During breaks in filming, the cast screened Battlefield Earth.

The good news is, Swordfish is at least as good as I expected it to be. The bad news is, I went in with fairly low expectations.

The story involves a plot to, I don't know, rob a bank or something. John Travolta plays a high-living criminal boss who needs "the world's best hacker" to pull off his next job. By the way, did you know that computer hacking is primarily a matter of assembling some sort of cube on your monitor? Yeah, me neither.

"I keep running but I just can't seem to get out of this movie."

On the good side, the action sequences are imaginative and stylishly staged, if occasionally unmotivated. There were some nice, suspenseful moments, particularly the opening sequence, which starts things off with a bang. Unfortunately the rest of the movie doesn't quite live up to its electrifying start. It would have benefited from a better script. Snappier dialogue, a less predictable plot and character motivations that made a little more sense would have gone a long way towards making this more than just a mindless two hours in the movie theater. Still, as summer action blockbusters go, you could do worse.

"Wait, you're telling me you got paid extra to take your shirt off? Where's my agent?"

John Travolta gives a fine performance as the criminal mastermind and Don Cheadle is good, as usual, in an underwritten part. Hugh Jackman, who really impressed me last year as a reluctant superhero in X-Men, is merely okay here as the down on his luck hacker. Halle Berry is downright bad. Of course, since the main requirement of her role is a good body, perhaps she didn't feel the need to really go all out on the acting part. (Sorry, I feel a lecture coming on.) Her celebrated topless scene is completely irrelevant to the story and not even particularly sexy, though it fits right in with the movie's pattern of casual misogyny and objectification of women.* Why is this necessary? You'd think that the filmmakers might have learned from movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer that women can do more than slip in and out of tight dresses, even in an action movie. (Lecture over. Class dismissed.)

* In the interest of full disclosure, I confess to not really minding when Hugh Jackman took off his shirt.

Gorilla Pants rating: 2.5 out of 4 bananas