User reviews

"The lights always look brighter across the river." After saying the wrong things, Adam (Hemsworth) an up-and-coming employee at a powerful corporation finds himself and his friends out of a job. After the owner Nicolas Wyatt (Oldman) recruits him to spy on rival Jock Goddard (Ford) to find out what his company is coming up with Adam finds himself stuck in the middle of a dangerous game. When he wants out he realizes that it's not just his life is threatened unless he completes his task. I was looking forward to watching this for two reasons. Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman, also Richard Dreyfuss is in this but in a lesser role. I cannot recall a movie they have been in that has been bad (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was bad but its still Indiana Jones so I can't hate it and I blame Lucas for that anyway). I did find out how to mess up a movie with those two legendary actors...add baby Thor (Liam Hemsworth). I'm not saying he was a bad actor in this because it wasn't terrible but when you have those two in a movie and you make baby Thor the main focus you have screwed up somewhere. I'd compare this to the movie Son Of No One in the way that you have Ray Liotta and Al Pacino and you make Channing Tatum the focus. Nothing personal against Hemsworth or Tatum but when you have such high caliber actors why waste them? As far as this movie goes the scenes with Oldman and Ford are amazing as expected, as far as the rest goes it was slow, a little boring and not exciting at all. With the plot being about the seedy underworld of the cellphone app industry though you don't have much to work with. Overall, a movie that could have been so much better but ended up being almost not worth seeing. It pains me to do this but I give it a C.

If you watch this movie because it has Gary Oldman or Harrison Ford, you won't be alone, but you may be in for a disappointment, I'm sorry to say. Firstly they don't have much screen time and the time they do have seems to have been filmed in a hurry with little effort put into it by anyone.

The main character is that of Liam Hemsworth, who plays Adam Cassidy; the best he has going for him is that he a good looking guy. I didn't find the character very convincing, unlike the part of his dad played by Richard Dreyfuss, but his lines might as well have been written on a napkin. What a waste of talent by writer and director here.

What you might like are the fancy cars and great settings as well as the secondary roles of Kevin and Allison, played respectively by Lucas Till and Angela Sarafyan. It's all so sad that a plot, especially the ending, could have been so much more, I could see the possibilities I did not see on screen.

Thankfully, Gary Oldman can make almost any film bearable and his portrayal here of a ruthless, corrupt CEO is just about the only thing that this derivative movie has going for it. He manages to infuse a one-dimensional character with at least one more dimension.

The script is so full of hackneyed clichés that I felt like I was watching a Dan Brown novel. You have to assume that the writer's entire experience of the corporate world is based on a combination of Occupy Movement manifestos and Oliver Stone movies. Liam Hemsworth has evidently starred in something call the Hunger Games where, I have to assume, he was hired for his looks and not his acting chops.

August is usually the doldrums when it comes to movie releases and this dud simply proves the rule to which Blue Jasmine is the exception.

Cassidy and his friends work for Wyatt mobile and are pitching a new idea to the boss. He doesn't care for it and Cassidy gets arrogant. They're fired but for some reason he still has an active expense account credit card and they party that night. He also meets the pretty Emma.

The next day, Wyatt wants to meet with Cassidy. He will get him a job with his childhood competitor Goddard so that he can steal Goddard's next big idea. He's got a behavioral specialist on board and sets Cassidy up with the good life and trains him. Cassidy gets the job and Goddard is impressed with his idea. And as it turns out Emma also works for Goddard. Everything is going fine until Wyatt's people become more pushy and want him to steal the future device from Goddard's corporate vault. Of course he's caught and with that Goddard wants to buy Wyatt's company or put him in jail, but Cassidy has some plans of his own.

Paranoia has a lot going for a it- a decent budget, impressive cast, an OK story, good visuals. It even starts with some important discussion about how America has completely ceased being the country of opportunity it once was. The direction is poor and the script could have used some work. The movie's title is wrong or if they intended to highlight the moment of Cassidy's paranoia they failed. As a whole, emotionally, this movie is pretty flat. There should be a far greater sense of dread and danger. Perhaps it's because they went with a PG-13 rating. As an R-rated movie this could have been better. I get the sense that they aimed for a mature teen audience looking for a serious movie. And perhaps it would work for that crowd- not sure. Paranoia had a lot of potential. I wanted to like this movie as the cast does a good job, except for Oldman's and Davidtz's obnoxious British accent. But the director did his best and succeeded at frustrating the audience and not giving us as good a movie as it should have been.

This movie is not gripping {Inception}. This movie will not keep you guessing {Now You See Me}. This movie is not Oldman/Ford material and why they took the job is beyond me. If you are 25 or younger it's a great date movie (because there's time to make out as the film drags in several spots). It doesn't twist and turn and the revelations are minimal and far from making the audience gasp. Four out of ten stars may be generous. Good-looking stars and block-busting legends does not a good movie make; much less a great movie. Though I would like to get hold of that ring-tone. Character development was sloppy and dialog was quite pedantic.

"Paranoia" is one of those films that are flawed, brainless but entertaining. The story of the ambitious twenty-seven year old Adam Cassidy with debts in the hospital for the expensive treatment of his father that in a couple of days becomes an important executive of a corporation competitor of the company that he was fired is totally absurd. He uses US$ 16,000 in the corporation card to party and what would he expect? Therefore, the tight spot that he is in is caused by a ridiculous situation. The coincidence of having one night stand with Emma Jennings is another unbelievable part of the screenplay. The unethical Adam Cassidy should have been in prison for a long period, since his lack of character and manipulation are disgusting. Emma returning to him is also incredible for an intelligent woman that was used. But forgetting these ridiculous situations, the viewer can enjoy the beauty of Amber Heard; the always great Gary Oldman and Richard Dreyfuss; see Josh "Sawyer" Holloway once again; and a good cast with Harrison Ford, Embeth Davidtz, Julian McMahon and Liam Hemsworth. Shutdown your brain and you may have a good time. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Conexão Perigosa" ("Dangerous Connection")

PARANOIA is one of those corporate suspense thrillers about rival businesses, spying, and the like. All of these films seem to owe a debt to WALL STREET in the depiction of fresh-faced newcomers going under the wings of seasoned and cynical professionals.

Sadly, there isn't much to get excited about in PARANOIA, a distinctly average type film. The writing is of bog-standard quality and the most interesting thing about it is the sheer number of familiar faces playing in support: Embeth Davidtz, Julian McMahon, Josh Holloway, even Richard Dreyfuss in a minor put pivotal role. Sadly they have little to do in a storyline that feels devoid of suspense and is really very ordinary.

One of the the film's biggest flaws is in the central casting of the inexperienced Liam Hemsworth. Hemsworth fails to bring any charisma to his part and in fact feels wooden throughout, and certainly out of his depth compared to the seasoned pros surrounding him. On the other hand, there's a nice turn from Gary Oldman who successfully manages to capture some of that fire he had in the 1990s. Harrison Ford looks incredibly old but is pretty good in a cast-against-type role.

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.

What a misleading title for a movie? Nobody's even paranoid in this movie at all so calling it Paranoia doesn't really make sense to me. Instead, they could've titled it Generic Conveniences. Know why? Because everything in this movie is written in so conveniently for the characters to succeed in the most generic way. So, I guess you can tell it's not a very likable movie. Before seeing this movie, the premise sounded pretty cool. One guy is spying on a company for a rival company but not everything goes according to plan and then stuff happens. Plus, the CEOs of the companies are played by none other than two of the best actors in the business! We got Gary Oldman, one of the most diverse actors of modern cinema, and Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones & Han Solo: 'nough said). On top of that, it stars Thor's brother, Liam Hemsworth, who's good in The Expendables 2 and The Hunger Games, but this could have been his breakout role as a leading actor! Sadly, it's not.

Hemsworth's character in this movie is so unlikable; the only reason an individual would enjoy him in this movie is because he's an attractive guy. However, his acting in this movie is pretty bad. I found myself comparing him to Taylor Lautner's performance in Abduction but at least with that movie we knew it was gonna be bad. Just as bad as his acting are the choices made by his character. The whole plot is put into motion because he got fired from a company and then he decides to go out clubbing with the credit card that's issued by the company he got fired from that he still luckily has! How stupid is that! And then, through a sequence of events, they choose him of all people to be a spy; this irresponsible guy who just goes out clubbing after he's fired? Wow. The writing in this movie clearly is off-putting, but we'll get to that later. The chicks, too, that Hemsworth gets with in this movie are really weird as well. One tries playing hard to get even though he already got with her, while the other chick tries to seduce him while he's already trying to seduce her. The only semi-redeeming qualities of this movie are that Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford actually try in this movie. It's undeniable that they're phenomenal actors, and they are, for the most part, good in this movie for what they're given. Nonetheless, they're given crap dialogue and stupid plot points. I cannot bag on the writing of this movie enough; it is so bad. The dialogue is unrealistic and not enjoyable, while the plot is so convoluted and uninteresting that I kept wanting to stop watching the movie.

Additionally, the directing of this movie is a huge weakpoint. It looked like a made-for-TV movie from the '90s. The directing and camera-work were horrible. Sometimes there was a person talking but half their face was off the screen. In another sequence, Hemsworth is running like a little girl, flailing his arms around and whatnot. There's no purpose for him to be running like that; who said that was okay? It's funny seeing how stupid it is, but it's not even supposed to be funny. And with it being a spy thriller with convoluted twists, you'd think that it'd be unpredictable, right? Well it's not. It had those cliché moments like when he has to break into a vault and he's failed two out of three attempts, with the next failed attempt triggering the alarms. And then it tries to build tension in that moment, but you already know he's gonna be alright and his last attempt is gonna get through. The movie has no suspense whatsoever, despite trying to be a suspenseful summer thriller. It's not suspenseful because you always know what's gonna happen and don't really even care for the characters. It's not summer because it's boring and uninteresting rather than being fun. And it's not a thriller because there are absolutely no thrills. The only thing remotely okay about this movie are the performances of Gary Oldman and Harrision Ford, and that sometimes even gets old since Ford never gets the chance to say "Get off my plane!" It's not worth seeing in the theatre or even worth renting. It's one of those movies that will be on cable and you'll have to think about if you actually have nothing better to do than invest your time in it. But you'll probably end up passing anyways

This corporate techno thriller is entertaining, nothing spectacular, of course, but nowhere near as bad as many people claim. Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford are the ruthless CEOs of rival cell phones companies. Liam Hemsworth is a young hotshot that works for Oldman's company, but he is fired after a lousy presentation. After spending thousands of dollars of the company's credit card in a nightclub, he is blackmailed by Oldman into getting hired into Ford's company in order to steal the blueprints for their new cell phone. Many more things will happen, including Hemsworth romantic involvement with one of Ford's company marketing head (played by the beautiful Amber Heard). It's good trash, not very believable, but a good time filler, an ideal date movie. There are far worse ways to waste your time.

"Privacy. Absolute myth. There's no such thing."

The film starts off on the wrong foot and never manages to get on track. In the very opening scene you have Liam Hemsworth using voice over narration explaining to us what we are about to see, and you realize that you are going to watch a clichéd unoriginal action thriller. Then there is a scene where Gary Oldman's character is looking at some art pieces with Liam and he mentions how Picasso once said that there are no original ideas, that everything is either copied or stolen. You kind of get a sense of a similar thing going on with this script. Paranoia is an action thriller that seems recycled with no fresh ideas and unfortunately lacks thrills. The script was adapted by Jason Dean Hall (Spread) and Barry Levy (Vantage Point) from Joseph Finder's novel, but nothing about it feels inspiring or original. It is a shame because I was excited to get to see Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman face off once again, but Paranoia easily belongs on my worst films of 2013 list mainly because these talented actors can't do anything to improve a weak script. Paranoia gets half a star for Amber Heard who looks stunning despite not adding anything to the story, and another star for Oldman and Ford's presence alone. I could forgive the uninspiring script if at least this technological thriller actually had some thrills, but it doesn't. There aren't any interesting thrills either and the narrative is pretty straight forward and predictable.

Adam Cassidy (Liam Hemsworth) has been working for an important technological company known as Wyatt Corporation for the past six years. He hasn't been able to ascend the corporate ladder the way he pictured it as he continues to be an entry level employee, but he and his team are expecting a break through when given the opportunity to present their next project to the boss, Nicolas Wyatt (Gary Oldman). The presentation doesn't go as planned and Adam is left unemployed along with the rest of his team. Feeling bad about the way things turned out, Adam invites them to a fancy club where they use the company's credit card. The next day Adam is called back to Wyatt's office as he is confronted for his crime. Taking advantage of Adam's hunger for wealth and power, Wyatt recruits him to spy on his nemesis: Jock Goddard (Harrison Ford). Goddard happens to run another billion dollar tech company which is his biggest competition. Wyatt wants Adam to win Jock's trust and discover what they are working on, and in return he promises him the life he has always dreamed of. Blinded by greed Adam accepts and soon will find himself way in over his head.

Richard Dreyfuss has a small role in this film as well and his presence only reminds us that a film focusing on him or the other secondary characters such as Oldman and Ford, would be so much better. Instead they allow Hemsworth to play the lead role and he simply doesn't have that on screen charisma to carry a film on his own. I don't think he's a bad actor, but he needs stronger material to keep the audience's interest. He is just outclassed in this film by the other talented actors and we are left out wanting to see more of them. Another issue I had with Paranoia is that the plot doesn't make much sense and it is so dull that it allows you to begin to think too much about it and find all sort of holes. Robert Luketic has just directed his third straight flop after the disappointing Killers and The Ugly Truth. I will defend him for 21, which was a film that at least kept me entertained, but his latest efforts have been really disappointing. Paranoia might just top them all; stay away from this film.

I actually throughly enjoyed this film for the most part. The premise wasn't bad by any means and there was alot really good actors in this movie.

I did have few issues this movie however. First this isn't really thriller it plays more as like drama film. Doesn't make it bad but I feel like it was mismarketed. There was hardly any action or twist/turns. Second the movie at time does drag on little bit and feels like some of the scenes they could have honestly did without. And lastly the ending while not terrible or the worst I ever seen I just felt like after everything the big payoff would be lot better then what happens.

Overall it diddn't win any awards for reason and wasn't universally acclaimed but it definitely isnt as bad as it was rated. Def was a watchable movie.

It's not the fastest paced film, but the acting is amazingly good. Liam is believable and excellent in the role. Heard, well, no doubt in my mind she is an excellent actress, and plans her role with perfect amount of allure and I can't help but think she is just being herself... oldman is an amazing actor as of course is for and they both play the parts well. I really can't work out why people don't like it...

Story was good, and not as predictable as one might think.

Definitely worth watching.

A thriller about the dark world of tech business giants, with big shot start like Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford, what could go wrong, right? Well, with this movie, almost everything did. It's slow, boring, repetitive and overall just disappointing.

Adam (Liam Hensworth) is a programmer (I think, because character development apparently wasn't a priority in this movie) who gets stuck in the middle of a feud between two tech giants, Wyatt and Goddard, played by Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford. And that's about as deep as the story goes. There's some background as to the rivalry between Wyatt and Goddard and a hard-to-believe love story between Adam and one of Goddard's executives, but overall, the film feels like an unfinished job, with a lot of potential, but no real charm to it.

I've got to accept the movie has some good things worth mentioning. Gary Oldman is great, as expected, in his limited screen time, and the final scenes are actually pretty good, but all in all this was not a good movie, and I would not recommend it.

First things first: Lukatic is a mediocre director. I enjoyed "21" and "Legally BLonde" as light entertainment. There's no reason to expect "Paranoia" to be anything else. And it isn't.

Overall, the movie is on part with "21" and that's the best that can be said.

"Paranoia" starts off nicely and builds up to a point where it could go anywhere and in a spectacular way. Sure, all those possibilities are predictable but many are also enjoyable. Yet, the movie, all of a sudden, decides to go nowhere.

It stays between a very shallow message against today's social media, an anti-privacy warning and an outcome that is thoroughly predictable, but not in a nice way.

To me, it seems absolutely equal with the big uninteresting flop that "Now You See Me" was. We have the same drive to appear smart and overexplain things in a manner that manages t debunk itself and show that under all the glitter the emperor is naked.

In "Now you See me", the glitter was cheap "wit". Here, we have the wasted skills of Oldman and Ford. However, I'll take Oldman and Ford any day.

With a title like "Paranoia," I expected suspicion, suspense, maybe even a cool chase scene, but this movie not only lacks the characteristics its title suggests, but is really devoid of any depth. It seems to be a vehicle to see Liam Hemsworth shirtless as much as possible, as well as in some gorgeous suits.

Amid a lot of techie razzle-dazzle, the plot is rather thin and predictable and there is absolutely NO character development, except a small amount for Richard Dreyfuss, who seems to be the most interesting character in the movie. It was nice to see him in this role.

Harrison Ford doesn't look good with a shaved head. Reminded me of Mr. Magoo without the glasses.

Not a bad movie, but certainly not a thriller and definitely forgettable

We care about Adam. He's a nice, smart, occasionally reckless guy. And he worries about his dad. He's also from the poor end of town, and as such, is dissed by an ambitious, somewhat self-absorbed Ivy League beauty. Right there, we're invested as an audience in the high stakes challenges that await Adam. More than the script calls for? Maybe, but that doesn't mean this isn't an entertaining film. It IS entertaining.

Also, criticism that the plot lacks sufficient tension may be partly due to its lack of gore. There is danger, there is tension. There's not as much bloodshed as we've come to expect from thrillers. This is more Grisham than grisly, and some viewers, sadly, aren't down with that. I think that's a shame, mainly for those viewers.

Every morsel of Ford and Oldman's screen time is tasty, not surprisingly. And the story's inevitable romance is nice for those of us who appreciate that sort of thing.

I thought about the longstanding rivalry between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs during this film, and it made we wonder what may have happened behind closed doors at Microsoft and Apple that we haven't yet learned about. Probably nothing as diabolical as what these two rivals seem capable of, but it's an intriguing thought.

The visuals are nice throughout (and okay, that includes Hemsworth!), and the soundtrack is spot-on. I liked it.

The acting was not so bad and the subject was beautiful, except for a few places, it was a good movie.One of the movies that doesn't deserve such bad reviews.