Firewall MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +3 Content: -2

Harrison Ford, Virginia Madsen, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Robert Patrick, with Robert Forster and Alan Arkin. Action/suspense. Written by Joe Fort. Directed by Richard Loncraine.

Good guy Jack Stanfield (Harrison Ford) is a trusted computer security executive for a prestigious banking institute. Bad guy Bill Cox (Paul Bettany) has been studying Jack and his family for the better part of a year. This white collar thief has been methodically infiltrating every aspect of Jacks identity, and now Cox is ready to make good on his investment. See where were going?

Im sure real computer security experts would find the plot laughable, but then again, if they knew everything, how come they cant prevent us mere mortals from getting new software viruses each and every week? My point: maybe a bank exec and a thief can siphon off $100 million by way of a computer hack job. Feasible or not, Firewall is engrossing and intense, a true actioneer for grownups.

That said, be cautioned: filmmakers find it too tempting to portray a psycho-thief these days without revealing his gruesome side. Most of Hitchcocks villains were menacing without being allowed to bombard the audiences with excessive bloodlust. But filmgoers have come to expect, perhaps even desire the depiction of bloody gunfights, and even bloodier fistfights from todays cinematic thrillmeisters. And director Richard Loncraine makes sure we get them. And even though Mr. Ford is reaching Grandpahood, hes still an action figure, so he gets to go all fisticuffs with the movies nutcase. Theres even a fierce, drawn-out finale fight scene that has our sexagenarian hero pushed over balconies and through windows, then stomped on, all barely winding him. Mr. Ford is like your dads Timex he just keeps on ticking.

While I appreciate Harrison Fords screen persona, his character in most of his films profane God, then use the name Jesus as if it were designed for the soul purpose of relieving frustration. Though this writer has little right to throw stones at other glass houses, still the steady practice of incorporating irreverence to our Creator in nearly every film an actor makes deserves mentioning. It says something about that performers philosophy of spiritual matters. Here the lead does it at least ten times.

Preview Reviewer: Phil Boatwright
Distributor: Warner Brothers