Barnes & Noble

A wildly improbable but fast-moving high-tech thriller, Swordfish provides top-billed John Travolta with his most colorful character since Pulp Fiction. Playing a rogue CIA operative prosecuting his own private war against international terrorists, Travolta gets most of the movie’s juiciest lines and chews the scenery whenever he can. But hunky Hugh Jackman very nearly steals the film as the brilliant computer hacker who reluctantly helps facilitate a multibillion-dollar heist, the funds from which are needed to finance Travolta’s covert campaign. Halle Berry is also first-rate as a silky seductress who could be either one of Travolta’s most trusted assistants or (as she tells Jackman) a Treasury agent working undercover to expose him. Deception abounds in Hitchcockian proportions; many of Swordfish's characters seem to be operating at cross-purposes, and neither Jackman nor the viewer will know exactly whom to trust. Director Dominic Sena (Gone in 60 Seconds) doesn’t go overboard with mindless action but saves most of his thrills for a stomach-churning climax in which a bus crammed with hostages and explosives is airlifted above a city skyline. It’s a dazzling sequence that brings this cleverly formulated caper film to a memorable and satisfying close. Sena provides a commentary for the DVD, which also includes two behind-the-scenes documentaries and two alternate endings. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

Director Dominic Sena follows up his stylish action film Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) with this high-tech thriller. John Travolta stars as Gabriel Shear, a charismatic spy who plots to steal a multi-billion-dollar fortune in illegal government funds. In order to make his scheme work, however, Gabriel needs some help from a computer hacker, which is where Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman) comes in. Stanley has been paroled from prison after serving a lengthy sentence for penetrating the FBI's cyber-surveillance operations. Issued a restraining order that keeps him away from computers and living penniless in a trailer park, Stanley wants only to be reunited with his daughter Holly, who's in the custody of his ex-wife, now remarried to a pornographer. Gabriel and his partner Ginger (Halle Berry) offer Stanley the chance to get his child back in exchange for his help, but the hacker soon realizes he's a pawn in a larger operation than the high-tech bank heist he thought he was perpetrating. In the meantime, a dedicated federal agent (Don Cheadle), the same man who once arrested Stanley, is trying to expose Gabriel's operation. Swordfish also stars Sam Shepard and Zach Grenier. Karl Williams

Hollywood Reporter

A crowd-pleasing return to form by producer Joel Silver. David Hunter

Product Details

• UPC: 012569828490
• Source: WARNER HOME VIDEO
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English, Français, Español
• Subtitles: English, Français, Español
• Time: 1:39:00
• Sales Rank: 25,225

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Best of Blu-Ray, Vol. 1
• Best of Hd Dvd, Vol. 1

Features: