Paranoia (2013)

It is often said that movie studios have an employee who can summarize a screenplay in one sentence for the executives, so they have an idea of the story. It could not have been hard to do this with this movie: put The Firm, The Net and The Conversation in a blender, and you get Paranoia. Mixing a couple of old movies together can often lead to a refreshing new dish if you know which elements can make a good combination, and what to add yourself (it's what J.J. Abrams does all the time). However, here the writers have forgotten to give their movie a face of its own, and to make their screenplay leak-proof. The reason this film made it to the cinemas has undoubtedly got to do with all the big names in the cast, which makes you wonder how they got to say yes to this screenplay in the first place (although a big paycheck for a brief uncomplicated shoot probably goes a long way, and hauling in one A-lister often attracts the others as well). Clichés and predictability abound, from the debt-ridden young protagonist with a sick father (cigarettes, emphysema, cautionary tale) who gets access to the rich life and spontaneously forgets his friends, to the girl playing hard to get who becomes surprisingly docile after hearing one sad sob story. Then there are the evil henchman and the FBI agent who warns the protagonist with scary pictures of earlier victims, so in short, this movie is one big collections of tropes where you can even see the 'surprise twist' and the 'twist on top of the twist' coming from a mile away. Now some amount of predictability doesn't have to be an insurmountable problem if the story in itself is solid and intriguing, and if the cast is good. But the screenwriters didn't seem terribly preoccupied with things like logic and plausibility either. Are we supposed to believe that Liam Hemsworth just happens to have a one-night-stand with the girl who later becomes his target for industrial espionage? Any good screenwriter would have made sure that wasn't coincidence. Or that the solution to a problem would require some thinking rather than just presenting itself in a news bulletin. It gets really ridiculous when Hemsworth himself can apparently change super secret data that gives him access to a super secret vault with just a cellphone and a finger print. Or when the evil henchman thinks that he can get Hemsworth to climb into the plastic-lined trunk of his car inside a public garage with spectators all around. As said, the great cast seems wasted on this material, but they also provide the movie's sparse highlights. The confrontations between heavyweights Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford are satisfying, and it is pretty nice to see Oldman playing a British person in an American movie, and Ford without lots of hair for a change. Liam Hemsworth is adequate enough in the main role, but he is outshined by either Oldman or Ford as soon as they are in the room with him, let alone both (let's just say it is probably for the best that his brother Chris got to be Thor). But there are plenty of missed opportunities here too: Richard Dreyfuss plays the sick old dad, who gets nothing better to do than be sick and old. He could have been put to some good use, but his only role in the movie is to serve as motivation for his son. Josh Holloway (of Lost fame) gets way too little to do as the FBI man, and Embeth Davidtz is downright squandered in a role that could have been much more intriguing, especially since her character plays a brief but crucial part in the finale. I couldn't escape the feeling that some of her scenes may have been cut to get the running time below 2 hours.Director Robert Luketic is mostly known for his comedies with a romantic edge (Legally Blond, Killers) but he knows how to make a thriller look slick. That makes Paranoia at least watchable until the end, but it is really a shame that he didn't have a more solid screenplay. Although we can't disregard the possibility that some studio editing removed most of the character scenes that would have made great use of a stellar cast. A missed opportunity, but not a terribly boring one.

Well as my title says, the movie could have had potential. I mean, there are tons of really good "infiltration movies" out there. However, I realized quite instantly that this one wouldn't be a "winner", but I still had some expectations. Its a somewhat good cast and once again; the story has potential. But... it fails. The way the story has been filmed is messy, and the story in itself is made so ridiculous that I cannot take the movie seriously. I mean... the story concerns this new mobile solution that would revolutionize the whole market. And... that's okay... but the feeling I get is that this should be a "serious" and "realistic" movie. I mean... I think a movie have to "pick a side"; either its completely fictional, "Minority Report style" (which is a good movie), or it is serious "Departed style". This one seem to want to take some of both. It tries to become this serious thriller that have a modern theme. Sorry, but a completely unrealistic technical solution, almost Sean Connery's James Bond style... I mean, of course a private businessman can control any TV, camera or anything... and of course a tech student can copy/paste fingerprints and anything, just like that! And this while the movie tries to make everything look planned by having people talking completely nonsense technical terms that doesn't even mean anything! And then...the rest of the story is also completely strange! The guy meets a woman... that rejects him. He starts at her company... she still rejects him. They go to a company event... and she suddenly loves him? And this is how the movie goes on... completely nonsense, and it's pretty much going on the whole movie. Sorry. It had potential with a promising story - but they screwed it up completely!And the ending... yeah, it doesn't get better. This guy wants to present his product in front of a big tech company and does a lousy job, and is therefore rejected. The manager tells him to infiltrate a competitor. So they fix the guy a job with the competitor, where the guy just walks in, and presents a product like a god (nice coincidence right?). And you can guess from the start what happens - he falls in love with a woman at the competitor company, and the competitor himself seem like a good guy. So how is he going to get himself out of this one? He lies to his new love, his new employer and commit several crimes, trying to steal a top secret technical device funded by the government... ...just to realize its a setup and both the tech company managers are "bad guys". But this student tech guy is a genius and fools them both, working with FBI in secret... gets them arrested (and does not get himself arrested, as he helped FBI out...). And then he starts a tech company on his own, because "there are no shortcuts to success" (like looking for a job at someone elses company?)! And yeah, he gets the girl... even though he hacked her computer, lied to her, stole her phone and used her identity to steal a top secret government property. But... yeah, that's nothing right? Well... this one didn't make sense at all. Sorry to say!

Why does Liam Hemsworth run like that? How often does he shower? Does he wax? Why can't they seem to frame Gary Oldman's face correctly? Why is this called 'Paranoia'? Just a few questions of many you might ask yourself whilst watching said movie. If this were a shoddy made-for-TV thriller, I would be saying it's not too bad, but for a major release featuring these names, one has to wonder what happened. One can see how, on paper, the film may have appealed; the idea itself holds some promise, in the right hands, of being at least mildly interesting and gripping. On watching, however, one can also easily imagine the deflation everybody must have felt as they discovered director Robert Luketic is not those said right hands. Only this can explain the general sense of disinterest in the performances. To be frank, perhaps a resume that includes 'Legally Blonde', 'Monster In Law' and 'The Ugly Truth' should have served as fair warning so, on second thought, maybe there is limited sympathy available to Ford and Oldman. That said, they do enough to fulfil their roles, with Oldman easily being the best thing about the movie. Far from awful, and even further from good, 'Paranoia' plods through a dopey, obvious, cliché-riddled techno-espionage plot and wastes everybody's time in the process.

When your employees show you the characteristics of the product development, you sent him to be a business agent. Although all need bold but cautious, but it is obviously two very different type. For a first glance at the bottom of the staff, how do you make sure that he is a man who can be a business agent? Not to mention this he is feel angry when the boss just brew a cup of tea in his talk, how do you determine he will swallow, quietly completed the task of espionage.And this young man, after being expelled, incredibly still flagrant use research and development funds to eating and drinking, even if you do a cash and then go out to play. You were designated as espionage materials. (Since being fired, how to use the money in the research and development account, if this is not a bug, it must be a conspiracy.)Although amber heard the face change trend, but it is still a beauty, but the clever woman, just in the pub find someone to go to bed. For a woman who wants to do something in a man's world, such a behavior is not understandable. Only the people on the other side of the river to go to bed is not looking for trouble? The poor people will get entangled more. If that she make sex with people in order to make herself up, maybe more in line with the high family expectations, the pressure of female white- collar identity.On the one hand, Wyatt send his best creative talent to the rival as commercial spy; On the other hand , Goddard use truly confidential as bait to tell opponents to bait to lure the enemy. Is too dangerous, can not change a fake it? If this fails, but it really is lose the bait along with the fish.