Hackers

Rating:
Summary: A Fantastic, Yet slightly flawed movie.
Review: An excellent effort for a less known director. High levels of charisma with both the Dade and Kate characters, adding to the seriousness, with the comic relief by the "Phreak" and "Cerial Killer" hacker characters. Despite the cliqued storyline (good guys framed by bad), the movie is fast paced and fun, including great one-liners and teen dialogue. Even though this movie is disliked by some, via it's obvious departing from reality, and editing flaws, Hackers is the first movie to enter the lifestyle and emotions of hackers and the introduction of the internet and the mass corruption of information.

Quick Story: Boy is banned from computer usage till his 18th birthday due to a massive virus while created a wall street crash. Meets up with 5 other hackers whom stumble on and into a massive crime with both ecological and economic damage involving an oil company. Throw in a few secret service agents, a prank contest and some really freaky dreams and watch till the end..

My advice is to ignore the fact that a 28.8 modem couldnt possibly reach those speeds, and enjoy the movie. Because remember, even "The Matrix" had it's story holes too.

- Arameda

Rating:
Summary: 2nd Best movie ever (under Citizen Cane)
Review: This is the best movie ever made. I learned most my hacking skills from watching it. Zero Cool is my idol. The depicions of hacking are totally correct in every way and are still very relavent today. If you want to start hacking this MUST be your first step. You also get to see Angalina Jolie's [assets]. If you would like to see the other [assets], I suggest watching GIA also a fine movie.

Rating:
Summary: Hack Job
Review: To be honest, Hackers is not a great movie, especially when it stands up against other cyber thrillers like Sneakers and War Games, but as a pure guilty pleasure it ranks as one of my favorites.

Dade Murphy (Jonny Lee Miller) is a hacker prodigy, who, along with his Mom, (Lorraine Bracco) moves across the country to New York City. Soon he meets other kids like him, forming a High School cadre of misfits and rich kids who hack into computer systems purely for fun. When one of their group is suddenly arrested, the others band together to take on a corporate hacker disguised as a security officer in an attempt to expose his plans and save one of their own.

The film is clearly influenced by, and made for, the MTV generation. Director Iain Softley tries to do the best he can. The story has been done before and is muddled by a lot of techno speak. That said, it somehow, still manages to be something that's hard to ignore. The screen lights up as a very lovely Angelina Jolie, playing Kate, makes quite a splash. Miller is your typical anti-establishment hero but some of the sequences he initiates are a lot of fun to watch. I also liked some of the cyber names the characters have in the film, like "Cereal Killer", "Acid Burn" and "Zero Cool".

The DVD's only extras are the theatrical trailer and MGM's--sounds better than it really is--8-page booklet. It features trivia and production notes about the making of the movie.

There's no rhymne or reason, as to why I like Hackers, as much as I do. (Jolie??) If you are looking for a piece of good/bad fluff this fits the bill

Rating:
Summary: Should have been a huge hit!
Review: "Hackers" is a perfect example of what happens to an outstanding movie that is dumped by the studio or distributors: no one's heard of it! Everyone talks about "Matrix" being sooo cyberpunk, but "Hackers" is the true William Gibson movie.

Everything about it rings true: the performances by Angelina Jolie, Jonny Lee Miller & Matthew Lillard who were all unknowns at the time are excellent. The computer lingo is correct for a change, the graphic representation of cyber-space (hacking the "Gibson" super computer) is awesome, & the dialogue sounds like teens talking. There isn't an uneccessary scene in the entire movie!

If you've ever read a William Gibson novel; if you enjoyed "The Matrix"; if you fantasize about bringing down Big Business; if you enjoy great acting & taut directing; I suggest you check out "Hackers". Then tell all your friends!

Rating:
Summary: A cyberpunk thriller
Review: The first time I saw Hackers was on the Sci-Fi channel in '97. The "teens" who play the main roles, Angelina Jolie, Jonny Lee Miller and Matthew Lillard, were surprisingly good. Be warned, though, that the script gets really cheesy (which can get a few laughs from me at certain parts). Another flaw is that the director made the hacking sequences look like light shows--they are completely unrealistic and laughable to anyone that knows a thing about actual hacking, but I suppose the sequences look cool to the ones that don't know a thing about hacking. To sum it up, the movie Wargames is more realistic to what hacking is like today and was made nearly 20 years ago! What I personally like most about the movie is its setting in New York City, close to where I grew up, and its original direction by Iain Softley. The movie soundtrack, full of techno rave, is remarkable and I recommend it just as highly as the movie. The cool thing about this movie is that it draws you in from the beginning and you become absorbed in the upbeat atmosphere of NYC.

I couldn't find Hackers on VHS way back when and DVD wasn't around yet, so I just taped the edited for TV version. I must've watched the video about a hundred times. I eventually rented the unedited version on VHS at Blockbuster when it finally showed up and I just recently got ahold of the DVD. The quality of sound is worlds better on DVD and the picture is preserved in its original widescreen format, but I was disappointed to find that the opening sequence of the movie was completely cut out--a brilliantly directed sequence that gave the background information about Miller's character. It by no means spoils the movie, however, and I still give the DVD a high recommendation. I've said about all there is to say, so if you're interested in a great adventure set in the new age technical world see Hackers.

Rating:
Summary: :-)
Review: For your better than average computer geek, this film is more of a comedy than anything else. I LOVED it. The people who wouldn't like this flick are the ones perhaps looking for practical or usable hacking tips.. if thats the case, forget it. The GUI and other hacking visuals have Hollywood and fan-service written allllllll over them. The villain (Mr. The Plague, lol) is a geek... Of course he doesn't have the typical villainous charisma you might expect in a movie like Die Hard or Friday the 13th part 9,078,243 1/2 ... For the love of God he's a geek... whatcha expect?? The Terminator?

The plot is interesting as Dade contiues to prove himself as elite to his new friends and becomes an intergral part in saving the day.

The "ideas" behind the hacking and the way many hackers think are very real... its just the methods are glamourized... great graphics tho!!

Love Secret Sex God and Password are all no-nos, but another important one... do not spell your name backwards ... thats one that I might check ;-)

dV

P.S. Look for the Anglina nipshot ... can yah find it???

Rating:
Summary: STUPID MOVIE..Put if next to Battlefield Earth
Review: Ok, so the best thing about this poor excuse for a film is a sexy, twenty year old at the time, ANGELINA JOLIE. I especially like the scene where she walks in her room and sees the dude on her computer..."That's too much computer for you." She says, that one made the hair stand up on the back of my neck because it just sounded dumb. Not to mention that the film looks like it was produced in someone's garage in the 70's...For some reason Amazon recommends this film for me so I'm inclined to call it one of the worst films.

Rating:
Summary: Good Movie
Review: I just saw Hackers (rented it at my local video rental place; looked like it had been sitting there since the day it came out since the case was so beat up. lol) and I loved it.

Their are of course errors with the technological aspect of it; like the computers had software and GUI that hadn't come out yet for that time period, but its a still a good movie overall. Some argue that the villain sucks, but, honestly, I kind of liked him. He didn't repersent a villain very well, but he was the main comic relief of the film. One thing I've heard (I have yet to actually see the second one) was that Hackers 2: Operation TakeDown has NOTHING to do with the first one. Different characters, Different time period, everything. I was also suprised ot see that Amazon doesn't have Hackers 2: Operation Takedown. I think it may have had some sort of ban put on it, but i'm not sure. It would be nice to have the second one though.
*Clap for Kevin Mitnick*

Another thing about the realness (I know its not a word, shutup) of the computers is that viruses aren't actually loaded that easily unless your the most u83r_133+ s(r1p+ k1DD13 around. I think they could have shown alot more of the actual hacking instead of just having them suddenly be in the government computers in 5 minutes; although then I guess it wouldn't be any fun for you normal users who don't know the difference between an AIM and Telnet. FYI, Real hackers don't say things like u83r_133t, only script kiddies do. The only time a real hacker (Someone who knows how to program and actually knows how computers work) says things like u83r 133t and h4x0r is when we are making fun of scrip kiddies.

My $.02
Enjoy
-Phreak.Net

"Spandex, Its a privilege, not a right."
~Hackers

Rating:
Summary: AWESOME! not accurate... AWESOME!
Review: if you're looking for accuracy, you will _never_ see that in a hollywood movie. so, that being said, if you like stylistic computer crap, relatively good soundtrack, and a very overall fun movie, this is great.

the DVD is lacking in special features... but really, who cares? this movie is great without 50hrs of "behind the scenes" stuff that you'll watch once when extremely bored.

Rating:
Summary: Hack Into Something Else
Review: As you may have guessed, this is about computer hackers. In 1995. Which makes it outdated. But that's not the problem. The premise involves a teen hacker in high school who gets involved with a group of other hackers, including Angelina Jolie. They hack into something very important that they shouldn't have seen, and thus, people come after them. The characters are completely unnappealing, the story is wildly contrived, and it's just a waste of time.

The film tries to make itself hip by using flashy colors and editing, and casts a good-looking group of people, but the film is just simply...there. There's no point in it's existence. It might have supposedly been an updated variation of 'WarGames', maybe, but it lacks the creativity and plot. The actors are not good, the villain is just goofy, but goofy in a stupid/irritating way and not even really like a "villain" in the first place.

I know this may be more of a cult movie, and many of the reviewers here love this film, but I'm just warning the average everyday viewer. By all means, go ahead and get it if you really really want to, but I'm just saying that this film SUCKS!