In the light of recent events, I was wondering what everyone thought of the summer movie 'Swordfish' starring John Travolta and Hugh Jackman.
In the movie, Travolta's character robs the CIA of 9.5 billion bucks -- in the process, he takes U.S. citizens hostage, blows up a good number of them (and cops to boot), and commits other acts of mayhem. His goal is to wage his own personal war against terrorism that the government is apparently hampered to do.
Do the goals justify the means? The opening sequence of the movie features a hostage being dragged away from Travolta's "camp" by two cops -- the hostage, a young woman, is strapped down with C-4 and steel ball bearings. Travolta remote detonates her, and a "Matrix"-type pan reveals police cars and cops being shredded like lettuce. Quite shocking.
Thoughts ... ?
Posted by USS Vanguard (Member # 130) on :
it had a naked halle berry. good enough for me.
Posted by MIB (Member # 426) on :
Sounds disturbing, but a naked Halle Berry could easily cancel that scene out. I was thinking of renting swordfish at some point. hmmmmm. With regards to 9/11; It reminded me of the pilot episode of the now cancelled series, The Lone Gunmen.
The pilot's plot involved a conspiracy from a rouge faction of the government to fly an aircraft straight into, of all things, the WTC towers in order to give the defense budget a boost. The rouge faction thought that if such a thing were to occur, every nut case on the planet, such as Bin Laden, would be trying to claim responsibility. This would, in turn, enrage the American people and they would demand retaliatory strikes. Afterwards the defense budget would be nice and solvent.
[ November 15, 2001: Message edited by: MIB ]
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
That's a distrubing plot ... I bet whoever wrote that script is really glad the series got cancelled.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
Why? It doesn't stop it from being reshown in reruns? And Chris really needs more work. He's flogged his horse to death, then raped it, chopped it up, and had it for dinner with a side of roast potatoes and yorkshire pudding.
Mmm...yorkshire pudding.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
Millennium, Harsh Realm, Lone Gunmen ... all cancelled. Don't know why Fox hated those and kept X-Files. I use to love X-Files, but lately not as much. They've screwed with the storyline so much is doesn't make any sense.
But now I want to see the pilot of Lone Gunmen agin.
Posted by Michael_T (Member # 144) on :
Those shows were cancelled because the Fox network want quick hits and don't feel like building up an audience like what they did for the X-Files. Go figure... I rented Swordfish this weekend and liked it...except that explosion stuff and that scene with Halle Berry tanning herself nude. Why couldn't it be Hugh Jackman?
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
"They've screwed with the storyline so much is doesn't make any sense."
They did that back in season 3. The only difference is that back then we thought that they'd explain it all one day, and it would make perfect sense. Ha!
Posted by OnToMars (Member # 621) on :
That's what that's from! That flying into a skyscraper in New York thing was from "The Lone Gunmen" Pilot. That's been bugging me for over a month!
Posted by MIB (Member # 426) on :
ABC, CBS. NBC, and FOX have all been very good at cancelling decent sci-fi shows within a few episodes. I only remember 1 sci-fi show that actually managed to last for about 2 or 3 seasons on one of those networks. That show was Sliders. Other decent sci-fi shows that were cancelled usually after about a dozen episodes or so were The Visitor, Dark Skies, and my personnal favorite, Space: Above and Beyond.
None of them were bad shows by any means. All of them were picked up by the sci-fi channel, but unfortunatly the sci-fi channel is good at picking up shows only to not do anything with them. Sliders and B5 are the only shows I can think of that the Sci-fi channel picked up and actually continued. And no, those sci-fi channel original series that last for MAYBE 3 episodes don't count.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"The Lone Gunmen" wasn't cancelled. It just had its cookies compromised.
Michael: I think the reason for that is that women don't usually watch movies to see a guy naked. And gay men are too small of an audience. So they have pander to straight guys, the only large group of people who will watch a movie just because it has tits in it.
Posted by MIB (Member # 426) on :
It just had its cookies compromised? That made no sense to me whatsoever.
PLEASE NOTE: This time I did use the correct version of the word, 'sense.' I just wanted to show Jeff that I don't make such a mistake all the time.
Posted by The359 (Member # 37) on :
Ahem, FarScape has survived past 3 seasons on Sci-Fi....they just signed on to do Season 4 and 5.
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
Swordfish and 9/11 please ...
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
MIB: If you had watched the pilot of "The Lone Gunmen" (and remembered a particular scene), it would have made sense.
Posted by MIB (Member # 426) on :
I'm sorry, but that comment just flew over the top of my head.
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
I don't think many people are surprised.
Posted by MIB (Member # 426) on :
Rather than insult me, why don't you tell me what he meant. Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
I think he means that if you'd watched 'The Lone Gunmen' and remembered a particular scene you'd've known what he meant.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Of course that's what I meant. It's what I said, nearly verbatim.
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
Yes, I'm aware of that. MIB asked it to be explained to him. ::shrug::
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
Be nice children.
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
Yes mother.
Posted by targetemployee (Member # 217) on :
I saw this dreary little film this morning.
First, a correction. The stolen money is from the DEA. According to the story, the DEA created numerous phony companies as a front launder proceeds from drug sales and gather intelligence. The operation, known as Operation: Swordfish, was terminated in 1986. Amount in account was approximately $400 million. The money sat in an account for 15 years gathering interest. In 2001, amount was estimated at 9.5 billion.
I think I got the moral of this story. People who fight terrorism in the name of their country's values may themselves become terrorists. An important reminder in this time of "America's New War".
As for Ms. Berry's breasts, they appear natural which is a good thing.
I don't recommend the film. The central idea, which is mentioned above, is buried under a lot of attitude, explosions, and poor expository writing. This last is an irony for the film opens with Gabriel discussing the flaws of current movies and listing every one of the flaws of this film.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
The Lone Gun Men is/was (still showing here in Australia) A GREAT SHOW! I love/loved it... It was funny and it didn't take itself too seriously and it had great storylines each week. Great Great show... plus Yves Adel Harlow was mmmmmmmmmmm.
Jimmy was SOOO funny.
Fox are FUCKING IDIOTS.
Harsh Realm, I saw most of the episodes - that too was another good show that had LOTS of potential.
Re: Farscape, I don't think that is a Sci-Fi channel show - it is made by Jim Henson's company in conjunction with Channel Nein here in Australia(they are complete arseholes when it comes to ANYTHING sci-fi - which makes you wonder why they are doing Farscape... they aren't even SHOWING it here in Australia! oh hence the change from Channel Nine to Channel Nein... it emerged on aus.sf.babylon5 and aus.sf.star-trek.
