Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

General

PARANOIA (review)

Review by Joe Yezukevich
Produced by Alexandra Milchan, Scott Lambert, Deepak Nayar
Screenplay by Barry L. Levy, Jason Dean Hall
Based on Paranoia by Joseph Finder
Directed by Robert Luketic
Starring Liam Hemsworth, Gary Oldman, 
Amber Heard, Harrison Ford, Lucas Till, 
Embeth Davidtz, Julian McMahon, 
Josh Holloway, Richard Dreyfuss

Gaumont / Rated PG-13

Just when I thought movies this year could not get any worse, August arrives with the abysmal Paranoia.

Liam Helmsworth (the Chad Lowe to Chris Helmsworth’s Rob Lowe) has an unmemorable turn as Adam Cassidy, a “Bridge and Tunnel” Brooklynite (huh?) trying to get to the top of corporate Manhattan by any means necessary.

After he and his tight knit troop of developers blow a presentation to their boss Nicholas Wyatt (a criminally underused Gary Oldman), the gang gets fired. Under Adam’s wing, they blow the remainder of their budget on a night in Manhattan’s trendiest new club.

Now that the money has been embezzled, Wyatt owns Cassidy.

The only way to get out of this indentured servitude is for Cassidy to go to work for Wyatt’s old mentor Jock Goddard (Harrison Ford with a shaved head) and to steal Jock’s secret product in development.

He goes to work, things happen and the movie ends. All the while, I asked myself why this movie was made.

More importantly, I was asking myself why the cast agreed to work on this. The aforementioned Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman are a small part of the cast which is rounded out by Richard Dreyfuss as Cassidy’s sickly father, Sawyer from Lost’s Josh Holloway as an FBI agent, and Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck, Fantastic Four) who plays Wyatt’s psychotic henchman.

Each of these seasoned vets brings his own flavor of bland to his character.

Paranoia is a terrible movie that is best described as The Firm made for the Lifetime Movie Network.

The only thing you have to be paranoid about is a sequel.

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

DISCLAIMER

Forces of Geek is protected from liability under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and “Safe Harbor” provisions.

All posts are submitted by volunteer contributors who have agreed to our Code of Conduct.

FOG! will disable users who knowingly commit plagiarism, piracy, trademark or copyright infringement.

Please contact us for expeditious removal of copyrighted/trademarked content.

SOCIAL INFLUENCER POLICY

In many cases free copies of media and merchandise were provided in exchange for an unbiased and honest review. The opinions shared on Forces of Geek are those of the individual author.

You May Also Like

Contests

Packed with exclusive content, this fully illustrated tome sheds light on how Captain America: The Winter Soldier was created, including concept art, drawings, movie...

Reviews

As the year draws to a close, the obligatory family blockbusters are beginning to be released in a bid to lure in audiences seeking...

Reviews

  On Blu-ray for the first time, 2016’s Little Boxes, directed by Rob Meyer, is a poignant yet understated exploration of race, identity, and...

Reviews

Mike Flanagan’s 2016 Hush feels like a cinematic exercise to create the purest thriller possible: a collection of set pieces with minimal dialogue and...