“Paranoia” is perfect example of a film that deserved to be buried at the end of August. While Relativity Media bounced-back a bit with “Don Juan” and “Free Birds”, I’m not sure if the studio will be able to recover from this misstep. Much of the reported $35 million budget likely went to co-stars Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman, who, hopefully for their sakes, wrapped-up their scenes in as few days as possible.
The star of this disaster is Liam Hemsworth. And he dominates the screen time, often without wearing a shirt. Clearly the filmmakers were hoping that audiences would be distracted by Hemsworth’s physique, and not realize how ridiculous this movie is. That strategy didn’t work.
Hemsworth plays Adam Cassidy, a low-level employee at the Wyatt Corporation, a mobile phone giant, led by company president Nicolas Wyatt (Oldman). He and some co-workers lose their jobs following a bad pitch to the president, but he is brought back so he can go undercover at
longtime phone rival Eikon (led by Ford’s Jock Goddard) and steal information on the new phone that Eikon is about to unveil. In
return, Adam will be paid a lot of money, which will allow him to pay-off his sick father’s medical bills and live the big city life he’s always wanted. Adam, who’s 27 but acts like he’s 12, takes the deal, but soon realizes that he has no idea what he’s got himself into.
For the record, “Paranoia” is not as offensive or shockingly inept as this year’s “Pain & Gain” and “Grown Ups 2”, but it will still likely join them on many ‘Worst of 2013’ lists.
There are only two things you take away from this film: #1 – Everyone is watching you at all times (most people already knew that) and #2 – as Ford so nicely sums things up at one point: “S— happens”. (Yeah, we all knew that too.) This movie was based on a novel that was published in 2004, and it plays that way on screen. There’s nothing new, fresh or technically advanced in the entire script.
Director Robert Luketic (“Legally Blonde”, “21”) shoots close-ups for practically the entire movie. One of my “favorites” was Hemsworth at Goddard’s mansion staring for the longest time at something we can’t clearly see. There’s also a long pause late in the film when Adam’s father (played by Richard Dreyfuss) asks his son, “You know how long it took for me to get a date with your mother?”. Painful silence follows for what seems like ten seconds and then Dreyfuss answers his own question with – “A long time”. “Paranoia” is packed with this type of snappy dialogue.
“Paranoia” was advertised as a “thriller”, but there aren’t any thrills or legitimate action scenes. It’s all cliches: Will Adam be able to download all the stolen files before his girlfriend comes out of the shower and catchers him? Will Adam’s phony fingerprint work to get him through security? In the final half hour, we get several unintentionally funny moments,
including a chase scene through a restaurant kitchen (did I mention cliches?) and more embarrassingly bad “serious” moments.
As for the performances, it’s clear that Hemsworth’s older brother, Chris, is making the better career choices these days. Liam should bounce-back from this with the release of “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” in November. In the meantime, hiding-out in a cave wouldn’t be a bad idea. Amber Heard, who plays Adam’s girlfriend, is completely forgettable. Ford and Oldman do get to duke it out (verbally) in a couple of scenes, but other than that they, like the rest of us, simply tollerate the situation, waiting for it to end. At least they got paid a lot of money to be associated with this mess.
“Paranoia” is rated PG-13 for some language, brief violence and adult content.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Paranoia” gets a D. Nothing here to recommend.