In spite of a terrific cast that includes Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman, hello, Paranoia doesn't have much to offer.
Excruciating dialogue is only the tip of the iceberg of this film's dunderheadedness, but it's the sin that keeps on giving throughout the way too many 108 painful minutes it takes to get through it. When the words aren't just corny, clichéd and labored, they're so ludicrously expositional it's embarrassing. Essentially a film about a cell phone, director Robert Luketic tries to hide the incredibly low stakes by using the corniest of all cinematic tricks, and literally awful music, relentlessly, to negative effect. Helicopter shots of the Manhattan skyline have rarely been so banal.
Adam (Liam Hemsworth) is a techie trained in corporate espionage by Nicholas Wyatt (Gary Oldman). His mission: steal the rival's secrets for a new phone from rival Jock Goddard (Harrison Ford) - as one reviewer said of Ford, "Slumming for cash and a light shooting schedule").
The people in the film, despite having great jobs, are pretty stupid. Beautiful Amber Heard, for instance, who has a huge tech job, is surprised that Adam knows she went to Yale and asks how he found out. He says Facebook as if it's something new. She complains that she knows nothing about him. Hello - Google anyone? Are you kidding?
There's a pathetic performance by Richard Dreyfuss as Adam's father, whose accent changes from scene to scene. I think he was going for New York. Gary Oldman just picked up the phone and called in his performance.
Besides some rickety dialogue, this is a derivative story, kind of a twist on Faust, about a young man who agrees to industrial espionage in exchange for money and the high life.
The best thing is getting to stare at Liam Hemsworth. And stare I did.
