As dismaying as it is disheartening, "Firewall" is one of the least original, least interesting and least necessary films I have seen in ages. This is the umpteenth version of that old chestnut about a bank executive whose family is held hostage while he is forced to assist the kidnappers in robbing the bank. However, as this is the 21st Century, the modus operandi of these criminals involves not guns and masks but coded passwords and computerized money transfers. One would have to be the biggest computer geek going to understand even half of what the characters are doing at any given time in this film, though it scarcely matters since the story itself is so distressingly hackneyed that one is already watching the screen with an eye half-cocked to one's watch anyway.<br /><br />Poor Harrison Ford, looking like he hasn't slept in days (and this is BEFORE his family is kidnapped), seems to sense that he is indeed at the nadir of his career and thus turns in a performance that is so lacking in energy and interest that he seems more bored with the material than we are. Paul Bettany has some effective moments as the smarmy criminal ringleader, but none of the other actors is given even a fighting chance with this wretched excuse for a screenplay. The only truly pressing question raised by "Firewall" is why anyone even bothered to make this film in the first place.