2. Jack Stanfield - Firewall (2006)
This is it; the precise moment I realized that Harrison Ford had gotten old and his action hero days were firmly behind him. Strange that this film with its minimal running and strained tussles is less convincing than Ford swinging onto tanks and surviving nuked fridges two years later in Crystal Skull. The problem with Richard Loncraine's would-be thriller is that it does nothing but draw unfavorable attention to the fact that Ford's prime is well behind him. The scope is so greatly reduced that his character's heroics are whittled to struggling against a bunch of home invaders led by Paul Bettany. The man who once took on the Third Reich, the Empire and Sigourney Weaver's scowl can't even hold his own against bottom-barrel thugs. The action is unconvincing and Ford, who's suffered from back issues in recent years, looks visibly uncomfortable and taxed in the more physical stuff. The worst part is that this sense of diminished spirit extends to his performance too, that feels like it might have been better suited to someone like Kurt Russell. This is also one of those films that becomes 'The Harrison Ford Show' and the moment he's in the spotlight, with nothing else to distract us, we are forced to consider how ill-at-ease he is in the role. There's not a moment of Firewall I ever believed, but it almost seems like the bigger implausibility to think that Ford couldn't pull anything at all to emotionally hang on to. I'd argue this is the least interesting work he's ever done in a film, and it strikes me as particularly desperate and painful to watch.