Review for Paranoia

This is one of the worst films I have ever seen. Now, I have watched some awful films in my time. Some made on a micro budget with awful special effects, some made out of love, but technically awful. Some just bad. This is one of those films that doesn't have to be this bad. It really doesn't and it really shouldn't be this bad. But it is.

Paranoia tells the story of big business corruption between two mobile phone giants headed by Nicholas Wyatt (Gary Oldman) and Augustine Goddard (Harrison Ford). Between them is a young and hungry rising star Adam (Liam Hemsworth) who is blackmailed by Wyatt to infiltrate Goddard's company and bring him all the secrets of the new phone they
are working on. So far, so Wall Street.

Adam agrees and within a matter of days is given his own team to work on a secret project for Goddard. He also meets Emma (Amber Heard) who becomes to token love interest and Adam's ticket to getting access to the top secret lab where all the plans will be released. But who is playing who in this cat and mouse game where no one can really win.

Just look at that cast!

Just look at it!

I mean, there are productions that didn't cost $35 million who wish they could have a cast like this. This was Oldman and Ford's first film together since the awesome Airforce One and yet these two Oscar-nominated actors look completely lost. Maybe it is because the film is not focused on them, but every time they are on the screen I weep at how dull and lifeless they both are. Oldman's cockney accent may well be his actual accent, but it just didn't work and after seeing him work his way up to A-Level status this was such a step down.

Hemsworth and Heard have no chemistry together and I simly do not buy Hemsworth as any kind of technical genius. Not one who lives in a squalid apartment with his sick dad (played by Richard Dreyfuss, one of the few bright sparks in the film) and still able to obtain the Mens Fitness physique that I would kill for. Heard is just boring and even the love/betrayal angle was pointless.

The plot was your typical betrayal film that I have seen many times better than this. I'm sure that maybe a worker in his first week could be assigned his own project, but would that really happen? Really? The twists in the middle and the end are so convoluted that it would make even M.Night call them 'lame'.

Paranoia is a waste of a great cast and a waste of my time and anyone who may have been suckered in by the potential that this film promised. I think that is what offends me most about this film. When I see Sharkoctopus vs. The Space Ninja I know I'm going to get an awful film. When I see 'Starring Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford' I expect something good or at least something watchable... but maybe that's just my paranoia.