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Antitrust

Antitrust

List Price: $14.95
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Antitrust: Corporate America Proved NURV Like Entities Exist
Review: Antitrust: Opposing or intended to regulate business monopolies, such as trusts or cartels, especially in the interest of promoting competition. (Webster's) This movie gets you thinking. Sure, the plots could be better, the actors more aware, and the screenplay more intense and elaborate, but the movie really poses some good, inspiring roles and questions human behavior in capatalism. "How many will be altruistic, and how many will make billions off of your generosity?" Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco CEO's and directors were brought down by insider whistle blowers just like Milo Hoffman (Phillippe). The movie gives a realistic portrayal of some CEO's tricks of how to keep from being caught, and what it ultimately means if you decide to blow the whistle on them.

"You're a one or a zero, alive or dead." In the binary computer world of business, Gary Winston (Robbins) is trying to capitalize on other's inventions and knowledge, as well as their time, money, and careers, to further his profits and control within and without his company NURV. Robbins does a fine job with his part, and looks the part as well (Similar look in the film to Bill Gates, as intended.) The story is played out in a pleasing way, and grabs your attention after the introductory period, about 25 minutes long, and goes until the last minute or so. The story is real to life, and the actors try (and fail at points) to fully ingage their interest and full ability into their roles. Peter Howitt did a great job in deciding which scenes to keep and which to discard from the theatrical version, as seen in the commentary on the DVD. The use of directors from James Bond films, and The Matrix helped the aesthetics of the film as well.

Overall, it is a good film that can be seen again, and is worth your time. I also wonder, since the film was made in 2000 and released in 2001, how many people saw the movie, and were inspired to finally blow the whistle, as 2001 and 2002 marked Corporate Amaerica's worst bankruptcies and business frauds in history. I just wonder.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: one of Phillippe's best
Review: i'm not a big fan of Ryan Phillippe, but he was really good in this role as a computer geek who gets a shot at working for this guy who he and his friend don't like. Tim Robbins enters him into his world of money making and designing software that can change the future and then something happens, his best friend gets murdered. Could it be Robbins? or someone else who hired the hit on his friend. Then he goes threw all these hoops and jumps threw him in order to seek the truth. Can his girlfriend be in the mix too, as well as all of everybody in the whole bulding. Phillippe turns to Racheal Leigh Cook and they try to figure out whats going on, but is Cook really who she says she is or is she working for Robbins as well. Entertaining from start to finish. Never lets go. A sort of creepy geeky bad guy performance by Robbins and a good paranoid performance by Phillippe. 3 stars

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Worth watching! Despite flaws movie is terric, suspenseful!
Review: Did the characters seem believable in this movie? Let's see- Ryan Phillippe, the ultimate "pretty boy" playing a computer genius, come on! Still, if you can keep from focusing on certain details and just watch this movie for its entertainment value, this is a good film.
The themes throughout the movie speak about important topics such as using talents for good instead of just working for material purposes and other ethical questions. I found the storyline about how computer information should be made readily available to everyone instead of a tool for monopolistic individuals (Bill Gates, definitely!) quite intriguing I do not really believe any of the events that took place could actually happen, but the object of must stories in books or movies is to create a fictional setting and have compelling characters, creative storytelling, etc. unless the events are based on actual events. I would compare this movie to WESTWORLD where the technological advances are beyond present day capabilities, but most aspects of present day society are similar to those of the late twentieth century/ early twenty-first century. I found the movie suspenseful and couldn't stop watching it until I got to the end. I cannot give the same approval to the majority of movies being made now.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Murders In Geekdom
Review: Anti Trust is a highly enjoyable above average thriller that offers a lot and keeps its pace till the very end, unlike many thrillers these days that start with a lot of promise, only to lose it half way through.
The story of a computer genuis geek Ryan Phillipe, joining a powerful and 'hip' computer firm ,founded by the equally geek, genuis but greedy Tim Robbins to develop a new state of the art, money making software. Greed and stiff competition lead to murder, and it is up to our young hero to unravel the mystery and expose the criminals. This is all filmed with a unrelenting pace that is guaranteed to keep you at the edge of your seat.
Ryan Phillipe is a good actor, a talent that should be invested more in by directors and producers, while Tim Robbins, is of course one of the best actors around, and he plays the computer boss to perfection.The angelic beauty Brit Claire Forlani, provides the female lead, and is quite good, as the deceptive love interest. Rachel Leigh Cook,although billed as a second female lead, has a supporting minor role that is very much underdeveloped in my opinion.
Director Peter Howitt is the Ron Howard of British cinema. A TV star in late 80s early 90s with mega hit Liverpudian sitcom Bread, he moved successfully to directing few years back to do the very well made romantic 'What If' fantasy Sliding Doors, up to his latest release, the Rowan Atkinson tailor made feature Johnny English.
He has a cameo as a homeless man in the film. Although this I find unnecessary pretentiousness from directors nowadays to appear in cameos, it does not take away anything from the film. When Hitchock appeared in his films, he did it in a very original way, as if each time taunting the viewer to 'spot him', while Scorsese regularily appears in his films in a tongue in cheek manner (from playing the psychotic murderer in Taxi Driver to appearing for few seconds as a family man dressed for dinner in Gangs of New York).Yet this practice has become a staple of many directors, other that Howitt, I recall Todd Phillips who also likes to make appearances in his films, as the toe sucking weirdo in Road Trip in a surreal and funny scene,and most recently in Old School.
Having said all that, Peter Howitt's cameo notwithstanding, he is a very talented director that I hope would make many good films in the future.
So back to Anti Trust, whether you write software between commercials or you still associate the word 'mouse' with cute little rodents, you will still enjoy this film immensely, a well made underrated thriller that is worth your dollars.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: How does anyone find this good?
Review: Phillipe is the worst actor ever, he shows no emotion whatsoever. And the reviewer who says it is a "veiled" shot at Microsoft might want to read the paper a little more. The entire movie is a shot at Microsoft. Rachel Leigh Cook has ten lines, so how can you say she is a great actress? This movie is poorly written, poorly acted, and if that wasnt bad enough, very poorly directed. If you really want to see it, wait till it is on HBO and waste two hours, like I did.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Can't trust anyone
Review: What would you do if you got handed a dream job? Would you take it even though your friends thought strongly against it? Milo Hoffman, played by Ryan Phillippe, is a genius programmer and finds himself in this situation. He gets commissioned to work for a software company. This seems to be a great opportunity at first. He gets suspicious of the company he is now working for, after the mysterious death of his best friend. When he tries to find out why his friend was murdered he soon realizes he can't trust anyone. With the help of his 'true' friends he devises a plan to break open the dark secret of the company's success. This movie was a thrilling chess match. The plot seemed to be realistic. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the movie, that's why I give it 5 stars!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Anti Trust
Review: I think this was a solid movie, if not a bit campy with the Bill Gates look-alike. All irony aside, Tim Robbins plays the part well of a lumbering computer dweeb who lost the meaning of chips and dips on a Saturday night; it seems his character, in the whirlwind of multi-billion dollar success, was more misled by bad buisiness partners than he was diabolical. In fact, the way he played it at the end (albeit, a bit contrived) made it seem that he didn't have the where-with-all to actually order a man to murder someone else. In deed, he seemed more driven by the people who surrounded him, which would explain the anger in his character's portrayal.
Ryan Phillippe looks the part of a cute, curly-haired kid who just doesn't have a clue...that is until Act III: at which point he runs the show...what a pity the writers made him that way; many of the "Geeks" I know are stupendously intelligent as well as being paranoid to a fault, much like Milo's murdered friend Teddy. Good names, though. However, I thought the Internet hits graph, at the end, in the garage, was a bit of overkill.
Considering that the megopolis of the computer industry's brain-child was exclusively geared at surveiling the "Geeks," I thought that the cavalier attitude toward computer genius was overplayed with a sort of in-your-face name calling melieu.
Otherwise, the script seemed well put together and the movie paced fairly well...I wasn't bored.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good Show, Bad ending!
Review: This was all in all a great computer show. Starring Ryan Phillipe, Tim Robbins, Rachael leigh Cook (the only reson that I watched it), and Claire Fornali.
Gary (Robbins), head of a corp. called NURV, developes the idea for a way to comunicate through every type of multimedia at any time called SYNAPSE. Lisa (Cook), plays one of Gary's most loyal employees. Milo (Phillipe) is a computer genius, who is part of this club in a garage with his friends Teddy and Brian, where they try and find out what makes certain organizations so BIG. Gary calls up Milo and asks him to come and work for him. Milo excepts. One night Milo comes home to his girlfriend ( Fornali) crying to tell him that his friend Teddy's been killed. Milo is crushed, of course he doesn't know that Gary is behind it. In his journey her also befriends Lisa. Milo is doing so late-night-snooping around the NURV building one night and finds something he wishes he never had. Gary has private info. on everyone at NURV and he also waches every kid on the computer and kills anyone that comes close to putting him out of buisiness. That's how Teddy was killed. In his findings, he discovers that Lisa was molested at age 7 by her father. As her tells Lisa this, she pretends not to beleive him about Gary. She refuses to help Milo until he reveals that he know about her father. Then she helps him think of a plan. They finally decide to finish SYNAPSE so that they can tell the whole world at one time. After Milo finishes SYNAPSE, he finds out that Lisa was on Garys side the whole time and just used him to finish SYNAPSE by the release date. In the end he finishes SYNAPSE and gets it to the world that Gary is a killer. I don't, however, like the fact that Lisa went to jail though. Good show!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Are you a geek?
Review: Good. If you are, you'll like this movie. While it's not completely accurate, at least Milo knows how to use a unix prompt. They even use the correct commands. As far as technical details go, this movie is one of the better ones. You get a strong feeling of Micro$loth overtones in this movie, and the ending should make you smile, at the very least. The plot ain't half bad. Add it to your cult classics like Hackers and The Princess Bride.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I like the subject. To share or not to share...
Review: But the movie failed to make it more realistic (I know maybe it's not the point). It has just too many out-of-sense laughable scenes for me even though I am not a techie.


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