Swordfish - Arrow Video Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

24 years later and Dominic Sena’s Swordfish has entered the 2160p era of entertainment. Sitting down for this film in at least two decades (I never bought it on Blu-ray), I was struck by how instantaneously dated the film was. The tech, its precarious brand of pre-9/11 international intrigue and terrorism, the visual effects, Oakenfold’s score, Travolta’s hair; all of it has a firm “Sell By 2001” date stamped right onto every frame. It’s obnoxiously loud, intricately silly, and logically daffy - but it’s still a brazenly fun ride. 

Our little techno-thriller follows the amiable ex-con super-hunky hacker Stanley (Wolverine) as he tries to get his life back together so he can take care of his daughter. But his options are limited given his altruistically criminal past. When Storm (Halle Berry) shows up with an offer too good to refuse, Stanley is sucked into a seedy underground of international espionage when he’s hired by Gabriel Shear (Travolta’s soul patch). What should have been a simple job to help get his daughter back becomes a nightmare as Stanley is forced to assist in the theft of billions of dollars from a government slush fund. 

I’ll be blunt, there’s just no way to make hacking a computer look cool. And this film tries to make it look cool. When watching someone feverishly clack away at a keyboard while getting a blowjob fails to get the adrenaline pumping, they blast the Oakenfold score and Jackman does a little booty dance. When that fails, there’s an explosive car chase and Travolta just happened to have a fully loaded M-60 in the back seat for such occasions. And when all that fails, the film falls back on its brand of witty repartee in the form of adjacently genre-relevant movie references where if you’re paying attention they spoil what’s left of the plot. And when there’s nothing else left, they fly a bus through the streets of LA (which was pretty cool actually). 

So if it reads like I’m dunking on Swordfish it’s because I am. Honestly, this is a pretty stupid movie - but it’s a good stupid movie. Massively budgeted for its time, it had a decent global haul at the box office and just by remembering my friends’ collections, became a staple on DVD for a while, and hit HD-DVD and Blu-ray in their early cycles. Admittedly, I saw this film quite a few times in the theater, it was a good way to blow a lazy day with nothing else to do.

However, in the last two decades, I honestly can’t remember the last time I watched this film. I guess for better or worse, it’s not any smarter, nor is it any dumber. As much as I’d completely forgotten this film in the last two decades, popping it in my home theater I instantly remembered everything about it and why I thought it was a reliably fun dumb movie. The kind of original summer blockbuster that’s so rarely made anymore. Sena delivers the same flashy energy he brought to Game in 60 Seconds (where’s that 4K?) It was cool to see Travolta in that early ‘00s period where he was still making some bankable decent movies while licking his Xenu wounds from Battlefield Earth. Jackman was just coming off his breakout success of the first X-Men film and his mutant co-star Halle Berry was just a few short months away from winning Best Actress for Monster’s Ball. Don Cheadle is a lot of fun as the take-no-shit Fed. Vinnie Jones gets a few good scene-chewing moments and Tom Cruise's cousin William Mapother has some fun too. 

All this isn’t to say that Swordfish is unwatchable, certainly not, it’s just not as good a movie as it tries to be. It’s got one great trick with that Matrix-style bullet-time explosion early on, a couple of slick bantery sequences, a notable spot of nudity, and a flying bus. But that’s all it’s trying to be. So credit where credit is due, it’s a film that aims to entertain and do nothing else. Whether or not this is your sort of flick or if you think it’s actually any good is irrelevant. You’re here for the bombs, boobs, bullets, and because you have to find out what’s up with Travolta’s hair and why he smokes a cigarette like that. 

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 
For this review, we were issued a check disc, which should be in line with the final retail product. This 4K release is a BD100 disc, and in keeping with Arrow’s standard release scheme, the disc loads to an animated main menu with their usual main menu structure. The final retail version should include a slipcover, reversible insert art, and a booklet.

Swordfish boots up for an often impressive 2160p Dolby Vision/HDR10 transfer. A product of the early 2000s, Paul Cameron's cinematography is drenched in those hyper-saturated yellows and teal blues and that look is beautifully replicated here. Shot on 35mm, the image maintains a strong film-like appearance with a healthy cinematic veneer of film grain. The film grain is well rendered and never overly distracting. Nor does it look like it’s been smoothed into oblivion. Facial features, hairstyles, soul patches, flashy cars, big explosions - all look great. For the visual effects work, some of the CGI flies high and clean, other chunks can look pretty dated. The big amazing “bullet-time” explosion is a bit on the soft side of that spectrum, but it always looked that way. When the bus is being lifted through L.A., the blend of practical and CGI effects comes off pretty well. Some pieces look a little cartoonish, like when one notable henchman falls with a hostage and explodes, but other moments look spot on and hold up to the scrutiny of higher resolution.

On the audio side, the film is delivered with a DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 track. For the folks out there worried or wondering about the lack of Atmos, but honestly, I don’t think you need it! This 5.1 track is a banger and for the big action sequences, it’s a wall-to-wall immersive mix. Since the original 2006 Blu-ray only had a lossy Dolby Digital track, this has to be an upgrade! That ridiculous car chase shootout, the slow-mo explosion, hell - the entire third act is a packed, exhilarating sonic experience. Dialog is clean and clear without issue there, even if the techno-babble is a bunch of mumbo-jumbo. The Oakenfold/Christopher Young score is still a beast and fills the soundscape nicely. All around a great track that serves this flick nicely.

For the bonus features, we have a mix of old and new. For the new, the Oakenfold interview is an interesting look at his journey into scoring feature films, or at least having his music contribute. The Jeff Mann interview is also an interesting take on how someone works to create a “look” for a film like this one. Of the archival materials, the Dominic Sena commentary is still a fast-paced endeavor as the director offers a massive amount of information about the production. The rest of the archival extras are your typical EPK fluff without much insight. 

• Audio Commentary featuring Dominic Sena
• NEW Soundtrack Hacker - Interview with Paul Oakenfold (HD 12:31)
• NEW How to Design a Tech Heist Interview with Production Designer Jeff Mann (HD 20:49)
• HBO First Look: Swordfish (SD 15:02)
• Effects in Focus: The Flying Bus (SD 8:14)
• Planet Rock Club Reel (SD 4:11)
• Swordfish: In Conversation (SD 12:47)
• Alternate Ending 1 w/ optional Dominic Sena Commentary (SD 3:48)
• Alternate Ending 2 w/ optional Dominic Sena Commentary (SD 2:08)
• Theatrical Trailer (HD 2:12)

For good or bad, Swordfish is a throwback piece of nostalgia. I remember it as one of the films I saw quite a few times during the summer ahead of leaving home for college. It’s one of those remnants of pre-9/11 when terrorists could be used as punchlines, or in this case, look super cool and sophisticated and root for. I remember it was a ridiculously silly film, and that hasn’t changed. Despite it's notable faults, I’m glad I still had a lot of fun with this one. Some nostalgia trips can really slap back badly, but this was one of the nice surprising payoffs. Thanks to Arrow Video, we can now enjoy the film in 2160p Dolby Vision and I’ll give credit where it's due that when it looks great it shines. Some visual effects might appear dated, but for the most part, this is a slick-looking transfer. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio packs an explosive punch and the disc comes home with a decent selection of new and archival extras to enjoy after the show. It might not be on everyone’s 4K collection wish lists but fans should be happy with the results. Recommended