-free, right?

Firewall is pretty ho-hum formulaic action. It pulls various pieces from scores of other more successful films, and the result is that not much you haven’t seen before, in one form or another. Sure, there are a few fun moments, and some of the thrills work alright but pretty much everything is highly predictable.

The family, including Virginia Madsen as Jack’s wife Beth, is mostly ignored. There is nothing in the way of character development and even surprisingly little as far as creating sappy moments with the kids or building drama for the sake of tension. Carly Schroeder, who was so promising in Mean Creek is thoroughly wasted as daughter Sarah. And Ford, while still a formidable screen presence with occasional flashes of his old stuff, mostly just seems to go through the motions. His charisma, which used to ooze out of him, is just about all gone. I’m not entirely sure what all that means as far as his future in cinema. If nothing else, his place in history is obviously assured, but he seems to be trapped in roles that are shill, thin attempts at reviving his glory days. At some point he will have to step out of the spotlight and accept more of the mature roles that older actors tend to gravitate to (think stuff like Paul Newman in The Color of Money). As much as I’d love to see a fourth Indiana Jones movie, I’m also afraid of what I might see.

The Verdict: C-.

Some nine years before director Bob Clark fashioned what is arguably the prototypical and ideal family Christmas movie, he actually created another important Christmas film. Black Christmas isn’t remotely anything like A Christmas Story, however. Instead of being a rather wholesome family story that most everyone can relate to in one way or another, it is a gritty, violent and bloody horror movie. In fact, the groundbreaking movie bears little resemblance to a holiday movie other than its pre-Christmastime setting.

The setting is a small college; a group of sorority sisters at their house are gathering for a holiday reception prior to their break. But the fun and good times are interrupted when one of them disappears. Around the same time, the women (including Margot Kidder and Olivia Hussey) also begin receiving very strange unwanted phone calls - some just obscene and others strange and rather terrifying. After the opening party the movie alternates betweens scenes of fright inside the house, and trying to look for the missing friend and getting help outside. Clark smartly chooses to hide the identity of the killer for much of the film; the madman is only shown in shadows as well as a radical first-person viewpoint. Eventually it becomes quite obvious who the killer is, which could have had a dulling effect on the remainder of the movie, but instead we empathize with Jess (Hussey) and the real tension is with her. When will she find out, how soon will she find out, and will she even make it out alive?

There is some silliness early on in the film. Such as how the house mom is a lush who has hidden stashes of liquor throughout the house, or a Santa Claus who isn’t quite family friendly in front of some kids, or the drunken lout (Kidder) who makes a fool of herself one evening. And the police department seems to made up by a staff of what might generously be called incompetence, though familiar face John Saxon provide relatable and very likeable police lieutenant.

But the movie never needed to be a very character driven story. It is probably most notable for the phone calls and the subsequent infamous reveal to the main character. But it also about its chilly atmosphere, and the finale is stunning in its simplicity and its truly scary climax. For whatever reason, it isn’t given its due as other 70s horror classics. And, in fact, many people credit Halloween (which wouldn’t arrive for four more years) as the standard bearer of slasher films. It’s true, Halloween is better - but many horror pictures owe even more to Black Christmas.

The Verdict: B+.