WarGames

Rating:
Summary: would you prefer a nice game of chess?
Review: This was an instant teen classic. Far more than a movie about romance, lust or "parents who just don't understand" .... this was a great flick and it still is.

Matthew Broderick introduced the masses to the world of hacking, phreaking and global thermo nuclear war.

The average person at that time had never heard of a phone phreak, but we see the lead character get free calls on a payphone and stealing software via his 300 baud modem before anyone knew there was software worth stealing.

Not only are his parents affluent enough to supply him with a computer, he gets discarded computer hardware from friends at a local university to make the super-duper hacking machine that ends up getting him in big big trouble.

While a lot of this story is pretty improbable, some of the plot was dead on for the time. There were no minature computers and cameras and while the government had satelites, they couldn't count your eyelashes from the stratosphere like they can today.

Nuclear war with the Soviet Union was a real threat when this movie came out... all of my friends talked about it and posters with mushroom clouds were all over our school. Sting came out with the song "Russians" and we all peed in our pants when the show "The Day After" aired on prime time TV.

It was a scary time and this movie masterfully played on the fear of nuclear threats and the real likelihood (and nowadays a reality) of having formerly human-manned stations automated by computers.

Lots of excitement, great background music and lots of 80s nostalgia abound in this film. If you're in your late 20s to early 40s and you haven't seen this film, it's your duty to get it!

I wish the DVD had more features, such as out-takes and interviews with the stars and perhaps others (like folks at NASA or other famous computer geeks) who may have been influenced by this film. The DVD platform isn't taken advantage like it should be, especially w/ a film of this genre. Nonetheless, it's a better format than VHS and definitely watchable over and over again.

Rating:
Summary: Nostalgia-time.
Review: I remember seeing this movie for the first time as a double feature with SUPERMAN III. That tells you how old it is. Just seeing some of the computer tech back then brings back memories. It just adds to the flavor of the movie. It's also interesting to see that the company he was trying to get into was located in Sunnyvale...Silicon Valley was there even back then!

Although a lot of the scenarios in this movie were pretty far-fetched, the characters were all pretty realistic, even if they were extreme versions of themselves: the Army colonel who listens to no one, the reclusive computer genius, the teenaged computer genius. The important part is that they all stayed true to their characters. None of them did anything that you wouldn't have expected them to.

Some of the reviews for this movie have complained about how unrealistic it was. So? Who said a movie has to be realistic to be enjoyable? Can you say "suspension of disbelief"? This movie was great! Entertaining, exciting...all the things a movie like this should be. They weren't going for dramatic realism here...they were going for excitement and they nailed it right on the head.

It's not as sophisticated as a lot of today's techno-thrillers, but I still consider it to be one of my favorites.

Rating:
Summary: Yeah, right.
Review: Fire up the steam powered Zenith, microwave some popcorn in the dryer, we're on a mission to Unbelievability World.

Let's review a few things before we go ripping into this turkey, shall we?

First, what kid in the early eighties had a computer? The set up he had for back then would have been leading edge college computer science lab equipment, but hey, some kids have a typewriter, and some kid's parents can afford thousands of dollars worth of equipment like this. And, judging by the speed, it must have been Cray Supercomputer prototype-grade at that.

Also, computer languages were complicated anyway, but this kid just types what he thinks and the computer just answers. If it were that easy, we wouldn't have Bill Gates, would we?

Computers used by the War Department weren't and aren't called stupid names like W.O.P.P.E.R., whatever it stands for, or any other fast food sounding name. (although, it would have made the movie more interesting if we'd heard lines like "Oh, my god, the C.H.A.L.U.P.A. is initiating a first strike scenario!"

Is it just me, or is Ally Sheedy just sort of someone for Matthew Broderick to talk to...like, is she supposed to be someone, she just doesn't come off as a real teenager...too healthy, not bulemic enough to be a real girl.

Do all movie government computer systems have 'back doors' in their programming so that the G-3 employee they hired away from Nintendo to write the Mutual Assured Death programming for our nation's nuclear missile system can get in it later and see if he can get past level 8?

Real computer systems just take orders...like 'fire' or 'just sit there until I need you to fire'. I don't think a computer system controlling the most deadly nuclear arsenal on Earth would ask anyone "would you like to play a game? Poker? Risk? Chutes and Ladders? Global Thermonuclear Hopscotch?"

And were that so, it only really does prove they got it because it was the lowest bid.

Rating:
Summary: The only way to win is not to play the game
Review: Wargames is an entertaining film which stars a young Mathew Brodrick as David Lightman, a teenage computer hacker who in thinking he is playing a game against a computer is in fact igniting WWIII. The film, which is short on technical jargon, is long on it's anti-nuke message. Discussions range from extinction from Prof. Faulkner, to Brodrick wishing he had more time to learn how to swim to the chilling realization from Josuha the computer who touts: "Interesting game (Global Thermonuclear War), the only winning move is not to play. An interesting film to watch, especially the 'dated' personal computer equipment and the cold war fears that everybody held in the 80's.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining
Review: As commentary against Cold War values, this film can't compare with a great films like "Fail Safe" or "Dr. Stranglove." Still, this film has enough good will, mixed in with an important point, to be very enjoyable. Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy have a great amount of appeal and chemistry in the two lead roles, and the supporting cast is alright as well (though it seems unrealistic that so many men in such high places could be such idiots). Although we don't really dought the ending, director John Badham manages to add just enough suspense to keep things from being too predictable. Well worth a watch, but don't expect a masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: wargames
Review: i love world war III movies and this one was grea

Rating:
Summary: Well Worth A Watch.
Review: I remember seeing this several years ago in the theater when I was very young. It's a pretty good movie with an interesting plot. Both Ally Sheedy and Matthew Broderick do well in their roles. Worth a watch.

Rating:
Summary: Great Cold War Stuff
Review: You know, I was only 5 when this movie was made, but I remember seeing it being taped at a 7-11 in Big Bear California. Back then, I didn't understand it very much, I just liked the computer stuff, but now, being 21, I see the importance of this movie as a Cold War commentary. Also, ever since I saw this movie, I've buttered my corn with my bread (those of you who have seen it will understand)

Rating:
Summary: SKYBIRD this is DROPKICK
Review: With lines like: "Men...we are currently tracking 2400 inbound Soviet Warheads...but at the moment we can not confirm this, I repeat, we can not confirm this" and "Flush the bombers...get the subs in launch mode...we are at DEFCON1" you simply have to love this movie.

"Mr. Potatohead!..Mr. Potatohead!!"

Rating:
Summary: A little late edition of an old movie!
Review: Just bought the DVD edition, cause I had forgotten so much about this movie! The story is well known: A kid breaks into the Government's Defence computer. It was made in 1983 and was breaking news then, but now it's just an old flop! The datagraphic is very old and you can't relate to it anymore. Look's like my old Commodore Vic 20! The story has a typical and American ending! But, despite this, it's worth renting!