Director: Roger Donaldson
Year Released: 2003
Rating: 3.0
Very much like 2002's XXX and The Sum of All Fears - government trying to stop terrorism and the selling of secrets (especially technology), in this case the paranoia is of White America turning on itself (the terror is inside the country because its enemies are inside the country), and despite what the last scene says, Young America is still loose-minded and easily manipulated (hot-headed even). True, the last ten minutes are unfathomably awful, but for most of the time I was absolutely engrossed (like the techno-geek I can be), trying to figure out exactly who's duping whom. Picking apart the dialogue or laughing at the inserted Father Issues just misses the point: it's just a genre movie, and because of that limitation it has to have its cool gadgets, a mandatory sex scene, a shower scene (the svelte Bridget Moynahan does the honors), several chases, Farrell swilling alcohol every 1.5 scenes, and 'deep monologues' to put it all in perspective. It's so rare when a movie that claims to be entertaining actually is.
