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Grade: D

Verdict: Silly summer overkill.

Details: Starring John Travolta, Halle Berry and Hugh Jackman. Directed by Dominic Sena. Rated R for sex, nudity, violence and profanity. One hour, 39 minutes.

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Review: David Manning from the Ridgefield Press would probably say, "Swordfish" is "another winner."

Of course, as a Newsweek reporter revealed this week, David Manning is a PR-generated, made-up movie critic. Maybe that's OK. "Swordfish" is a made-up movie, constructed out of Jerry Bruckheimer's old manual, "Summer Blockbusters For Dummies."

Basically, "Swordfish" is about the money shot. In this case, it's a bus dangling from a helicopter that tears through the concrete canyons of Los Angeles like Godzilla rampaging through Tokyo. Unfortunately, the bus bit doesn't come until the film's final 15 minutes. That means you have to sit through the rest of the movie.

And what is that? A computer-nerd flick (lots of lit-up screens and furious typing) trying desperately to pass itself of as a sex 'n' violence high-tech thriller.

Give "Swordfish" this: the opening is a doozy. First, there's John Travolta as some kind of high-powered mystery guy, sounding off on movies by casually dropping film-buff references to Lumet and Pacino and "Dog Day Afternoon." Then the movie switches gears and we're in the middle of a hostage crisis with Travolta as the hostage-taker. The attempted police rescue, led by Don Cheadle, goes wrong and a lot of people and cars and TV cameras blow up real good. (The camera seems to be floating in slo-mo, like a dream of an explosion.)

Skip back to "4 days earlier." Travolta and his honey, Halle Berry, want to steal billions of dollars from a government fund of laundered drug money. Why they want the money is left unexplained until later in the film. It's supposed to be tantalizing; it isn't.

Anyway, to carry out their scheme, Travolta recruits ex-con Hugh Jackman, "the most dangerous hacker in America," to help out. The deal? A cool $10 million that will gain Jackman custody of his little daughter.

And that's about all there is to it. With an $80 million budget, director Dominic Sena ("Gone in 60 Seconds") tosses in meaningless and superfluous car chases, meaningless and superfluous shoot-outs, and, most of all, meaningless and superfluous sex stuff.

You've probably already heard about Berry's topless reading scene, but there's also a blonde named Helga who performs a gratuitous sex act. "Swordfish's" mindlessness is so blatant it's hilarious. Poor Jackman, who has Russell Crowe potential, looks stunned - as if he would really like a Hollywood career but had no idea it would involve doing something this stupid.

Berry shows lots of skin and has the determined expression of a beauty who wants to prove she can open a movie. Cheadle coasts.

Finally, there's Travolta, full of the over-the-top, unpredictable swagger that was so effective in films like "Face/Off" and "Get Shorty." This time, he's just going through the motions. His idea of "character" means a return to the "Pulp Fiction" hairstyle and a wormy wisp of a goatee that looks for all the world like Groucho's painted-on moustache.

Speaking of Groucho, the filmmakers do throw in a nice movie in-joke. The seemingly oblique title comes from the Marx Brothers comedy, "Horse Feathers." It's the password/punchline Groucho and Chico used.

It meant something then. It means nothing now.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution