Once in a long while, a movie comes along that makes you think...what were these people on, anyway? I mean, really. Drugs aren't always bad for art[0], but you have to have a few sober people around to do marketing and tell the other people that those bugs aren't real and so on. This movie somehow managed to spring into existence without any of those people. The producers must have been distributing free crack at the beginning of each shoot or something.

This could have been a good movie. It had the parts: Emmanuel Goldstein[1], leader of the famed 2600 group, was a consultant. The actors were reasonably decent, or would have been if they hadn't been, as has already been mentioned, on crack. They used the term 'hacker' correctly, unlike the majority of extant news media, and used a few other hacker terms correctly as well (although I was ready to put forks in someones' eyes for their overuse of the hacker-wannabe term 'elite'). The only things that sink this movie are a complete lack of understanding of computer technology by everyone involved (except Mr. Goldstein, presumably), a total failure to write anything approximating a good script, and a lack of character development beyond the level of "I'm very strange, and to prove it, here is my one visible character trait."

There are a few decent one-liners in the movie, but that's about it. This is a good movie to rent once and watch with a bunch of computer-literate friends. Assuming, of course, that you have either soundproof walls or neighbors who don't mind listening to tortured souls crying out in agony (so, you're probably OK if you're in New York).

[0] cf. differences in the music of the Beatles after the album _Revolver_

[1] No, that's not his real name.

Scene to watch for: They're making out...or are they?

Best Line: "It's in that place where I put that thing that time."

Things that make you go "Huh?": Hackers using 3-D rendering systems to break into peoples' machines.

Response From RinkWorks:

Ugh. I *hated* this movie, but I watched it hoping for a good movie, not a bad one, and that probably negatively affected my enjoyment of it. My favorite stupidity: At the end, they break into the hacker's computer by using the 3D rendering system you mentioned. Not only that, it's a REAL TIME 3D system which they use to log in over a PHONE line. They fly around the computer and shoot viruses at the badguys. -- Sam.

Man, I really have to see this movie! -- Dave.