“Mess with the best, die like the rest.” —Dade Murphy
Today’s quick review: Hackers. Dade Murphy (Johnny Lee Miller), a hacking prodigy, moves to a new high school during his senior year and falls in with the computer crowd there, butting heads with fellow hacker Kate Libby (Angelina Jolie). But when one of Dade’s new friends breaks into a highly secure system, he puts them all in the crosshairs of a security expert (Fisher Stevens) with a secret plan to hold several oil tankers hostage.
Hackers is a cyber thriller that drops a group of high school hackers in the middle of a plot to squeeze millions from a major energy company. Hackers offers a highly romanticized look at the world of cyber security. Buzzwords fly, code names abound, and computers bristle with flashy interfaces. And at the center of it all, Dade must prove his chops to Kate without getting caught by the Secret Service.
Hackers has a suite of flaws that make it either hard to watch or entertaining, depending on the viewer. The film takes liberties with both computers and the culture surrounding them. It aims for a standard of coolness that hasn’t aged well, and it misses by a wide margin. The characters are borderline caricatures, the plot is slow to unfold and holey when it does, and even the film’s non-technical details have errors.
In spite of all this, Hackers is a moderately entertaining watch on its merits. Though not perfect, the plot is mostly coherent. The characters are shallow but play off each other well. The hacks are fanciful but occasionally clever. Really, Hackers is a kids’ film in disguise: apart from a bit of swearing, the light tone and loose plot logic make it a surprisingly good fit for the genre.
Give Hackers a shot if you are in the mood for a flawed thriller, a decent kids’ film, or are just curious to see Hollywood’s take on 90s-era computer culture. For a kids-with-computers movie with a bit more cohesion, check out WarGames. For an action movie with a similarly loose approach to hacking, check out Swordfish. For a cyber thriller with a tighter script, check out Sneakers.
6.2 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 6.0 for modest entertainment value hampered by mediocre writing and an odd attitude.