If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I saw this movie because it featured in some most-watchable movies list, and having seen it, I don't trust the list so much. It is one of your run-of-the-mill thriller belonging to the days when computer geeks were still a revered, and rare, species. Ryan Phillippe plays Milo Hoffman, a stereotypical computer geek, who originally wants to make a software, open-source and all, with his best buddy Teddy Chin (Yee Jee Tso), both of them being among "the top 20 programmers in the world" (how convenient!). But then comes Bill Gates' doppelganger Ryan Winston, offering them the benefits and perks of coming to work in N.U.R.V., the monopolistic giant of the computers industry (wink wink Microsoft!). Milo takes it, Teddy doesn't. Teddy dies. Between the name of the movie and the sequencing of the scenes, you can see the 'twist' coming from a mile away. But what really does this movie in is its portrayal of computer geeks, playing on every stereotype you can think of; they live and work in their garages (why they were doing it while the house was clearly theirs, beats me), they have no social life ("you have a girlfriend? Thats rare around here"), coding and generating algorithms being basically two guys prancing around the computer, hitting the keys with hand movements that would put the Jedi to shame, and yes, one of them HAS to be Asian. This apart from the obvious hate that the writers had for Microsoft; there is no way you can look at Ryan Winston and not be reminded of Bill Gates, and of course the computer that finally beats the system HAD to be a Macintosh. My advice, stay the hell away from this one and random internet lists.

To be honest when I stuck this on one evening, it was to just put something on in the background. I actually found myself keeping track of what was going on, but not through paying much attention to the storyline. It was by guessing what was happening as it tends to follow pretty much the same storyline as The Firm (The John Grisham one, not the cockney git one). Basically, computer dude gets his dream job and is getting along great guns with Bill Gates until he finds out he's evil so he goes about trying to expose his crimes and bring him down.It's horribly predictable all throughout. I was cooking during the first twenty minutes, but my mate had been watching it from the start. I did not miss out on anything in the storyline. I kind of assumed who everyone was and what had already happened. Very obvious that Ryan Phillipe's mate is going to get killed when he tells him it's good to hear from him again, even though he is working for their enemy.The best part of the film was noticing that the three main henchmen who carry out the murders and stuff on behalf of the Bill Gates type character (Tim Robbins) are called Schmeichel, Sheringham and Solskjaer. Seriously, that was the most entertaining part.I would say, as usual, that watch it with a pinch of salt and a few beers and it'll be a good laugh, but it's not. This is a film trying to be good and for that reason I did not enjoy it. If it at least starting taking the mick out of itself, I would've had a good laugh.The two birds are pretty hot, but I cant help but feel disappointed that he doesn't get off with either of them. The quality of this film could have been vastly improved if there were some breasts on display. A major disappointment.I was astonished to see that the average rating for this piece of work was 6/10. I am currently in the middle of watching the Tourist whilst watching this and it only got 5.9/10, and it has Timothy Dalton in it! (Something that immediately warrants a 10/10 rating in my book - he certainly is tenacious)

Watched the movie yesterday on TV (third time I saw it. First two times I didn't see the whole movie).I didn't give a 10/10 because there were still some issues.The lead actor, for example, just doesn't looks and acts like a geek. They didn't have to cast a guy with glasses and suspenders, but a guy who looks less like he fell off the catwalk. Sometimes the dialog isn't written very well and doesn't sound natural. This makes the actors sound really bad. Tim Robbins was great in the Shawshank Redemption, but in this movie some his lines make him sound like he's a villain in a superhero movie.But it wasn't all bad (else I wouldn't have given it 8/10).The technical stuff was done a little more realistic than most movies. Although some things were still done "like in the movies", because it's more exciting to hear someone say "You have to create the code for user interface to generate the movie!" than "Could you save the movie as an AVI file?". And copying a CD can be done in 20 seconds, because watching someone copying a CD for 10 minutes makes boring movie experience.I also liked the subject of the movie: open-source software. I am not against companies like Microsoft or Apple that make money with software. But I do like the idea of making people aware of open-source software, so that they can decide what they want to use.It's not the best thriller around, but more original than the cop-chasing-serial-killer-plot. If you just look at it as a movie and not as an attack on Microsoft or propaganda for open-source, it's a very good thriller that made me get behind the computer to code whole night long :P

The ending of this movie almost made me laugh out loud. It is by far about the most unrealistic ending I have ever seen in a movie. In the real world, it wouldn't be the character of Tim Robbins who got arrested, but the character portrayed by Ryan Phillippe.The illegal broadcast, combined with the illegal distributing of the software that made that broadcast possible, would ensure a lifetime in a jail cell for Milo and his friends, instead of being treated like heroes as happens in this movie Basically, If you hate companies that make money, and wish to make heroes out of people who can't abide by the law, then this movie is something for you.However, if you actually have a working brain in your head, you won't need to bother with this film, which in the end is nothing more then a very unrealistic propaganda film for open source software