Hackers

Rating:
Summary: Not just a movie, a way of life
Review: If you want a serious movie about hackers, look somewhere else. If you want a really fun movie with good style, Angelina Jolie, and a pulsing soundtrack, Hackers may be for you.

Johhny Lee Miller (aka Crash Override or Zero Cool) moves to New York with his mother. He meets Angelina Jolie (aka Acid Burn) at school and they immediately become rivals. They come up with a hacking contest to prove who is the best. Together with their friends, Lord Nikon, Cereal Killer (my favorite), Phantom Phreak, and Joey (who is nobody without a handle) join up to take on Fisher Stevens as Mr. The Plague.

This movie is chock full of cool scenes, cool people, and skater technobabble. Sure, the hacking scenes are totally unrealistic, the people unrealistic as computer geeks, but with the awesome techno soundtrack and the style they are presented with, it is easy to overlook. Just sit back and enjoy the ride!

I think that most sysadmin types probably have Mr The Plague as their role model. As a villain, he is ultra suave. As a sysadmin, he is over the top. I have never seen a computer guy with this much panache, and I don't suspect I will see another.

After you have made it through the movie a few times you can begin to watch for the fun stuff. Watch Mr The Plague's hands, especially in the flower delivery scene. When they go over to Lord Nikon's place and watch TV, consider what is playing. How many of their secret hacker books do you own?

If I could give this movie more stars, I would. This is by far my favorite hacker type movie, and if you count the number of times I have watched it, it would rank as my all time favorite over all. BUY IT NOW! It is better than Cats, you will watch it again and again.

The soundtrack is available on CD, and if you are a techno fan I suggest looking in to it.

Rating:
Summary: Great representation of adolescents..........
Review: It was an enjoyable movie, even with the one-dimensional bad guy with the equally bad one-liners, but best of all - the film had a great portrayal of a multi-ethnic society, without using dumb stereotypes found in most 'teen' movies. Angelina Jolie wasn't the typical love interest who tends to spout pretentious lines such as 'whatever' and 'as if'. Instead, we were introduced to a 'sexy tomboy'. Best of all, there wasn't the 'token female black best-friend', often found in bad movies (Scream 2, Clueless, etc). Jonny Lee Miller made a likeable 'hero' as Crash Override aka Dade Murphy, and the chemistry between him and former wife Angelina sizzles - shame about his dodgy accent though! Matthew Lillard - what can I say?? Would this film be the same without 'Cereal Killer'?!? The rest of the supporting cast are great - this film may not be without flaws, but it's 'anti-Hollywood' portrayal of 'teens' is fantastic. A definite recommendation for an above average 'teen' movie.

Rating:
Summary: It was the movie I've ever seen!!1
Review: So this one time Lucas was going to get BEATEN UP BY THESE FOTTBALL PLAYERS, AND THEN THEY WERE GOING TO KICK HIS ASS. Because he threw this dead rat at these girlks once, and they were sooooo scared LOL. ANYWAY, SO THESE FOOTBALL GHUYS WERE GOING TO BEAT UP LUCAS AND, WON OF THEM STOPPED THE OTHERS AND SAID WAIT "NO , DON'T MESS WITH LUCAS MAN, HE'S A HACKer, he'll erase your life. and so they didn't beat him up. that's what iot's really like being angelina jolkie in this movie the hackers. it is my favorite movie ever and i hope i enjoy it very much. ROFL

Rating:
Summary: If you're not a computer genius, you'll be lost
Review: Most of this film is easy, straightforward, and relatively simple. And then you hit all the computer jargon. Which, if you're as thick as two short planks like me when it comes to computers, and can barely switch on a computer that isn't hers, you'll be lost. Maybe I'll learn something if I watch it often enough? Maybe not.

I quite enjoyed this movie, despite not being as computer literate (which I can barely spell!) as I'd like to be. The best thing about it was probably Jonny Lee Millar and Angelina Jolie. And of course, Matthew Lilliard. There's a great chemistry between them - Jonny and Angelina that is. They married and divorced, and if you believe everything you read in the press, then they're back together, and he's playing daddy to Maddox. They make a really cute looking couple.

Matthew Lilliard is so cute in this! Apart from the hair, but I'll let that pass, along with Angelina's hair!

There are quite a lot of references made in this, to different things. The couple I noticed were: the fictional computer they keep trying to hack into is called Gibson, and is a reference to the great cyberpunk author William Gibson. Matthew Lilliard's character is called Emmanuel Goldstein who is a character in George Orwell's 1984. There may be many more, but I can't say I was looking!

The special effects are quite cool, especially when they're hacking towards the end.

What would have been nice would be some great extras. Unfortunately, there are none. Oh wait, there is! A theatrical trailer! I suppose you can't expect much from 'early' movies these days. The 10th anniversary is coming up soon, so just maybe!

Rating:
Summary: Unrealistic, but in Hollywood, isn't everything?
Review: Funny how so many people complain that this movie makes a complete mockery of everything computer-related. Well, it does! Yes, it represents a computer mainframe as a 3D world with what look like skyscrapers full of files. Yes, it represents virii (viruses) as animals and video-game characters. And yes, the supercomputer looks like it would work better as movie screen with a Star Trek-like "keyboard". So what? I happen to be a computer programmer (Not a hacker by the media definition, I admit), and I've made some of those complaints myself. But you know what? Their little peephole into the world of computer hacking is absolutely hilarious! The plot, though simple, moves along nicely... The characters are stereotyped but still entertaining... The archvillian, an "evil corporation" hacker who actually rides next to the car on a skateboard instead of inside (Pretty hilarious to see), is extremely well played! Bottom line, true computer people need a good sense of humor to appreciate this film, and everyone else... It's definitely worth seeing, but try not to take it too literally.

Rating:
Summary: Just plain fun!
Review: I loved this movie the first time I saw it in theatres... then I waited in agony for years because it was always hard to get on VHS until Angelina Jolie started to get big, and they figured they could make some money from her earlier work...

That being said, this is a true "cult classic": campy fun that you'll either love or hate. Many go out of their way to criticize the "unrealistic" portrayal of hacking and other technical "glossing over" done in this movie... PUH-LEEZE! Who wants to watch somebody sitting typing code or doing research by the hour? It's called dramatization, people!

The strength of this movie is the chemistry between the younger stars Jolie, Miller, Lillard, etc. Lorraine Bracco is forgettable, as always (except for the accent) and the FBI heavies are flattish; but Fisher Stevens is worth watching, being so cheesy as the bad guy he's actually fun, and so is Penn of Penn& Teller as his character foil and straight man.

What no one addresses is the soundtrack for this movie: it introduced me to some of legends of techno music like Underworld and Prodigy, back in the early '90's when techno was still pretty much the exclusive property of the underground club scene, and still sounds edgy today...

If you're a compulsive nitpicker, avoid this movie... but for the well-adjusted majority, you can't go wrong!

Rating:
Summary: Complicated fun
Review: The "critics" who put this movie down for "hacking isn't really like that" & other such whining are the same sorts who talk all the way through, say, "Princess Bride" complaining about the lousy portrayal of medieval history. In short: GET A CLUE, THIS IS ENTERTAINING. If you want Fact, you're barkin' up the wrong tree.

I'm a rabid reader of hard science fiction -- cyberpunk was half-lame, & I'm mostly glad the fad is past. I also know enough about computers to get myself in trouble.

But "Hackers" is entertaining. Sure, there are a few moments where you're certain the cast is reading off different pages of the script, or the director has been called to the phone while the cameras were running.

Somehow, the whole mess manages to go "over the top" without sliding into abject, pedestrian cheesiness. I can't help but cheer for the good guys, & The Villian is so hiss-worthy that I wait for him to twirl his mustache.

On top of it all, you get a precocious Angelina Jolie. Do I realy need to say more?

The best part of the film, though, is the soundtrack. I can't name another movies that has spawned **three** CDs. A fantastic selection of the era's synth-driven music that (mostly) still sounds fresh.

The pacing stumbles a bit near the end; in fact, almost all the good music is in the first 3/4 of the film. But, compared to something like "Lawnmower Man" that starts out incredibly & falls apart utterly in the last 20 minutes, "Hackers" manages to make it to the tape.

It's worth the price of two movie tickets.

Rating:
Summary: dont have to be a nerd to understand, just computer literate
Review: This is a pretty good movie, especially when you look back and see how excited the actors get talking about how fast their new computer is compared to todays standards. You do need to know a little bit of computer lingo to under stand what they are saying but the plot is really easy to understand.

Rating:
Summary: Complicated fun
Review: The "critics" who put this movie down for "hacking isn't really like that" & other such whining are the same sorts who talk all the way through, say, "Princess Bride" complaining about the lousy portrayal of medieval history. In short: GET A CLUE, THIS IS ENTERTAINING. If you want Fact, you're barkin' up the wrong tree.

I'm a rabid reader of hard science fiction -- cyberpunk was half-lame, & I'm mostly glad the fad is past. I also know enough about computers to get myself in trouble.

But "Hackers" is entertaining. Sure, there are a few moments where you're certain the cast is reading off different pages of the script, or the director has been called to the phone while the cameras were running.

Somehow, the whole mess manages to go "over the top" without sliding into abject, pedestrian cheesiness. I can't help but cheer for the good guys, & The Villian is so hiss-worthy that I wait for him to twirl his mustache.

On top of it all, you get a precocious Angelina Jolie. Do I realy need to say more?

The best part of the film, though, is the soundtrack. I can't name another movies that has spawned **three** CDs. A fantastic selection of the era's synth-driven music that (mostly) still sounds fresh.

The pacing stumbles a bit near the end; in fact, almost all the good music is in the first 3/4 of the film. But, compared to something like "Lawnmower Man" that starts out incredibly & falls apart utterly in the last 20 minutes, "Hackers" manages to make it to the tape.

It's worth the price of two movie tickets.

Rating:
Summary: nearly wet myself...
Review: oh, where to begin. really, it's the complete fantasy of computer jargon that makes this film hilarious rather than the concept. if it were another subject, it may have been better. i think it was an attempt to cash in on 'computer culture' as it was seen at the time, which is a bit rich because the film is kinda down on relentless greed (which it is a exercise in). utterley hilarious dialogue if you know ANYTHING about 'puters whatsoever. i'd watch it again, though, if only for that shot of Jolie in a see-through vest (poor angle it is, too!). anway, i'll stop regurtiating everybody else's reviews. watch it if all there is on TV is Countdown or Corrie but for pity's sake, DON'T buy it! find a friend who has it and borrow it! you'll only hate yourself for it in the morning.