Sun 1 Jul 2012
HACKERS. United Artists, 1995. Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Jesse Bradford, Matthew Lillard, Laurence Mason, Renoly Santiago, Fisher Stevens, Alberta Watson, Lorraine Bracco, Wendell Pierce. Director: Iain Softley.
As a rule, and I don’t have too many rules, but Number Five is that I don’t review movies I don’t understand. But every Rule has an Exception, and so does Rule #5. Movies about computers, computer whizzes and computer geeks I don’t have to understand to review them. I can even enjoy them, but not always.
Hackers is a movie that falls into the category of “I didn’t really understand the plot,” but I did enjoy it. A lot. The story deals with a worm and/or computer virus dreamed up by some slimy corporate security guy, but which a gang of high school hackers stumbles upon. And (with some travail but not too unexpectedly) they save the day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP6iTjhlOvs
There is a lot of symbolic nonsense about what you see on the screen when someone is hacking, or at least I think it’s nonsense, but what do I know. Psychedelic images looking very electronic, in other words, but symbolic in the sense that it’s maybe what the hackers have in their brains while they are sitting at their computer screens typing madly away at the keyboard.
The reason I could enjoy this one is that the gang of hackers, whose actions and life style may or may not be authentic, but which feels authentic, except for maybe the roller skates, is so much fun to watch – their competitiveness, their one-upmanship, and their comradery – along with a romance that begins with hatred at first sight.
Or at least what feigns to be hatred at first sight, but these are teenagers, and their hormones are all mixed up.
I’m speaking of Jonny Lee Miller (Eli Stone, to some of us) and Angelina Jolie (Lara Croft, to some other of us, with some overlap, I’m sure). Miss Jolie was all of 20 years old when she made this movie, and from the first moment she’s on the screen, you know that, yes, here is going to be star.
The computer stuff was outdated even before they finishing filming this movie, so there’s no need to go into any of the details, even if I could (or even if I could fake it), and here it is, well over 15 years later already.
You needn’t be for a minute concerned about that. If you watch movies for fun and entertainment, this is one for you. Even if you don’t understand what’s going on: the plot, that is – the unimportant, non-essential part. Rule #2: Know which is which.
July 2nd, 2012 at 12:57 am
For most people, movies about hackers are like those about CIA operatives, airline pilots, and nuclear scientists. You know that they exist, but you just have to take a lot of what they say on trust. How much of what we see here is (or was) accurate, I can’t say, but I do question the accuracy of the hackers themselves—they’re far too good looking! Neither Miller nor Jolie look like the sort of people who spend hours hunched over a computer screen. Mind you, that goes for most films about ‘real’ people. I still remember, many years ago, talking to a moderately successful novelist (never mind who) about the screen representation of writers. He had just seen a movie where some big Hollywood star was playing a best selling novelist. “So, tell me, in between several hours a day workout and several more swanning about beautiful locations, when exactly does he actually get down to writing? If I looked like that, I wouldn’t waste time writing books. I’d become a film star and sleep with every screen starlet around!”
Still a fun movie, though.
July 2nd, 2012 at 8:52 am
While I remember Eli Stone, the name Jonny Lee Miller didn’t register with me for some time. Then I saw Dark Shadows (the movie) in which he played Roger Collins. Suddenly I made the connection. Now he will be appearing this fall in “Elementary” that a friend has already labeled a “copycat” of the BBC “Sherlock.” I wonder if I will suddenly see Miller all over the place!
July 2nd, 2012 at 11:21 am
HACKERS is really entertaining.
It’s long been on my list of Outstanding American Feature Films:
http://mikegrost.com/zlist.htm
Didn’t even know ELI STONE was on the air!
Jonny Lee Miller was a good guy in the off-trail version of MANSFIELD PARK.
July 2nd, 2012 at 12:26 pm
No, Eli Stone was canceled several years ago. Don’t think it ever went into syndication. If Steve hadn’t mentioned it I might not have remembered it and remembered JLM was in it.
July 2nd, 2012 at 4:56 pm
Bradstreet
We’re on the same wavelength with this one!
Steve
July 2nd, 2012 at 4:58 pm
Mike
That’s a great list of movies you put together. Looking at others in the list, I admit I’m a little surprised to see that you have HACKERS on it, but you’re right. It’s a very enjoyable movie.
Steve
July 2nd, 2012 at 5:06 pm
Mike and Randy
ELI STONE was on for two seasons, 2008-2009, but the premise worn thin, and the second season was nowhere near as fun to watch as the first one. (Stone’s brain aneurysm gives him visions of the future, often to music.)
I did not know that Angelina Jolie and Jonny Lee Miller were married for three years until I saw it just now on IMDB.
I’m looking forward to ELEMENTARY this fall. They could easily mess it up, but it might come out well.
July 2nd, 2012 at 7:02 pm
I’m hoping they don’t mess up ELEMENTARY either. I have breakfast with other college emeriti on Tuesdays and every time there is a mystery on PBS on the previous weekend I get grilled with questions. With SHERLOCK they are ones that should be “elementary” to anyone with a thorough knowledge of the Holmes canon who is able to recognize the concepts and phrases that surface in the new series. Alas, many of my colleagues are not able to do so and I just hope my memory is not playing tricks on me.
I think it was the second season of ELI STONE that I saw.