Time Bomb Y2K (2023) User Reviews

A nice time capsule of a time.

[kencampbell1 · 7/10 · 1 January 2024]

A nice time capsule to show what it was like at the turn of the millennium. A good demonstration of how crazy people can get, but also how people can come together and solve a massive problem, by listening to the people who know what they are talking about and not the people in the fringes. Seems more important now than ever.

The documentary is just made from archive footage and doesn't really talk about the bug itself that much. But does show the world of 20 odd years ago and paints a picture of the optimism and panic that surrounded the turn of the millennium.

Gave a nice nostalgic watch to a time that seems like yesterday in my brain.

Retrospective documentary gently touches on broader issues

[Norman_French · 5/10 · 30 April 2024]

This documentary is nicely done, but not perfect. It could easily have been three to five minutes shorter, which would have helped with the pacing. Nevertheless, this is an interesting presentation of archival footage.

I like the way this film covers optimists, realists, and pessimistic survivalists. As someone who lived through this, I can tell you there was a LOT of hype back then. Scaremongers selling books were saying things like freeway accidents would occur as power brakes failed at the stroke of midnight. These sorts of claims were laughable of course -- no engineer is going to increase his workload by making systems more complex than needed -- especially when the system MUST be reliable. Why on earth would a power braking system need to know the time and date? It's ridiculous.

As the New Year came and went, the film shifted into covering some interesting and (mostly) uplifting thoughts about global connectivity and the uncertainty and possibilities of the new Millennium.

While not highly structured, this documentary has a straightforward (linear) time-flow, a decent cross-section of opinions, a low-key tone, and a good ending that raises questions about the future. I would have changed a few things, but not much, so I'm *tempted* to give it seven stars. HOWEVER, the film did NOT excite me, and I doubt it will be of great interest to the average viewer. So I think a "proper" rating, considering the big picture, is probably five (5) stars, which is also an accurate reflection of the entertainment value I received.

Not enough ending and post Y2K

[kevin-frushour · 5/10 · 12 January 2024]

While this program is an interesting history of the buildup to Y2K and how nothing ends up happening, it hovers too much on the New Years festivities and then ends. It would have been interesting to see f there were follow-up interviews done with the militias, doomsayers, and preppers to see what they said about the lack of event.

I know it's a documentary of already existing footage, but a "where are they now montage - even in title cards - would have been an interesting ending, providing closure to the stories presented. Only one person is followed up on, the guy who was right all along in the end.

I lived it, and I liked this.

[xkgbtzh · 6/10 · 3 January 2024]

I feel slightly more confidant that I can relate this time to my daughter (who is older than I was at that time), and speak of more minute details. The good aspects of people uniting and a pre-9/11 world being so happy even when scared brings a little more joy than I had before watching this. It's incredible to see some of the foreshadowing of the world during this, and I am glad that the makers of this didn't focus on those. They let them be little cameos. In fact, I would have truly loved to see an ending where they showed the twin towers still erect. No words said about one year, nine months, and ten days from that moment. Just a silhouette. A reminder that worry is just imagination used incorrectly.

Not a bold statement from a person typing to many other people out there that may happen upon my review, but I was there. I was a ripe sixteen when the ball dropped, and I was very much up to zero good. However, this movie does a great job of going a few years before that very not fateful day. I was old enough to be aware, but young enough to not exactly know who Jager or Kostinen were. I probably saw their faces dozens or hundreds of times, but they didn't ring any bells while watching this film. All that said, bringing back up slight moments of my teenaged memory helped remind me of the fuss that this was.

6.8 stars is accurate.

A Fun Look Back

[mchl88 · 7/10 · 25 March 2024]

This was a fun documentary about the hysteria during the run up to the year 2000. Like all apocalyptic scares, this one turned out to be much ado about nothing (they have to be correct at some point though right?) but as 1999 came to a close it did have us all a bit worried.

Like many documentaries, this was simply a montage of newscasts from the time cobbled together to tell the story of a millennium coming to an end. The footage was interesting, specifically all the shots of "cutting edge" computers that, 25 years later, are simply comical in their outdatedness.

As it turned out (spoiler alert!) the millennium came and went with nary a computer glitch and the Y2K scare was forgotten within days. Be that as it may, this documentary was a nice reminder of how the media and conspiracy theorists can gin us all up to hysteria when they combine forces. Something to remember the next time you feel like "the sky is falling!!!"

A lazy cash in with no new insight

[kierannurmi · 2/10 · 1 January 2024]

Splicing archival footage in with a contemporary retrospective, but that isn't what this is. Th list documentary is entirely from archival footage with the most prominent voiceover being Leonard Nimoy, who has died over 5 years ago.

There's about 5 minutes dedicated to explaining what Y2K was and it's potential impact and the rest of it is just padding. You could swap half the runtime with an episode of doomsday preppers and the only noticable change would be video and audio quality.

This could have been something great some modern commentary about lessons learned, shortsighted management, other potential ICT disasters or even parallels to global warming but as it stands, it's merely an 80 minute timesink.

Remarkably, This Rather Unfocused Doc Manages To Hit The Bullseye

[zkonedog · 10/10 · 4 January 2024]

In a certain sense, I really couldn't blame anyone calling "Time Bomb Y2K" a rather messy documentary. It is quite unfocused (without a clear focus) and touches on a number of different topics without necessarily buttoning up any of them. Yet, somewhat remarkably, this tapestry of Y2K coverage manages to nail the exact sentiments of the time period almost perfectly in the hands of directors Brian Becker & Marley Mcdonald.

For a very basic overview, this doc tells the story of the lead-up to the turn of the millennium (1999 into 2000) and how the Y2K computer glitch threatened to plunge the world into another dark age. Was it a hoax? Was it a crisis narrowly averted by hard work and planning? How were the general public reacting (or overreacting, potentially) to it all? Those are primary areas into which "Time Bomb Y2K" delves.

First and foremost for a doc like this, "Time Bomb Y2K" creates a sense of nostalgia through the use of archived news footage and personal videos. As someone who lived through the event and the time period in general, I can vouch for the authenticity of what is presented here. It is an accurate description of what the late-1990s felt like.

This film also does the practical, even-keel work of explaining just how the Y2K glitch occurred and what was done to prevent it from crashing digital systems on 1/1/00. Instead of the "it's a hoax or it's the end of the world" dichotomy presented at the time, the filmmakers here make it pretty clear (without inserting their own voices) that it was simply a lot of money thrown at the problem and a lot of time from computer programmers that ultimately saved the day.

The hallmark of "Time Bomb Y2K", however, is how it presents a society just beginning to reckon with the "digital world" and the way information can be disseminated therein. The mass panic, conspiracy theories, and misinformation around Y2K was eerily similar to more recent public health related events--the only difference being that in 1999 one had to access it via dial-up internet or VHS tapes.

So, though I usually do not enjoy documentaries without a strong focus/thesis, this one worked in spite of that principle because every tangent somehow managed to produce its own interesting material. It tapped into my adolescent nostalgia, showed a populace grappling with an oncoming digital age, and illustrated that while events come and go, people's responses to them are often similar through the decades.

I Lived Through This as a Computer Tech

[delliottq · 3/10 · 14 January 2024]

I lived through this, and, other than some software patches that were needed, it was much ado about something that could be fixed easily enough. They are showing the fringes of people that let themselves be swayed by doomsday messages. Most people that I knew at the time weren't too concerned. They knew nothing catastrophic would happen and they knew the software patches were being handled. Y2K was akin to the Mayan Calendar scare of 2012. You either believed it and waited for the end or you went on with your life as usual because you knew it was the media overblown fear mongering pushing the doom and gloom. It isn't very accurate, but it's not entirely wrong.

Sit in the front row srnd snd a must!

[timebomb-74499 · 10/10 · 12 March 2024]

Has anyone viewed this with the third eye?... Oh just me then.. I watched this uninterrupted when it dropped! Surround sound a must! I feel like this movie was made for me! I love it!

I hope more viewers open there minds to the way it will be! The subtle tones and hints make it a puzzle for the eyes.

Furthermore the cut scenes and sound had me in a very wavelength type stae, with a smooth landing. I am not sure that every person who sees , or hears the film, takes it the same way .

This film has opened my mind to a whole new world of possibilities A humans experience with technology will forever change! I am proud that my nickname has a movie, and that it may go down as one of the greatest "cultnology" movies ever!

#thirty2thirty.

As exciting as the Y2K bug

[BaronBadger · 3/10 · 7 January 2024]

"Time Bomb," marketed as a documentary chronicling the infamous millennium bug, falls short of its potential to create a captivating time capsule. The film primarily relies on a compilation of old news articles, offering a montage of historical moments without delving into the depth needed to provide a meaningful perspective on the Y2K phenomenon.

One of the film's major drawbacks is its brevity, featuring only fleeting 15-second interviews with industry titans like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Jeff Bezos. These brief snippets fail to offer substantial insights or reflections on the challenges and fears surrounding the Y2K bug. It leaves viewers yearning for a more in-depth exploration of the thoughts and strategies of these influential figures during that pivotal time.

While the idea of using archival footage to revisit the turn of the millennium is intriguing, "Time Bomb" lacks the narrative cohesion necessary to tie these disparate clips together effectively. The disjointed nature of the film leaves audiences with a sense of missed opportunity, as it neglects to weave a compelling story around the Y2K bug and its impact on society.

Moreover, the documentary's overall uneventful quality mirrors the anti-climactic nature of the Y2K bug itself. The film fails to capture the tension and anticipation that characterized the lead-up to the year 2000. Instead of offering a nuanced exploration of the social and technological landscape of that time, "Time Bomb" merely scratches the surface with a superficial montage of historical snippets.

Ultimately, "Time Bomb" disappoints as a documentary that could have served as a valuable time capsule for future generations. Its lack of depth and failure to provide a comprehensive understanding of the Y2K era make it a poor recommendation for anyone seeking a meaningful insight into the turn of the millennium and the challenges some of us lived through.

Lazy Filmmaking

[pdjbmzbz · 2/10 · 7 January 2024]

This is the second 'documentary' I have seen in the last few weeks where the filmmaker just strings along a bunch of clips about the subject.

Rather than explaining the Y2K issue with some sort of narration and context both at the time and looking back some 24 years later, the documentary relies on the clips from the times in order to do so.

All they did was compile news clips, movie clips and anything else from the late 90's that had anything to do with Y2K, present them in chronological order, and then add a few graphics here in there. Lazy and boring. I'm surprised HBO didn't just bury this.

Not good

[knsimon · 1/10 · 14 January 2024]

As other reviewers have said, this is just a mash up of news reels from that time. I wanted and would have loved if they had the old news reels with interviewers from today talking about why it wasn't as bad as people made it seem and why things turned out fine. Along with that, it would have been great if they did follow up interviews with the people from the news stories or at least given us information about their thoughts on Y2K now. I remember all of the hysteria, I didn't need a documentary to remind me of that, I wanted to learn and understand and this documentary had nothing to offer in that way.

This could have been an interesting documentary, but. . . .

[jp7570 · 2/10 · 4 January 2024]

This could have been an interesting documentary, but unfortunately it is poorly edited and written. At almost 90 minutes, it is WAY too long and could have covered the same ground in 1 hour (or less). It committed the worst sin for a documentary - it was boring.

The documentary contains no new narration, instead relying on many sources for clips and interviews - from network broadcasts to home videos and more. It attempts to track the growing concern of the Y2K bug that is forecast to impact all computer systems on New Year's Day 2000. Why? Because early programmers, in an attempt to save "space" in coding, only coded the year with 2 digits. So 1990 was simply "90" and so on. It was feared that this Y2K bug would paralyze all computers worldwide on New Year's 2000, since they would not recognize the year and would mistakenly reset to 1900. Planes would fall from the sky, nuclear missiles would accidentally launch, the power grid would fail, etc. But when New Year's Day 2000 came, nothing happened.

Many people (myself included) lived those days leading up to Y2K. As a consultant in the late 1990s, I was responding to proposals that required firms to provide proof of Y2K compatibility (real proof didn't really exist). The film mostly documents the fear-mongering leading up to Y2K. That included hoarding supplies, increased gun sales, learning to live off the land, etc. But most people I knew, while they were mildly concerned about it, didn't take the change over to 2000 as a serious problem. Some banks recommended having some cash on hand in case ATM's temporarily stopped working (which they didn't). Other than that, it was a non-event. A joke.

So after more than an hour-long build-up, New Year's Day 2000 comes along and nothing happens. The Y2K bug goes away with no real explanation. A few of the people warning about the "end of the world" (and making money off that fear) simply said "well, we did a good job preparing the computer systems for Y2K." But was it even a problem to begin with? I recall when New Year's Day 2000 happened, nothing unusual happened to my home computer, and I didn't do anything extra to make sure it was "Y2K compliant".

No, the Y2K fear mongering turned out to be one of the biggest frauds in modern times. Yet, this film pretty much glosses over it. Yet, that could have been a major part of the story.

Now the core material is there to be properly re-edited and narrated to make this a more informative piece and entertaining. But as presented, it resembles a poor production by a second-year film student.

Was the Y2K bug fact or hype (or both)?

[paul-allaer · 5/10 · 6 January 2024]

As "Timebomb Y2K" (2023 release; 84 min) opens, we are in "1996" as Bill Clinton and AL Gore yap it up about the "information super highway", and big names like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos all weigh in. Then comes along a no-name doomsayer Peter De Jager, warning about the "millennium bug" to anyone who will listen to him... At this point we are 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: with 20/20 hindsight provided by the passage of a quarter century, we now look back at the hype that was the millennium bug. Was it ever a fact? We simply cannot tell as of course nothing happened when December 31, 1999 changed into January 1, 2000. De Jager says that doom was averted because so much work was done by so many in the leadup of Y2K. I have no idea. What we know is this: preparing for Y2K became a cotton industry in and of itself. It also gave (yet another) excuse to the fringes of society to spout all kinds of non-sensical conspiracy theories (the Y2K bug was a plot by the federal government to come take your guns away! No, really!). Bottom line: whether it was a fact or just hype, it now feels like the Y2K bug is at best a curiosity or footnote in history, and that is how this documentary comes across as well.

"Timebomb Y2K" played at various film festivals in 2023, and it started airing on HBO and streaming on Max (where I caught it) in late December. If you feel a little nostalgic about the "good ol' days" of the late 90s, I'd readily suggest you check this out (with expectations in check), and draw your own conclusion.