Can a middle-aged computer security expert outwit a bunch of tech-savvy crooks who are holding his family hostage and want him to hack into his bank's mainframe to steal a lot of money? And can he save his family and the dog too while he's at it?

Sure he can, if he's Harrison Ford. Yes, the same guy who played Han Solo in the "Star Wars" series and the whip-cracking Indiana Jones in those three movies by Steven Spielberg.

Ably directed by Briton Richard Loncraine, the man responsible for the romantic comedy "Wimbledon", "Firewall" marks the return of Ford as an action star after a long gap. His last such outing was the dismal "Hollywood Homicide".

Ford is computer security specialist Jack Stanfield, whose world comes crashing down one rainy evening as a gang of criminals led by the suave and nasty Bill Cox (Paul Bettany) takes his family - wife Beth (Virginia Madsen) and two kids (Carly Schroeder and Jimmy Bennett) - hostage and asks him to steal $100 million from the bank he works for.

As the goons monitor his every move with all sorts of fancy gadgets, Stanfield has to go to bank and try to hack into the computers to get the money. And to make things tougher, the bank's just been taken over and Stanfield no longer has much access to its complete computer network.

Like most other modern action thrillers, "Firewall" is loaded with clichés - the crooks have all kinds of hi-tech gizmos that allow them to snoop on Stanfield, there is the obligatory failed escape by the family, a nasty goon who doesn't like the kids and a sensitive goon who does like them, and the villain is a cool blonde Englishman.

But on the plus side, director Loncraine's pacing is just fine and Ford, Madsen and Bettany as well as the supporting cast of Robert Patrick, Robert Forster and Alan Arkin are great in their roles, even if they don't really have much to do in terms of acting.

Sometimes though, Loncraine tries too hard to be hip, throwing in hi-tech touches like loads of grainy footage shot by webcams and having the hero using his daughter's iPod for a nifty bit of computer hacking!

"Firewall" will never be ranked alongside Ford's classic action thrillers like "Patriot Games" or "Air Force One", but it's a fun ride while it lasts.