FilmBuff1994 Swordfish is a brutal film with a poorly developed plot and a cast who seemed in it for the paycheck. The film opens up with an intriguing monologue from John Travolta about how movies are too typical, which led me to expect that this movie was really going for something different. Sadly, it ended up being very much like what Travolta was talking about, predictable. The cast is terrific, but there heart was not in the right place. There is a sense from the four main cast members that they were merely offered a nice contract to do this film, their is no feeling of them being inspired to take these roles whatsoever. It did not take any risks in plot development, every beat is expected, there is no moments that will its audience, there are very few surprises. A film can try to do something different with its direction and pacing, but that is not enough if the story is dull. Predictable and tedious, Swordfish is better off to be missed. The leader of a counter-terrorist organisation hires a convicted hacker to help him crack a code. Best Performance: Hugh Jackman / Worst Performance: Halle Berry

Muthustalin The plot of the film is fantastic. The film starts off with a bang ... A big-time action sequence to get out attention, then a flashback to show how the climax of the film came to pass.Jackman was great as computer hacker Stanley Jobson, devoted father who just happened to get brought down for computer-related felonies after hacking into and making public an FBI e-mail surveillance operation. Forbidden to even touch a computer for the rest of his days, he is lured back into the life by Travolta, who offers him $100,000 just to meet him (and take an interesting version of an initiation). Jackman is quickly becoming Hollywood A-list material, and with his performance in Swordfish, it's easy to see why. He can keep up with the smooth-talking, fast-moving Travolta as well as show enough emotion to make him seem like a real person and not just a run-of-the-mill action hero.

Bradley Baum This is the second dreadful film I have seen today, the first being The Other Woman. The script is virtually non-existent, the plot line makes no real sense, and the ending is absolutely terrible yet this drivel was given the green light! WHY?!?! The only way it could have been improved would have been to have lots more gratuitous shots of Halle Berry in lots of different underwear and lots of gratuitous shots of Halley Berry topless as seeing her breasts for the first time on film/in a film and in underwear (even though she was unfortunately wearing a thong) were easily the two best parts of this rubbish! Now for me to type the previous sentence just proves how bad this film is! Don't get me wrong here as lots of gratuitous shots of the delectable Halle Berry in any film she is in would always be lovely but in this film they really were the two best parts of the film! That has to tell you just how bad this film is as there are absolutely no other good parts! The ending leaves unanswered questions in your head that should not be there making a dreadful film even worse! AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

Ben Parker 2001, the year of Kubrick's very unprophetic Space Odyssey, (:p) turned out to be a cynical and sleazy time, where movie companies were happily cashing in on the idea of Matrix-like techno thrillers. In "Swordfish" (2001), John Travolta stars as a man with a terrible hairpiece who is weirdly self-conscious about the fact that he is in a movie and basically goes about being a total arrogant jerk. Hugh Jackman stars as the poor foil for all of Travolta's hijinks, some of which are laughably sexual. Check the Parents Guide for those details. Halle Berry and John Travolta spend most of the time patronising Hugh Jackman. There's a lot of raised eyebrows, knowing glances. Its all very schoolyard and not very sophisticated. Halle Berry is weird in this. She's got her boobs out, which is nice. Worth the infamous paycheck? Dunno. She gives this weird kind of serpentine performance that is just upsetting, almost to the level of Elizabeth "Showgirls" Berkley.Still, the movie is slick and fun, even in 2015. It's mainly saved by Hugh Jackman, who is, as always, eminently likable. The overall tone of "Swordfish" I put somewhere between smarmy and patronising. Its got that cocky assurance that comes from being a self-aware techno-thriller that came out just before the bubble of The Matrix was burst by all those revolutions. Yes it was a hit, but it was so cynically designed to be a hit that time has forgotten about it, now that computer hacking is more a nuisance than a source of novelty and excitement.Enjoyable as a time capsule, and an example of a hit movie made without superheroes. And for that awkward topless scene that only sort of makes sense in context. Fans of Hugh Jackman will not be disappointed, of course. He is in it, after all.