Harrison Ford - Time for a comeback?

For a man who was once in upper echelon of A-List Hollywood movie stars, Harrison Ford has been drifting around in mediocre films since the early 1990s. From wallowing in mid-grade Tom Clancy Adaptations ( I thought Alec Baldwin was better for the Jack Ryan character) to meandering thrillers (Random Hearts, 6 Days 7 Nights were dreadful, and The Fugitive, Air Force One and K19 were sloppy at best), other than 'What Lies Beneath', Zemeckis' technically interesting, but only midly amusing, take on Hitchcock with Ford in the villian role, he hasn't made a good film since he dominated the 1980s. His last great films were debatably Polanski's 'Frantic', Weir's 'The Mosquito Coast' and Spielberg's 'The Last Crusade'.

Ford now has two projects in works the at the moment (If you don't count the on-again/off-again 4th Indiana Jones installment). First is a period thriller, called 'Manhunt', where he plays a military man tracking down John Wilkes Booth 12 days after the Lincoln assassination. That one is only at the script-writing stage, but sounds interesting.

The second project is 'Firewall', a heist movie shot in Canada with Paul Bettany, Virginia Madsen and Robert Patrick. (From the IMDb: "With his family held for ransom, the head security executive for a global bank is commanded to loot his own business for millions in order to ensure his wife and children's safety. He then faces the demanding task of thwarting the kidnapper's grand scheme, which makes him look guilty of embezzlement.")

Hopefully Ford is now at an age (63) where he could pull out some fascinating performances that buck the gruff and charming leading man, and head into darker territory. Something along the likes of Nick Nolte in The Good Thief, James Coburn in Affliction or Robert Mitchum in Dead Man.