PARANOIA

year: 2013 cast: Liam Hemsworth, Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, Josh Holloway rating: **

During the opening narration, we learn that America is no longer to be trusted… Except for the "victims" on other side of the tracks, a safe enough place where you can see the bad guys coming. And by the time Liam Hemsworth, as tech climber Adam Cassidy, begins to feel someone’s out to get him… which is called PARANOIA… the film’s title makes little to no sense: he knows exactly who’s after him (and why he's being sought after) and so does the audience.

The first half is WALL STREET meets… THE HANGOVER. The latter because Adam and his pals, after getting fired from a crooked cell phone corporation run by Gary Oldman’s Nicolas Wyatt, spend an insane amount of company money getting drunk at a nightclub, and the next day suffers the half-remembered consequences: He’s blackmailed into going undercover to seek out a groundbreaking new idea from Wyatt’s main competitor, Jock Goddard, played by Harrison Ford, with an awkward looking shaved head and the vulnerability of a lost puppy, counterbalancing Oldman’s sinister sleaze, wants to make the world a better place. And so our hero, who has fallen in love with one of Goddard’s employees, begins to question himself: Here’s where a few chase scenes occur leading to a rushed climax where the twist is not very surprising.

For a thriller, PARANOIA has a decent setup but falls by the wayside once Adam gets in too deep. And that’s just the problem… No matter how much trouble he’s facing, the initial decision to max out a company credit card on booze remains his most risky endeavor. How’s that for thrilling?