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Directed by: Iain Softley Starring: Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Fisher Stevens This campy mainstay of the geek canon has it all--nerdcore handles, books and egos; bright, progressive costuming; timeless, electronic soundtrack(s); a fictitious, laughable portrayal of 2600 editor, Emmanuel Goldstein; a time-capsule document of cutting edge tech in 1995; a reading of part of The Mentor's Hacker Manifesto (to latino-pop sensation Marc Anthony, no less!); a racy Angelina Jolie dream sequence; and, of course, THE GIBSON! The film nominally follows a group of kids trying to liberate one of their number who's been framed for having created a nasty computer worm that will cause an ecological disaster if a ransom is not paid. But who're we kidding? You'll hardly notice the plot. Much good camp is born of throw-away movies that aged really quickly. Softley's far-from-timeless masterpiece, Hackers, falls squarely under that heading. Here you have a studio trying to repackage early 90's digital culture and sell it to the masses as "hip." The characters all have outlandish hacker aliases like Lord Nikon (who has a photographic memory; get it?) and The Phantom Phreak (an alliterative play on a phone-abuse term that appeals to hackers as an obscure, "elite" allusion). There is never any real sense of danger as our super-cool heroes battle their hacker nemesis, Mr. The Plague (assisted by Penn Jillette, the one who talks in Penn & Teller), but it is a fun, catch phrase-laden romp that will probably entertain the nerd segment. I recommend Hackers to anyone who's looking for a good laugh at the US film industry's sub-culture theft and resale, anyone in need of new catch-phrases, anyone feeling nostalgic about the good ole days before ubiquitous access to the Internet, and anyone who is amused by the idea of underground fashioncore asians hosting a pirate tv show about wreaking electronic havoc. HACK THE PLANET!! RATING: 3.5 PROS: hilariously fake CONS: atrocious acting, incredibly dated (14.4bps modem!), some embarassing dialogue, Joey ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0113243/
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May 14, 2004 02:49
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 16:01 |
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This movie has the dubious distinction of being the first film I have ever seen in a theatre to walk out on. And I have sat through "Xanadu". This is just "Solarbabies" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091981/ for the 90's. "Solarbabies" wasn't amusing a decade later, and I'm going to extrapolate that "Hackers" won't be either. But  , I still haven't seen "Chairman of the Board" starring Carrot Top, and this has the potential for a drunken & masochistic double-bill.EDIT: voted 1.5; with qualification that I could only last 10 minutes into the film wildmamboqueen fucked around with this message at 09:34 on May 14, 2004 |
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May 14, 2004 09:32
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Oh noes!
Bio-Hazard fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Jan 13, 2011 |
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May 14, 2004 10:45
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[Risk of being flamed. =/] Actually, Hackers was the movie that got me heavy into computers. Before that flic, all I had done was play Mechwarrior 2 and gently caress around in 3dsMax R1 on the Pentium 100 that a friend of mine had. My Tandy 1000 just didn't cut it anymore. Then I saw the flic and had my mind changed. Sure, it was hilariously fake, down to almost every single aspect of it, but it was entertaining... and inspiring to some sense; To me, anyway. Plus, it exposed me to Angelina Jolie. I mean, poo poo... to a thirteen year old, it was solid. I remember downloading so many loving .tar's from phrack and not understanding a drat word but I memorized it all. For pure nostalgia, and basically changing my interests, I give it a five. drat being an impressionable youth.
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May 16, 2004 10:21
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Hackers, in my mind was abotu about as good of a job you could do with a movie of such subject matter. If the movie was more realistic, and featured people doign true to life hacker things and trying to cover their tracks, it would not be interesting. Have them be relatively attractive people doing hacker things, on creatively painted laptops, running around from cops and stuff, and briging down a corporation on hacker/pirate TV, with a really awesome soundtrack, and you got yourself a movie that will actually make a little money. Although I still think the "internet world" they were in, flying around virtual building to find files was, and still is, ridiculous no matter how you slice it. They could have at least made THAT part somewhat realistic and it would have been an effective film. So yeah, I think this movie was about as well as could be done to make a fictional account of "hackers" and make it interesting to a broad audience. It's just a movie, not a documentary. However I still didn't like it much because I thought all the characters were irritating and the dialogue was boring and cheesy. Pros:GREAT soundtrack, fun plot, and neat paintjobs on computers Cons:The characters were annoying, the internet interface (whatever you would prefer to call it) was beyond unrealistic and made the film less believeable, the doalouge was not very good, and I think the guy who played Shaggy in Scooby Doo is in it and if he wasn't someone like him was and that is a very bad thing. So I give this one a 2.0/5.0 because the characters and dialogue are huge in my book, and this film lacked quality in either department. Would be a 1/5 if it had not been for the really good soundtrack.
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May 16, 2004 17:30
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I love this movie, think it's hilarious, the plot is reaonable and laughable, the soundtrack is insanely good..... the bad things in this movie are actually the good things in this movie. calling this movie bad because it's cheesy is like calling bevis and butthead bad because it's stupid. some things are good for what they are. rated 4.5
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May 17, 2004 05:31
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Good God is this movie a horrendous piece of poo poo (having seen it for the first time two weeks ago) and good God did I have a loving great time watching it. I gave it a 1.5 because while I really wasn't sure how to rate it, it is attrociously bad. OMG WE'VE GOT TO HACK TEH GIBSON!!!!!! Cons: Plot, script, characters, acting, realism........ Pros: A more accurate depiction of hacking than Wierd Science. quote:I think the guy who played Shaggy in Scooby Doo is in it and if he wasn't someone like him was and that is a very bad thing.
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May 17, 2004 20:34
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I thinkt this movie should be filed under Humor and not Thriller. There is nothing thrilling about this movie, unless you count Angelina Jolies boobs. When I first saw this movie I was a geeky like thirteen year old downloading "warez" off AOL. Now I am a geeky 22 year old downloading off irc, bittorrent, ftps, and newsgroups. This movie is so outrageous and have so much kinda "sub culture" references its funny. The 2600 editor reference is funny, all the hacking books, the social enginering, the outrageous interfaces and not to mention the retarded virus and anti-virus names/commands. They made up a whole different style/brand of computer mainframe even. This is nothing but funny. None of it could, would, or ever should happen like it did. Thats why it is cinema and not real life. I give it a 3.5 for humor as a serious movie it would hafta be a 1.5
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May 17, 2004 23:06
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quote:Pascallion came out of the closet to say: quote:[s_d] came out of the closet to say: ---- quote:[s_d] came out of the closet to say: ---- I think most of the people who I expect would like this movie who end up hating it just aren't approaching it with the right frame of mind. My friends and I get together once in a while and watch this together over pizza and laugh our asses off through the whole thing. ("Type COOKIE, you idiot!") It's an MST3K sort of fun that so few movies afford these days.
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May 18, 2004 13:24
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Hackers was one of the best comedy spoofs ever made. It not only knew cyberspace at the time, it flipped it on its rear end and made fun of everything about it. Most people didn't realise that this was in fact a flat out comedy, and not meant to be viewed in any serious light. The director went out of his way to break the movie down to hilarious fakeness to drive this point home (The skateboard pickup scene for example.) .. This movie easily provides a laugh a minute, and an excellent sound track to boot. One of my favorite top 10 movies of all time. A true cult classic. So what did we learn at school today? Revenge. 4.5/5
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May 18, 2004 19:00
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quote:This does not compute. If you had a 'loving great time' watching a movie, then it wasn't bad.
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May 18, 2004 19:10
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quote:wildmamboqueen came out of the closet to say: Gnusticks fucked around with this message at 19:58 on May 18, 2004 |
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May 18, 2004 19:55
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This movie is crispy in the dark and much like RISC arcitecture it is going to change everything. This movie's difficulty rating is a 7, which means it is not difficult to enjoy. You may not know how to program a VCR, let alone work a computer, but I gaurentee you'll enjoy this movie. If you play the game, and I know you do, then this movie is for you. Don't wait to blow up before you get this movie, run to the video store NOW and get it. Even if it means changing every traffic light en route, tapping FBI cellphone calls with a reel-to-reel, or mowing non-existent grass in New York City, do whatever it takes to obtain a copy of this movie. It doesn't matter if your hardware matches your wetware, even the most non-slick of people can enjoy this movie. If you have any enemies for life, by the end, this movie will teach you how to get them to make out with you in a pool on the roof! This movie is definitely NOT garbage. This movie will teach you important things, like how to design your own graphical user interface (that's just chapter one) and where to locate the phone number on a modem. Rollerblade, dont walk, to the video store to get this movie NOW!!
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May 18, 2004 21:34
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risc is good. que up the sexual tension!
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May 19, 2004 00:57
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I asked 2600's Emmanuel Goldstein about this movie back when it first came out, since he was involved to a small degree as a "consultant" and one of the main characters was named after him (or, to be more accurate, named after the character he draws his pseudonym from). It seemed impossible that he might've liked it, but he made an interesting point - the movie was horribly inaccurate in how it represented the nuts and bolts of hacking, but it captured the "spirit" of the community fairly well. Yes, from a technical standpoint, the film was utterly laughable. Yes, the people in it didn't REALLY look like your average hacker. Not even the most retarded Defcon scene-whores dress that ridiculously. But that's Hollywood - It takes complicated things and simplifies them to move the story along. And, of course, it takes reality, polishes it up, accentuates the interesting parts and then adds techno music. No one wants to sit through a movie that shows ACTUAL hacking. No one wants to watch a room full of script kiddies dicking around on IRC. For that matter, no one wants to watch a movie filled with real hackers. To that end, what the movie captured VERY well were some of the more nuanced philosophical and cultural elements of the "grey-hat" hacking universe. The weird pissing matches that used to dominate the scene, the way a curious kid can wind up doing something really stupid without meaning to and, of course, the way that folks who haven't ACTUALLY done anything substantially damaging can easily get railroaded by "the system." It's no "Wargames" of course, but it's not terrible either. 3.5
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May 19, 2004 04:19
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An ok movie i guess. Interesting to see what people thought hackers will be one day. Sadly they still are loner fat boys so ugly they have to live in the darkness of their mother's basements. 2.5/5
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May 19, 2004 09:16
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Hackers is the best movie about computers ever made. Better than Wargames. Better than 2001. There are no cons to this movie. All the things listed as cons so far are the exact reasons why this movie is good. Some of the best camp from the 90's that you'll ever run across. 4/5
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May 19, 2004 09:56
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I watched this movie when I was in 4th grade and I thought I was a hacker. I even went so far as to download a "hacking toolbox" exe, which I never used because AOL wouldn't let me. Not only is it so bad it's hard to watch, it brings back floods of embarassing memories. I like this movie. 4
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Sep 12, 2004 04:57
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I love this movie. Though it's not always the most technically accurate, such as in the fake "redbox" scene, it's definitely got the spirit down. It touches on phreaking, social engineering, "script kiddie-ism" (joey), the strange rivalry and need to be accepted, and many other awesome aspects of the underground hacking scene that the general public was/is unaware of. I watch it many many times. This may well be the best hacking related movie I've seen. 5.5/5
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Sep 12, 2004 06:30
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quote:KATATA FISH came out of the closet to say: I am just posting (again) to say this review is the best ever put forth about "Hackers".
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Sep 12, 2004 07:21
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certain aspects of this movie i enjoyed immensely. yes, technically, it's pretty ridiculous, but so is every hacker-related movie. the soundtrack is phenomenal. for the time, it was absolutely tremendous. the wardrobe and fashion directing in the movie is also excellent, i think it really successfully created the feeling of a cyberpunk atmosphere.
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Sep 17, 2004 22:10
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I was always under the impression that the movie was supposed to be fake, and influenced by stereotypes. I thought the movie was a play on peoples stereotypes of what hackers do(like it looking cool as it is happening). I could be wrong though. I did double check the release date on IMDB, and noticed a "hacker" talking about it on IMDB. Idiot.
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Sep 18, 2004 06:07
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Let's do this review without the bullshit: the less-educated of us thought this was a realistic depiction of what hacking would be in a few years. Now that we're older, most of us know better. Now, I get a hell of a laugh out of lines like "RISC architecture is gonna change everything," and the cliche characters and ridiculous techinical aspects are also very funny. It does not hold up under the test of time, but it is an over-idealistic (and often cartoonish) representation of what we thought hacking would become in 1995. Like KATATA FISH said, this movie is not garbage, but only if you view it outside of what the idiotic director thought it was going to be. In retrospect it's horrible, but that horribleness, combined with the bad representation of the sides depicted in the hacker world, makes for an enjoyable experience. Technical - 1.5, cliche characters and unrealistic representation of the hacker world Experience - 4, the unrealistic representation is funny and the spirit of hackers is done fairly Total - 3/5 (rounded)
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Sep 18, 2004 07:51
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I never set out to see this movie. It was subjected upon me by my roommate in college. Terrible. I will deliberately ignore anything remotely technical about this movie, because i'm not a cryptographic or computer science expert (like my roommate was, so i heard about it nonstop ala OMG this is SOFUNNY- no it's not). The acting was poor, made me really grit my teeth. The plot was not engaging and in general, I would not recommend this movie to anyone who isn't morbidly aroused by old computer achaisms and gimmicky premises. Edit: the soundtrack wasn't half bad tho
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Sep 20, 2004 00:37
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Hackers is not as ridiculous and far-fetched as it first appears to be. The funny thing is, if you pay attention to the SCRIPT of hackers, almost nothing in it is inaccurate. It's only the visuals that are completely retarded, everything else, while a bit fantastic, isn't completely outside of the realm of impossibility. There's a lot of classic silly lines like "RISC is going to change everything", but by the same token, that was a commonly held belief at the time. Credit should be given to making a movie where computers were at the forefront and care was taken to keep everything accurate, at least until the director and effects people got their hands on it. This works well for the movie - it manages to be incredibly campy and laugable, while still portraying a semi-realistic if exagerrated view of the "hacking" community of the early to mid 90's. Extra pluses for quite possibly having the greatest electronic soundtrack of any movie released to date. I use the soundtrack to introduce people to electronic music.
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Sep 26, 2004 20:33
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Hah, what an awful movie. I watched some of this on hbo one time, and I changed to the food channel because it was so drat bad
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Sep 28, 2004 16:33
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I actually bought this movie on DVD, it is a true cult classic, so bad that it has to be good. I've watched it ten, maybe twenty times and it's still good. Give it a chance, it's actually quite "good"
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Sep 30, 2004 17:52
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Today, I asked one of my friends out of the blue, "name a must-see movie I'd like" and he immediately said "War Games and Hackers." So I watch this, since I'd already seen War Games time after time. And yes, I agree with him, this is a kickass movie that NO self-respecting geek would go without seeing. Nobody's mentioned this aspect of it yet, but this movie goes, I particuarly enjoyed the homage it pays to cyberpunk culture. The club scenes, visualization of Cyberspace, and even "The Gibson" which I'm certain is a reference to the foremost cyberpunk author Willaim Gibson all add an interesting dimention to this film. So, as a geek that loves reading cyberpunk literature, with a penchant for suspension of disbelief I thought it was loving awesome. Pros: Amazing soundtrack. If you like electronic music like me, you'll hear several classics and some old songs you will wish you'd heard of. Also, very imaginative portrayal of cyberpunk/hacker culture. Cons: Not very realistic, especially the made up jargon that gets to the point that it's laughable. Lackluster acting except for Jolie (god drat she's hot and a good actress) 4/5
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Oct 4, 2008 09:01
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 16:01 |
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When I view a film I watch it for what it is. What it is is an excellent cult classic, made on a small budget, featuring an awesome soundtrack. It is extremely memorable as well, as most people in my age bracket remember the film and at least one line or character from it. I feel it's a bit ridiculous to rate this movie based upon cinematography or acting. That isn't what makes the film good. What the film does well is preserve a feeling of living in the 90's. It is a film that I can bring up among 20-somethings I meet in casual situations and have a good laugh or break the ice. Not many other films do that for the 20-something crowd and so I think this film deserves a 4.5.
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Oct 10, 2008 06:32
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