Welcome back to another edition of Adam's Reviews
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Today's movie review is the suspense thriller The Net (1995) starring the sensational Sandra Bullock as computer expert Angela Bennett whose life revolves around debugging software computers, chatting to her friends online and works remotely so here is minimal human contact. She has a mother who lives at a facility for advanced Alzheimer's care and wouldn't know Angela from a nurse. Angela comes across a disturbing program that seems to be hacking into government, banking, hospital and other systems through a supposed cybersecurity program. Before she can meet with the online friend who raised his concerns over the program, the online friend is killed in a mysterious plane crash. Angela blithely proceeds with her Mexican vacation, but doesn't put two and two together until she meets a dashing stranger on the beach by the name of Jack played Jeremy Northam. Jack lures and seduces Angela and reveals himself as a cold-hearted killer looking for the program. Angela barely escapes the attempt on her life and her identity is not only erased through license, social security and other records, but Angela, fingerprints and all, is given a new name of Ruth Marx and a rap sheet attached to this name that includes prostitution and drug crimes, putting her on law enforcement's radar. Another hacker in on the scheme has taken over her identity at work and put her house up for sale.
"Our whole lives are on the internet!" is a line of Bullock's character which in reality fuses the gripping notions of identity theft, invasions of privacy and internet tracking that can be tied to the capabilities of not just multinational firms hacking into our lives but also government agencies. Paranoia is a key theme in this film as no one is who they seem - imposters abound, everyone appears suspicious which you can see in the movie where Angela gains allies and then quickly loses them. What remains are her consistent enemies who will not sleep until their prey is chased and hunted down. My only issue wit the film is he character of Jack Devlin, the assassin who plays this smarmy, arrogant, overconfident guy yet also has this sick sadistic and obsessive performance towards Bullock's character which you almost want to vomit. Maybe this is why I find him as the primary villain not genuinely threatening as the performance at times becomes artificial. Sandra Bullock does well for a sympathetic, isolated, spunky protagonist, who is fun to watch even if the plot takes a turn toward the realm of overly predictable thrillers. The filmmakers had a persuasive point to make about the outsized role computers were playing in our lives, so we can forgive the fact that back in 1995 most internet access was gained by agonizingly slow dial-up modem, complete with screechy dial tones, dropped connections, and halting downloads. Overall 7/5/10.
Today's movie review is the suspense thriller The Net (1995) starring the sensational Sandra Bullock as computer expert Angela Bennett whose life revolves around debugging software computers, chatting to her friends online and works remotely so here is minimal human contact. She has a mother who lives at a facility for advanced Alzheimer's care and wouldn't know Angela from a nurse. Angela comes across a disturbing program that seems to be hacking into government, banking, hospital and other systems through a supposed cybersecurity program. Before she can meet with the online friend who raised his concerns over the program, the online friend is killed in a mysterious plane crash. Angela blithely proceeds with her Mexican vacation, but doesn't put two and two together until she meets a dashing stranger on the beach by the name of Jack played Jeremy Northam. Jack lures and seduces Angela and reveals himself as a cold-hearted killer looking for the program. Angela barely escapes the attempt on her life and her identity is not only erased through license, social security and other records, but Angela, fingerprints and all, is given a new name of Ruth Marx and a rap sheet attached to this name that includes prostitution and drug crimes, putting her on law enforcement's radar. Another hacker in on the scheme has taken over her identity at work and put her house up for sale.
"Our whole lives are on the internet!" is a line of Bullock's character which in reality fuses the gripping notions of identity theft, invasions of privacy and internet tracking that can be tied to the capabilities of not just multinational firms hacking into our lives but also government agencies. Paranoia is a key theme in this film as no one is who they seem - imposters abound, everyone appears suspicious which you can see in the movie where Angela gains allies and then quickly loses them. What remains are her consistent enemies who will not sleep until their prey is chased and hunted down. My only issue wit the film is he character of Jack Devlin, the assassin who plays this smarmy, arrogant, overconfident guy yet also has this sick sadistic and obsessive performance towards Bullock's character which you almost want to vomit. Maybe this is why I find him as the primary villain not genuinely threatening as the performance at times becomes artificial. Sandra Bullock does well for a sympathetic, isolated, spunky protagonist, who is fun to watch even if the plot takes a turn toward the realm of overly predictable thrillers. The filmmakers had a persuasive point to make about the outsized role computers were playing in our lives, so we can forgive the fact that back in 1995 most internet access was gained by agonizingly slow dial-up modem, complete with screechy dial tones, dropped connections, and halting downloads. Overall 7/5/10.