saw: firewall
The only thing Hitchcockian about this alleged thriller is its omnipresently bad blue-screening, recalling rear-projection distractions of yore. Harrison Ford slaps a piece of bologna into a greasy envelope and mails it in fourth class past a series of lazy setups and bloated, disinterested villains that makes 1994's Disclosure look like The Matrix. Speaking of the mid-Nineties, there are times when Firewall feels like some sort of time shifting experiment wherein Irwin Winkler directs the script for Panic Room in the style of The Net, replete with listlessly unconvincing techno-speak and borderline-Socratic expository dialog. If these comparisons don't make much sense, it's because the movie is muddled and doesn't seem all that interested in its premise—or any premise beyond Ford's backend, really. The venerable action figure officially enters his late period here. If Indy 4 ever alights, it may be (or, perhaps, may it be) his swan song. Grade: F