Paranoia

This movie is not gripping {Inception}. This movie will not keep you guessing {Now You See Me}. This movie is not Oldman/Ford material and why they took the job is beyond me. If you are 25 or younger it's a great date movie (because there's time to make out as the film drags in several spots). It doesn't twist and turn and the revelations are minimal and far from making the audience gasp. Four out of ten stars may be generous. Good-looking stars and block-busting legends does not a good movie make; much less a great movie. Though I would like to get hold of that ring-tone. Character development was sloppy and dialog was quite pedantic.

"The lights always look brighter across the river." After saying the wrong things, Adam (Hemsworth) an up-and-coming employee at a powerful corporation finds himself and his friends out of a job. After the owner Nicolas Wyatt (Oldman) recruits him to spy on rival Jock Goddard (Ford) to find out what his company is coming up with Adam finds himself stuck in the middle of a dangerous game. When he wants out he realizes that it's not just his life is threatened unless he completes his task. I was looking forward to watching this for two reasons. Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman, also Richard Dreyfuss is in this but in a lesser role. I cannot recall a movie they have been in that has been bad (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was bad but its still Indiana Jones so I can't hate it and I blame Lucas for that anyway). I did find out how to mess up a movie with those two legendary actors...add baby Thor (Liam Hemsworth). I'm not saying he was a bad actor in this because it wasn't terrible but when you have those two in a movie and you make baby Thor the main focus you have screwed up somewhere. I'd compare this to the movie Son Of No One in the way that you have Ray Liotta and Al Pacino and you make Channing Tatum the focus. Nothing personal against Hemsworth or Tatum but when you have such high caliber actors why waste them? As far as this movie goes the scenes with Oldman and Ford are amazing as expected, as far as the rest goes it was slow, a little boring and not exciting at all. With the plot being about the seedy underworld of the cellphone app industry though you don't have much to work with. Overall, a movie that could have been so much better but ended up being almost not worth seeing. It pains me to do this but I give it a C.

"Privacy. Absolute myth. There's no such thing."

The film starts off on the wrong foot and never manages to get on track. In the very opening scene you have Liam Hemsworth using voice over narration explaining to us what we are about to see, and you realize that you are going to watch a clichéd unoriginal action thriller. Then there is a scene where Gary Oldman's character is looking at some art pieces with Liam and he mentions how Picasso once said that there are no original ideas, that everything is either copied or stolen. You kind of get a sense of a similar thing going on with this script. Paranoia is an action thriller that seems recycled with no fresh ideas and unfortunately lacks thrills. The script was adapted by Jason Dean Hall (Spread) and Barry Levy (Vantage Point) from Joseph Finder's novel, but nothing about it feels inspiring or original. It is a shame because I was excited to get to see Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman face off once again, but Paranoia easily belongs on my worst films of 2013 list mainly because these talented actors can't do anything to improve a weak script. Paranoia gets half a star for Amber Heard who looks stunning despite not adding anything to the story, and another star for Oldman and Ford's presence alone. I could forgive the uninspiring script if at least this technological thriller actually had some thrills, but it doesn't. There aren't any interesting thrills either and the narrative is pretty straight forward and predictable.

Adam Cassidy (Liam Hemsworth) has been working for an important technological company known as Wyatt Corporation for the past six years. He hasn't been able to ascend the corporate ladder the way he pictured it as he continues to be an entry level employee, but he and his team are expecting a break through when given the opportunity to present their next project to the boss, Nicolas Wyatt (Gary Oldman). The presentation doesn't go as planned and Adam is left unemployed along with the rest of his team. Feeling bad about the way things turned out, Adam invites them to a fancy club where they use the company's credit card. The next day Adam is called back to Wyatt's office as he is confronted for his crime. Taking advantage of Adam's hunger for wealth and power, Wyatt recruits him to spy on his nemesis: Jock Goddard (Harrison Ford). Goddard happens to run another billion dollar tech company which is his biggest competition. Wyatt wants Adam to win Jock's trust and discover what they are working on, and in return he promises him the life he has always dreamed of. Blinded by greed Adam accepts and soon will find himself way in over his head.

Richard Dreyfuss has a small role in this film as well and his presence only reminds us that a film focusing on him or the other secondary characters such as Oldman and Ford, would be so much better. Instead they allow Hemsworth to play the lead role and he simply doesn't have that on screen charisma to carry a film on his own. I don't think he's a bad actor, but he needs stronger material to keep the audience's interest. He is just outclassed in this film by the other talented actors and we are left out wanting to see more of them. Another issue I had with Paranoia is that the plot doesn't make much sense and it is so dull that it allows you to begin to think too much about it and find all sort of holes. Robert Luketic has just directed his third straight flop after the disappointing Killers and The Ugly Truth. I will defend him for 21, which was a film that at least kept me entertained, but his latest efforts have been really disappointing. Paranoia might just top them all; stay away from this film.

If you watch this movie because it has Gary Oldman or Harrison Ford, you won't be alone, but you may be in for a disappointment, I'm sorry to say. Firstly they don't have much screen time and the time they do have seems to have been filmed in a hurry with little effort put into it by anyone.

The main character is that of Liam Hemsworth, who plays Adam Cassidy; the best he has going for him is that he a good looking guy. I didn't find the character very convincing, unlike the part of his dad played by Richard Dreyfuss, but his lines might as well have been written on a napkin. What a waste of talent by writer and director here.

What you might like are the fancy cars and great settings as well as the secondary roles of Kevin and Allison, played respectively by Lucas Till and Angela Sarafyan. It's all so sad that a plot, especially the ending, could have been so much more, I could see the possibilities I did not see on screen.

PARANOIA is one of those corporate suspense thrillers about rival businesses, spying, and the like. All of these films seem to owe a debt to WALL STREET in the depiction of fresh-faced newcomers going under the wings of seasoned and cynical professionals.

Sadly, there isn't much to get excited about in PARANOIA, a distinctly average type film. The writing is of bog-standard quality and the most interesting thing about it is the sheer number of familiar faces playing in support: Embeth Davidtz, Julian McMahon, Josh Holloway, even Richard Dreyfuss in a minor put pivotal role. Sadly they have little to do in a storyline that feels devoid of suspense and is really very ordinary.

One of the the film's biggest flaws is in the central casting of the inexperienced Liam Hemsworth. Hemsworth fails to bring any charisma to his part and in fact feels wooden throughout, and certainly out of his depth compared to the seasoned pros surrounding him. On the other hand, there's a nice turn from Gary Oldman who successfully manages to capture some of that fire he had in the 1990s. Harrison Ford looks incredibly old but is pretty good in a cast-against-type role.