Swordfish [Limited Edition] [4K Ultra HD]

Swordfish has in my opinion one of the best openings to a movie I have ever seen. The writing here is so superb, I think it should have been worthy of an Oscar nomination for John Travolta just for this scene alone. It introduces the character of Gabriel played by Travolta. At first you don't really know what is going on just that Gabriel is here starting to talk about Hollywood movies. As the dialogue progresses you begin to hear Gabriel discussing his distaste for movies lack of realism. He then moves into discussing the movie Dog Day Afternoon. And what would happen if Pacino really wanted to get away with the money he stole from the bank in the movie. Gabriel talks about what if Pacino started killing hostages left and right. How long would it take for the city to reverse is policies on hostage negotiation. It is then revealed that Gabriel has taken hostages and is in the middle of a bank heist of his own. Not to give too much more away for people who haven't seen Swordfish but the beginning ends with an amazing explosion that will rock your home theater system into overdrive along with some amazing visual photography. The character of Gabriel is my favorite Travolta performance of all-time. He plays a character who is always many steps ahead of everyone else in the entire movie. Until the ending you never really know who Gabriel really is, only that he is a bad guy. And he's a bad guy you really like. You are always left guessing at what the motive is behind all of his actions, but he goes on to talk much about misdirection. Throughout the entire movie this is always a reoccurring theme to keep you guessing at what happens next. The rest of the cast is absolutely perfect. Hugh Jackman plays the part of Stanley Jobson who is an computer hacker who no longer is allowed anywhere near a computer and is living in a trailer working a dead-end job. Halle Berry plays the roll of Ginger, who like Gabriel, as the movie goes on you never are too sure of who she really is. All that you are lead to know is that she is with Gabriel and her job is to bring Stanley in because Gabriel wants his computer skills for a job he needs done. Don Cheadle plays the role of J.T. Roberts who worked for the FBI and was the man who arrested Stanley and is the reason he is no longer allowed near a computer. Also following Stanley's arrest, Stanley lost custody of his daughter thanks to Roberts. Roberts now is now on the trail of Gabriel and the one trying to put together what Gabriel needs Stanley to do for him. Lastly, Sam Shepard plays the roll of Senator Reisman. I won't go too deep into what his roll is in the movie as it might give too much away to those who haven't seen it. Just know he plays a very important role. I will say that action movies are by far my favorite type of movie and this movie is a perfect example of why. This movie features everything you will look for in an action movie; guns, car chases (with a beatuiful TVR Tuscan I might add), explosions, beautiful women, and even a bus dangling from a helicopter while flying through L.A. The movie also has a visual look to it that I can't put quite into words. It has some type of yellowish lens filter on some scenes and a cool blueish, purplish, greenish filter on other scenes. You really have to see it, it just gives the movie its own feeling that I have never seen before and I absolutely love it. And I never want another movie to use it because looking at it just reminds me this is Swordfish. The other thing I must bring up is this films AMAZING soundtrack Swordfish . It was created by popular techno artist Paul Oakenfold. I have never heard a soundtrack like this in my life. It just fits the entire look of the movie so amazingly and will also give your home theater system a workout as well. Finally I will talk about the Blu-Ray itself. The picture quality here is reference quality. Its that good. It also features a 5.1 Dolby Digital track which is a bit older than today's current DTS HD tracks but it still sounds very phenomenal. Just sit back and log on, hack in, go anywhere, and steal everything with Swordfish.

John Travolta made at least 3 action movies from 1994 - 2001. The 1994 Quentin Tarantino PULP FICTION with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 96. The 1997 John Woo FACE OFF with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 82. Then in 2001 he teamed up with Halle Berry and Hugh Jackman to make SWORDFISH. The critics panned it (Rotten Tomatoes 26) and only 59 percent of the audience liked it. Now all 3 films have received 4K restorations. In my opinion both FACEOFF and PULP FICTION while good are too long. PULP FICTION, if done by any director other than Tarantino would probably have been panned for the language. Which leads me to this underrated gem SWORDFISH. It's a tight 99 minutes. The film probably has one of the best action film openings ever made. Twist and turns throughout. Even Halle Berry made cinema news by accepting additional monies to appear partially nude. Then ARROW decided to lovingly scan the original 35mm camera negative in 4K/16 bit resolution and color graded it at Duplitech under the approval of Director Dominic Senna. Of the three restorations, this may be the biggest improvement over all previous formats. The sound is lossless DTS 5.1 (for purist there is also the original lossless stereo track). Were the elements available for DOLBY ATMOS? I don't know. However the sound does not disappoint. If you are a fan this is a MUST OWN! If you have never seen SWORDFISH before this is definitely the format to watch!

Great movie

This is not a review of the movie itself (there are other comments and reviews in this one and the dvd version) but a review of the video transfer of this Blu Ray. This is a good looking transfer in 1080p/VC-1 video, colors are very well saturated, blacks are rock solid and the contrast is really good. The audio is in English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround and encoded at 640kbps. It has a lot of sorround effects specially in the beggining with the 'Matrix'-esque "girl with bomb explodes" sequence. That sequence in particular is the one you can display to show your blu ray player. The bottom line... it is a nice (but not excellent) action film that will look good in Blu Ray, specially beign one of the first who came out.

This 4K transfer looks great, crystal clear, crisp, and the HDR/DV is spot on. The colors are very vibrant and really pop, there's a lot more detail in the picture than what the blu ray ever could handle. The audio is pretty good here as well but there's no Atmos so don't expect that, the DTS still sounds amazing though. Some new features as well but nothing groundbreaking, I would only go into this for the PQ/AQ upgrades. Swordfish was never a great film but it's a fun film, a product of its time. Arrow did a great job here with this mainstream Warner catalogue title. Let's see if Battlefield Earth will get the same treatment lol.

Very disappointed. First blu ray disc arrive broken. Second one didn’t play on two different blu ray player.

5 of 5 stars for this exciting suspense movie. The first 5 minutes of the movie is an amazing set of scenes acting as a kick-start for this high-tension, suspenseful action movie. Right down to the little ball-bearing rolling towards to camera covered in blood--amazing effects! Travolta's character is truly evil--calm, cool, collected but evil. Frankly, he is really a terrorist trying to sway events using violence. Ruthlessly cold, he doesn't mind killing people to get his way. For his purposes, he needs a top-class computer hacker (Jackman) who he recruits via Halle Berry's character. Thru the whole movie, there are twists and turns. Travolta even makes a speech to Jackman about how Harry Hudini did his tricks "mis-direction"! Several times, you learn things are not as they appeared to mis-direct efforts. Travolta is in total control. Lots of action scenes, chases, explosions, machine guns, RPGs, etc. The ending scenes have several surprise twists; remember, mis-direction!

Misdirection STAN!

RAS

Gran película

とても懐かしく感じてます。古い作品だけど綺麗な状態でとどきました。内容も焦ることなく今でも見応え満載でした。

Great movie with perfect picture and sound.

Questo film dal cast stellare è davvero spettacolare, pieno di movimento e con tanti colpi di scena! Ritmo Veloce, Scene tipiche da Hacker Movie e tanta azione frenetica: tutto quello che serve a realizzare un film di questo genere proprio come si deve! Acquisto consigliato per tutti coloro che sono fan di questo tipo di film e che vogliono ampliare la propria collezione!