Very well executed

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Films dealing with real events in the past and focusing on a non-general subject should find a specific form or approach - for the sake of wider understanding and praise. In 23, the story begins auspiciously, but then the pace abates, and many scenes and characters have little meaning for the story development - or they have a role, but the viewers obtain no satisfactory clarification. The activities of law enforcement are almost not depicted at all. True, the leading performances are realistic and good (particularly August Diehl as Karl Koch), and the moods and style of the 80ies have been caught, but the run of events and the ending did not meet my expectations in full.Well, this story has its interesting angles at present as most of people in the 1980ies had no PC or intranet, but it is not on the level of e.g. Who Am I – Kein System ist sicher, dealing with hackers as well.

i was kind of disappointed when i watched the movie, because i expected to see another "Hackers" inspired style- or maybe some conspirancy-theory-movie like The X-Files.but instead i got a drug-addict drama. okay, okay, maybe the hacking scenes where realistic, but that's only one positive aspect. and i also missed Clifford Stoll, and his hunt for Markus Hess aka Urmel. Where were those characters? they were pivotal in catching Hagbard.I am sorry. But this is not a good movie.

A very entertaining suspense movie from Germany. If you love the X-Files you'll like this one too. It gives a lot to think about! I'm also sure we'll see the well playing young actors again soon in another movie.

"23" is one of the best german movies for a long time. It is based on the story of the life of Karl Koch (August Diehl: excellent) who was one of the best hackers of his time. 23 is the number of the Illuminators, the members of a worldwide secret society in the book "Illuminatus" by Robert Anton Wilson (who has a short guest appearance). On his high point of hacking Koch broke into the computers of US government arms control and delivered the data to the KGB. The film is a trip back to the 80's: The cold war, Olof Palme's assassination, Gadhaffi and Tschernobyl - most of the viewers will remember those things which dominated policy and influenced the all day life. The film shows the development of Karl Koch from his teenage years to his death as a person destroyed by his cocaine abuse and the extreme pressure he experienced in the wheels of eatern/western policy. This is a very good movie with very good actors-don't miss it!