HACKERS
 
STARRING: Jonny Lee Miller,
Angelina Jolie, Jesse Bradford, Matthew Lillard, Laurence Mason, Renoly
Santiago, Fisher Stevens, Alberta Watson
1995, 105 Minutes, Directed by: Iain Softley
 Description:
The premise (computer-happy kids hack into
the wrong system, and the Forces of Repression come after them) is recycled
from John Badham's 1983 WarGames. —
Amazon.com
Hackers, it seems have changed
a lot since the mawkish teenager of WarGames. Hackers, if we are to
believe this movie, are a fashionable lot who looks as if they have just come back from a
rave somewhere. They all listen to techno and they can do more or less do all the
incredible things that we saw the bad guys in The Net do if you so
much as let them near a modem and a computer. This aside, little of the anarchist morality
for which some hackers are well-known shines through. These kids are, besides their
propensity for computer goodies, your average next door types. As American as mom's Apple
pie - they are, after all, the good guys.
Besides these qualms, and
the fact that this film is at times more like a music video and therefore lacking any real
narrative tension, Hackers is an enjoyable cyberpunk romp. Just don't expect any
real insight into the Hacker subculture and don't take it seriously and you're on your way
to an passable evening at the cinema. Take along lots of popcorn . . .
(There are
several computer "in-jokes" - the supercomputer hacked by the
good guys is called a "Gibson," probably after godfather-of-cyberpunk
author William Gibson. The bad guy travels under the surname "Babbage"
who we all know was the Victorian "inventor" of the computer
. . .)
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