The violent, steamy techno-thriller "Swordfish" is a crowd-pleasing return to form by producer Joel Silver, who partners here with the prolific Jonathan D. Krane and rising director Dominic Sena ("Gone in 60 Seconds"). The Warner Bros. release has a good shot at snagging sizable early-summer booty as audiences schooled in "The Matrix" will recognize a kindred project with plenty of bang-bang action and fireball-erupting highlights. The screenplay credited to Skip Woods ("Thursday") is not bug-free and fudges things along with indecipherable computer programmer/hacker lingo, but it offers R-rated flourishes and successfully revs up one's nervous system.

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