'Swordfish': throw it back

Personality is one key to unlocking a successful movie. \nMost action movies explode with unbelievable stunts, car chases and last-second heroics. A lack of realism hurts almost every action flick. But what separates a "Double Team" and a "Die Hard" is a good personality portrayed well by an actor like Bruce Willis. Imagine Jean Claude Van Damme saying "Yippe-kay-yay motherf****r." Not cool. This is successful when good writing, directing and casting all come together. It seemed the only thing "Swordfish" tried hard to do well was showing Halle Berry topless, which definitely did not hurt this movie.\n"Swordfish" opens with John Travolta making a statement about the lack of realism in movies. Later in the movie, a bus is picked up by a helicopter appearing out of thin air. I think it was about this point when I decided "Swordfish" had neither the personality or the realism it complained about.\nHugh Jackman plays Stanley Jobson, an ex-hacker/felon who will get thrown in jail if he ever touches his daughter or a computer again. Enter Gabriel Shear (Travolta) and his hottie assistant Ginger (Berry). Travolta needs Jackman to pull off an impossible hacking job/bank heist, and in return he'll gain custody of his daughter and 10 million dollars. \nThe cops obviously catch onto something going down, and Jackman must figure out which team he should play for. Jobson and Shear are boring characters; without appealing attitude, clever insults, or emotion from either.\nJackman is a great actor, but a mediocre performance by the Aussie combined with basically a dull, boring character hinder his role. He looks like a deer in headlights the entire movie. Berry's performance tops the rest of the "Swordfish" cast. But her nude scene was irrelevant, and obviously only in the movie to get guys in the seats. During "Swordfish" I couldn't stop wondering why John Travolta ever had a comeback. He was good in "Pulp Fiction," but in every movie since, he acts every character the same way, and swordfish is no different.\n"Swordfish" swims all over the place, trying to be complex and tricky. But the movie catches itself in the end where it reels in tangled and lame.