PARANOIA DVD (2013)

SYNOPSIS: Director Robert Luketic and screenwriters Jason Dean Hall and Barry Levy team up to adapt author Joseph Finder's novel centering on a tech-savvy twentysomething who becomes a corporate spy for a scheming businessman. Determined to make the most of his new job at Wyatt Telecom, Adam Cassidy (Liam Hemsworth) is horrified when a felonious mistake earns him the wrath of unforgiving CEO Nicholas Wyatt (Gary Oldman). Typically, Wyatt's first response would be to throw a lawbreaking employee under the bus. But this time he's willing to cut a deal: Should Adam agree to infiltrate Wyatt Telecom's chief rival, the CEO will turn a blind eye to his employee's error. In no time Adam is climbing the corporate ladder straight to the top. No one suspects a thing, and Wyatt is gaining a distinct advantage over the competition. Later, upon realizing that his success is a mere illusion and he's become a simple pawn in a much bigger game, Adam hatches an ingenious plan to get out of his situation before it's too late.

MOVIE REVIEW:

According to the filmmakers, corporate espionage is more common than espionage between countries. Sounds comforting enough.

Paranoia which material is based on a bestseller by Joseph Finder (the Ashley Judd’s thriller High Crimes was based on his book as well) is far from the page-turner that people proclaimed the novel to be. Perhaps the fault lies with Jason Hall and Barry Levy’s screenplay, which is ridiculously mundane and never quite believable to be a high-end espionage thriller for the big screen.

Thor’s younger brother Liam Hemsworth is Adam Cassidy, an engineer who is blackmailed by his boss, Nicholas Wyatt (Gary Oldman) into committing corporate espionage after he is caught abusing company funds for leisure. His task is to infiltrate into Wyatt’s former mentor and now rival, Jock Goddard’s (Harrison Ford) company and steals his revolutionary prototype cellphone. In order to do so, he needs to first win over the heart of Emma Jennings (Amber Heard), the Director of marketing to gain access to Goddard’s secret vault or faced seeing the death of his father and close friends.

Aussie director Robert Luketic who broke into Hollywood with Legally Blonde fumbles with the given material and the final product offers not a single ounce of suspense and thrill despite having a desperate man as the central character and a high stake game of technology and business as the backdrop. You probably still recall the reason why Tom Cruise runs away from all his corrupted colleagues in The Firm but you won’t even remember Liam Hemsworth’s plight in Paranoia once the credits end.

Yet, it’s nothing short of a miracle how the lackluster script managed to attract a busload of big and familiar names. There are of course Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman that needs no further introduction, the soon-to-be Mrs Depp, Amber Heard, Lucas Till (X-Men: First Class) as Adam’s best friend, Julian “NIP/TUCK” McMahon as Wyatt’s henchman, Josh “LOST” Holloway as a blink-and-miss FBI agent and the most interesting of all, Richard “JAWS” Dreyfuss as Adam’s dad.

Having matinee good looks sure isn’t enough; Liam Hemsworth needs better scripts and acting classes. Paranoia is worthwhile only for watching both Ford and Oldman gritting their dentures and snarling at each other. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Players is a 5 minutes segment that interviews the main cast and crew.  

The Paranoia Begins talks briefly about the source material by Joseph Finder.

Privacy Is Death is another short segment that has the cast and crew mumbles about cameras and stuff. 

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Visually, the movie looks sleek, prim and proper on DVD. In terms of audio, excellent especially when Ford mumbles or Oldman having an outburst and pumping music courtesy of Junkie XL, you never miss a beat.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee