Jack Stanfield is a bank security expert, whose specialty is designing infallible theft-proof financial computer systems. But there's a hidden vulnerability in the system he didn't account for - himself. When a ruthless criminal mastermind kidnaps his family, Jack is forced to find a flaw in his system and steal $100 million. With the lives of his wife and children at stake and under constant surveillance, he has only hours to find a loophole in the thief's own impenetrable system of subterfuge and false identities to beat him at his own game.

There is a saying that there are no new ideas left only new ways to present them. That’s what Firewall felt like because you know you have seen this movie a number of times and that is following a formula but it throws just enough twists and new ideas at you to make it so interesting and entertaining. There isn’t anything really wrong with a formula movie except it is sometimes used at a cop-out of coming up with something new and original just to make a fast Hollywood dollar. When I have a problem with formula films is when they don’t care to try to do anything new and instead just play out the clichés but that is not the case with Firewall. They did try and do something new, they made the movie into a modern heist movie with all of today’s technology because robbing a bank isn’t how it use to be and they were tech-savy enough to know this. I am sure there were some problems that a techno geek could sink his teeth into but for the most part they did the technology right and that made the movie fun and it made it work. The movie is no masterpiece, I doubt it’s a movie you will watch dozens of times but it is fun, it is entertaining and it is a movie you probably will watch two or three times and while it’s a formula movie they executed the formula with perfection.

Harrison Ford can be quite scary and very intimidating when he wants to be. That’s why he is perfect for the role because he also someone you can see in a suit and day going to a job every day and then coming home to his family. But when his family is in jeopardy he is scary enough that he can pull off the man who simply gets pushed to far and isn’t going to take it anymore. Us an audience could see that with ease and I am glad they didn’t make the characters do the same because the characters are in a movie and they shouldn’t know what’s ten pages further on in the script. Too many movies forget this and they cease being a movie, and we cease our suspending our disbelief and the entire movie experience is shattered so I am very glad the movie didn’t do this. I really love Paul Bettany and it’s a shame he hasn’t done more roles because he is an excellent actor. Most people will remember him from movies like A Knight’s Tale and not know that for years he was a Shakespearean actor in London so the boy has chops. He is the perfect villain in the movie he is refined, he is smart and he almost always seems to be one step ahead of Ford as he has planned the caper out very well. He’s the kind of character you love to hate and he makes you want to cheer for Ford all the while enjoying him as a villain as you can’t wait to see what he’ll do next. This is the kind of movie you’ll want to go see at a matinee and just enjoy yourself because if nothing else it is entertaining.

Grade: B-