Hackers is one of the original 90s hacker-slacker tech-geek movies off the back of, and updated, eighties' Matthew Broderick classics like Ferris Beuller and Wargames etc and early 90s films like Sneakers. It is stylized, not true of "real" hacking and the graphics and images (using city streets and building to represent circuitry), similar in look to some cyber parts of Johnny Mnemonic which was out the same year as well as a few other films from around the same time. It's a sexy, funny, much quotable romp with a sub-plot of romance. The main plot is mega-corporation conspiracy to hold tankers to ransom using a computer virus called Da Vinci and it's some College 'elite' hackers vs the FBI to be first to solve who is to blame and clear those who are innocent. Jonny Lee Miller is the hero of the piece and is gorgeous and confident, playing it cool and smooth opposite a young (and already stunning) Angelina Jolie often sans appropriate underwear. She is haughty and cold, and for only her first major film role completely sizzled. The chemistry between her and Miller was smoking, in art as in life.
Overall the acting is a little overplayed and I feel that much of the film was tongue in cheek and not to be taken seriously, almost like a comic-strip adaptation. All the characters in the "gang" are larger than life from the extremely weird and intelligence-ambiguous Matthew Lillard as Cereal Killer (as in fruit loops) to the hyper 'boy wonder' Jesse Bradford as underdog-wanting-recognition Joey. Fisher Stevens plays manchild with boytoys 'The Freak' and does the role with crazy eccentricity and hubris together with his equally crazy partner in crime Margo (Lorraine Bracco) who is terminally hammy and over-the-over-the-top of everyone else but in a rather wooden and unconvincing kind of way. Look out for a young Penn Jillette (as in Penn and Teller). It's a great 90s film with a fab soundrack and wardrobe, especially Crash and Burn (Miller and Jolie), and a really exciting finale. However, whilst I like it a lot I don't think it aged well to appeal to a wider generation, but it remains a favourite of mine, which I watch every now and again for giggles and to bring back memories. That all said, the stand out message from this film is most certainly: "Spandex, it's a privilege, not a right!"
Overall the acting is a little overplayed and I feel that much of the film was tongue in cheek and not to be taken seriously, almost like a comic-strip adaptation. All the characters in the "gang" are larger than life from the extremely weird and intelligence-ambiguous Matthew Lillard as Cereal Killer (as in fruit loops) to the hyper 'boy wonder' Jesse Bradford as underdog-wanting-recognition Joey. Fisher Stevens plays manchild with boytoys 'The Freak' and does the role with crazy eccentricity and hubris together with his equally crazy partner in crime Margo (Lorraine Bracco) who is terminally hammy and over-the-over-the-top of everyone else but in a rather wooden and unconvincing kind of way. Look out for a young Penn Jillette (as in Penn and Teller). It's a great 90s film with a fab soundrack and wardrobe, especially Crash and Burn (Miller and Jolie), and a really exciting finale. However, whilst I like it a lot I don't think it aged well to appeal to a wider generation, but it remains a favourite of mine, which I watch every now and again for giggles and to bring back memories. That all said, the stand out message from this film is most certainly: "Spandex, it's a privilege, not a right!"