Paranoia Reviews

Since this movie has a rather lame reputation, I wasn't expecting much but since there was a pretty cool cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, eventually, it was indeed pretty lame. Basically, it was one of these thrillers trying to convince the viewers that everything displayed could be possible with a lot of useless fancy visual gimmicks but it was utterly unconvincing and boring. Furthermore, like his brother Chris in 'Blackhat', Liam Hemsworth was such a poor choice to play a nerd. He wasn't helped by the fact that his character was just rather poorly written. Indeed, it could have been interesting if they wrote the main character as a greedy ambitious douchebag ready to do anything to reach success but, by choosing to show him so innocent, this character became terribly bland and spineless. To make things worse, the ending was just so ridiculous. I mean, the guy had pretty much nothing, yet,  somehow, he managed to start up his own company with a fancy  office in Brooklyn but there is no way any bank would support his project if he had no money or any other assets. Anyway, to conclude, pretty much nothing worked in this movie, it was another missed opportunity for Liam Hemsworth to launch his career as a leading man and the damned thing is really not worth  a look.

When one watches a movie like Paranoia, one cannot help but hypothesize what would drive a person to make a film this aggressively terrible. These kind of things do not happen on accident; this film must have been made with the intention of being hilariously bad. Paranoia is as bad as a film can get, and yet, it is 100% watchable, thanks entirely to its extremely successful unintentional comedy.

The film doesn't make a lick of sense- so much so that the actors themselves seem noticeably confused at various intervals. That is why it pains me to tell you the plot of this movie. As best as I can figure out, a young tech wiz named Adam Cassidy has been asked by a powerful CEO, named Nicholas Wyatt, to steal information from another powerful CEO named Augustine Goddard. However, Goddard also wants Adam's help stealing information from Wyatt. But please don't quote me on this, as the entire movie is an intelligible mess.

This is an odd kind of review to write, because while Paranoia is indeed awful, and it completely lacks any of the important elements of a good thriller (or even a mediocre thriller), it excels in the area of comedy (albeit, unintentional comedy). So while I am absolutely flunking this movie, it's a totally enjoyable watch, especially with friends.

Take for instance, Adam's relationship with a woman named Emma Jennings (a character that has probably set feminism back 40 years), which covers all the typical romance cliches, and is completely unbelievable. Or, you can laugh in amusement as the camera zooms in on a security lens for the umpteenth time. Or keep a running tally of how many scenes Liam Hemsworth gets to take off his shirt (at least 6 in the first half hour). And speaking of running, Hemsworth flails his arms out (akin to a jet plane) whenever he is running in this film (best highlighted in a chase scene that had me laughing so hard, I had tears streaming down my face).

There's also the script, which is simply crammed with lines that a 7 year-old could have written (and written better). Also ripe for mocking is the film's apparent message: Lie to your girlfriend, break the law, and abuse work funds, and your life will easily improve (and you'll still get to keep your girlfriend). Another laugh-worthy bit occurs when a secondary character is hit maliciously by a car, but appears shortly afterwards with only a rash-like scar on his cheek. There's also a plot twist, which seems so predictable and irrelevant, that it took me several moments to realize that it was actually meant as a twist. And then, of course, there's the acting.

To be fair, not all the performances are bad. Gary Oldman as Nicholas Wyatt is actually very good, making a perfectly menacing antagonist, while still being enjoyable to watch. Harrison Ford as Augustine Goddard is passable, though any other actor could have portrayed this character (I would also note that Ford has never seemed older than he does in this film).

The rest of the cast fares less well. Liam Hemsworth cannot make any of his lines sound smooth or natural, and despite being the protagonist, he grows fiercely unlikable by the film's third act. Amber Heard's role requires looking pretty (and clearly, there was very little emphasis on emotions or dialogue performance). There are also numerous supporting characters, whose names we never pick up on that are just as bad.

The score by "Junkie XL" (a name that hurt me to write), is entirely subdued, and likely for the better. When the music actually can be heard, it's very synthetic and ultimately indifferent.

Yes, Paranoia is a disaster, but rarely will you see a disaster that is so enjoyable. I laughed quite a bit during this film- much more than during the majority of today's intended comedies. So, for those of you wanting a real review, here it is: This movie is rubbish. Paranoia plays out like an extended commercial for Apple (and occasionally like a music video), and there are plot holes big enough to comfortable live in. But here's the review for those of you who just want a good time: Watch this movie. You'd be hard-pressed to find a film worse than Paranoia, but the laughs justify the film's immeasurable problems.

An espionage thriller is supposed to be engaging, full of twists and turns that you didn't see coming. Everything about 2013's Paranoia was visible right from the moment the movie began. It's really too bad that the audience is forced to sit through a mess of techno-babble and campy acting in order to realize this film is going nowhere.

A young hotshot tech employee falls into a grand scheme of lies and corruption, spearheaded by the two biggest billionaires in the industry. When he is tasked with stealing insider trade info, the young superstar must learn to play the part even if it could cost him everything.

When you put together of a film of this nature, it is expected that their be cheap thrills and little pay-off. This films talks about being original and being innovative, yet it does nothing to remain fresh and entertaining and generally succumbs to the same old cliches we have seen before. That starts with pretty boy Hemsworth playing a young hot shot looking to score big money and quickly. This is always the front first move in order to make us identify with the main character, because it paints them automatically as callous and superficial. Who really wants to buy into that world? Certainly not an audience hoping to be entertained by it. The second cliche was aiming the techo-babble at people who would see right through it. Fast talking about a bunch of things that are meaningless don't help sell your one dimensional characters, it just drags the film further away from having any emotional investment.

The biggest mistake that occurs in this film is even having Hemsworth or Heard in it at all. Amber Heard can act, she has proven that before in films such as the Rum Diary and The Informers. Except in this film everything that came out of either of their mouths seemed like a pathetic attempt at a romantic subplot in order to give the audience some much needed reason to care about these characters at all. The only reason we kept watching is too see Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman share a little bit of screentime together and that really wasn't even worth the near two hours this film runs at.

Everything about this film has been before, from the elaborate attempted heist, to the shady ruthless businessmen who will stop at nothing to be on top of the world and of course the pretty faces taking on the lead roles. Paranoia definitely doesn't serve itself as a delicious treat about how technology can be our worst enemy and used against us, it just reminds us that sometimes the younger generations are too caught up in the moment and fail to see how a good social interaction can be much more beneficial then trying to get to know someone via a mobile device. Perhaps even digging that far into the film was too much of a stretch, but that was perhaps the only message this film delivered, money and power aren't everything and the moment we loose touch with reality is the moment we lose track of who we are all together.

So far this probably the worst film of 2013, because of all the cliched elements involved in making a film that no one cares about after the first twenty minutes. The younger Hemsworth proves to be a stale draw and for much of the film he serves as the middle man between two actors who at least tried to add a little spark to a film that otherwise had none. Liam Hemsworth is not leading man quality the way his brother his. Perhaps it is not entirely his fault, some of it lies on the writers for boxing his character in so early on with a terrible opening narration and then a downward spiral that perhaps no actor could have saved. The younger Hemsworth could prove to be an asset to a film if they stray away from the pretty boy antics and into the zone of characterization for the young man. Definitely stay away from this film, it makes absolutely no attempt to more then a run of the mill espionage thriller, and espionage usually means well thought out and meticulous.