Customer Reviews

Antitrust [VHS]

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(26)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Ryan Phillippe acquits himself credibly as genius geek who gets his big break working for a Bill Gates wannabe, played by Tim Robbins. The biggest problem, going in, is open source versus commercialism. As the flick begins, Milo's (Phillippe's character) biggest dillemma is sorting out open-source Anarchism from Capitalist wage-slave (albeit elite) seduction.

While Milo makes the "wrong" choice, it propels him into the storyline of this movie. Slowly we see that Robbins would put a James Bond villain to shame. Eventually, Milo figures that out, too. Don't worry about being too slow to pick up what's going on, the major plot is spelled out so that even the most clueless jock can keep track.

Some interesting cinematic devices are used (notice the digital art during a climactic sequence) and the actors compel us to take part in the story. Plenty of clues forshadow important plot elements, so viewers may feel smarter than they really are as they predict what will happen next. For the real propellor heads, actual HTML & BASH codes are used. Massive Attack's "Angel" fits perfectly into a key dramatic moment.

How much longer can Tim Robbins go on playing charismatic psychopaths without getting typecast?

Four stars for plot, four stars for revealing the plot, four stars for acting. Overall, a great Friday night entertainment flick. Won't win any awards, but who cares? It's fun.

Wow. If you're over thirty years old and possess an I.Q. greater than a potato you will abhor this assault to your intellect. If you work in the industry you'll find it too painful to watch. If you find films like Hackers, The Net, or the remake of Charlie's Angles too embarrassing to admit to having watched - you might consider skipping this one.

The production is clean. The acting is quite good. The direction is fine. The soundtrack works. However, the moronic premise is less intellectually satisfying than any episode of Sponge Bob Square Pants or Dexter's Laboratory (the latter probably having more realistic computer science than the preposterous despotism portrayed in the film.)

The film takes itself far too seriously and tries to deliver a dramatic message by oversimplifying and vilifying the complexities of the computer industry. This is an appalling disinformation campaign that delivers almost no suspension of disbelief.

This sensualization of insipid technical minutiae propped up with the old "delusions of persecution" plot is, in my humble opinion, a waste of everybody's time.

If you're looking for just entertainment - Swordfish is a fun film.

I suppose this will appeal to the "script kiddies" <sigh>

The one good thing about this movie is that this is the first movie I've ever seen that uses _real_ computer commands for hacking. If you watch the commands that the hero uses to hack into the computer, you will find that they are, in fact, real commands that work the way shown.

Other than that, the movie was pretty lame. It could have been a good movie, but it was just a bit unbelieveable and not well thought through. The open-source/closed-source differentiation was bad. As an open-source/free software advocate, I thought that the portrayal of the reasons for open-source and the philosophy were very poorly portrayed.

I enjoyed seeing it for the hacking scenes, and to get to see a few of my favorite programmers on film in cameo shots. It's also somewhat historic, as being the first mainstream film about monopoly power and open-source, even though it treated both subjects poorly (a real movie about the problems of monopolies would be great, but this wasn't it). So, watch it for those reasons, because there isn't much else there.

I can't tell a joke well. A bad joke isn't funny no matter who tells it, but a person such as myself can make a good joke bad. A story also has to be told well and, in the case of a movie, filmed well, to be interesting. The problem with AntiTrust is that it's an okay tale that isn't told or filmed very well. It's lovely to look at, yet has neither electricity nor soul.

Milo [Ryan Phillippe] is a computer genius. Fresh out of college, he plans to start a business with some friends out of a garage, just like their computer heroes did twenty years ago. They plan to make their mark in cyberspace. One day, seemingly out of the blue, Milo and his best friend are approached by Gary Winston [Tim Robbins], who wants them to come to work for his giant, multinational company. It seems Winston is about to launch a computer program which will revolutionize communications, but he needs a few good geeks to get it operational. The friend, a wise young man, decides to stick to his original plan, but Milo gets sucked in. Along with his girlfriend Alice [Claire Forlani], he packs up and moves to Portland, Oregon, the home of Winston's Nurve Corporation. It isn't long before Milo suspects that Winston will literally kill to get what he wants. Breakthroughs in the programming of the new product always seem to happen just after the mysterious death of some bright programmer.

One of the problems in the movie is with some of the casting. Tim Robbins is fine as Winston, making him look and act so much like Bill Gates that it's a bit spooky. Ryan Phillippe, however, I can't buy as any kind of genius. He's done a good job in the past playing such roles as a sociopath [Cruel Intentions], a psychopath [The Way of the Gun] and a party boy [54]. But a computer whiz? I don't think so. Rachael Lee Cook is equally unbelievable as Lisa, a fellow programmer. Claire Forlani, who may be a star one day soon, is fine as Alice, but it's a part that's way beneath her capabilities.

AntiTrust belongs to the paranoid thriller genre. That's the one in which only the hero has figured out a diabolical plot. Until the end of the movie, the rest of the characters are almost always blind to the truth and tend to believe that the hero is simply stressed out. Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window is a classic example of this kind of film. To succeed, the movie must cause the audience to care about the protagonist. It must relate to him This doesn't happen in AntiTrust. Milo is just too bland and lame to hold our interest. It's one of those cases where, if we relate to anyone at all, it's to the bad guy, Winston. At least he's quick-witted and somehow humorous. You know a movie is in trouble when we start rooting for the villian.

The idea of this film is that Bill Gates is secretly murdering young open-source and Linux programmers. The DVD ends with commentary by the director about how software should be open and free. The DVD begins with an FBI copyright warning. Think about it...

It's bad science fiction, but historically interesting because it was produced with the help of SUN Microsystem, to help make their most hated competator look bad in the public eye. A snapshot into the greed and machinations of a contentious industry, timed to coincide with the antitrust trial of Microsoft.

The most important thing to remember is why this screenplay was brought to fruition in the movie theatre. The relevancy should be apparent. Often we have life imitating art. In this case the art is definitely imitating life in many ways.

Careful observation of the phenomenon known as Open Source (http://www.opensource.org) will reveal the real life David vs. Goliath conflict which Hollywood so dearly loves. It's not difficult to figure out which former technology CEO that Tim Robbins is parodying. Investigation into current press releases reveals that this type of anti-competitive behavior still exists in our current day market place.

You'll enjoy the movie if you like technology-oriented story lines or are a Linux geek. While there are story-line fractures overall it is a fun watch. Keep in mind the overall theme is a paranoia that the media, the government and everything else can be bought off or controlled by certain Mega Companies.

We all know this couldn't happen in "real-life" ... could it?

Antitrust: Opposing or intended to regulate business monopolies, such as trusts or cartels, especially in the interest of promoting competition. (Webster's) This movie gets you thinking. Sure, the plots could be better, the actors more aware, and the screenplay more intense and elaborate, but the movie really poses some good, inspiring roles and questions human behavior in capatalism. "How many will be altruistic, and how many will make billions off of your generosity?" Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco CEO's and directors were brought down by insider whistle blowers just like Milo Hoffman (Phillippe). The movie gives a realistic portrayal of some CEO's tricks of how to keep from being caught, and what it ultimately means if you decide to blow the whistle on them.

"You're a one or a zero, alive or dead." In the binary computer world of business, Gary Winston (Robbins) is trying to capitalize on other's inventions and knowledge, as well as their time, money, and careers, to further his profits and control within and without his company NURV. Robbins does a fine job with his part, and looks the part as well (Similar look in the film to Bill Gates, as intended.) The story is played out in a pleasing way, and grabs your attention after the introductory period, about 25 minutes long, and goes until the last minute or so. The story is real to life, and the actors try (and fail at points) to fully ingage their interest and full ability into their roles. Peter Howitt did a great job in deciding which scenes to keep and which to discard from the theatrical version, as seen in the commentary on the DVD. The use of directors from James Bond films, and The Matrix helped the aesthetics of the film as well.

Overall, it is a good film that can be seen again, and is worth your time. I also wonder, since the film was made in 2000 and released in 2001, how many people saw the movie, and were inspired to finally blow the whistle, as 2001 and 2002 marked Corporate Amaerica's worst bankruptcies and business frauds in history. I just wonder.

I don't know whether this movie is a pathetic and foolish attempt to attack Bill Gates, or a brilliant mockery of those who attack him. Most likely the former.

Either way, it's fun to see Tim Robbins as a totally evil parody of the software mogul. Good for many laughs, especially if you're in this industry. For those who aren't, this movie is just another typical high-tech suspense movie, with very little substance or style. Good for a rainy night rental when the movie you really wanted to see is sold out.

The only reason to watch this film is to see Tim Robbins as a dead-ringer for Bill Gates. It sure as heck isn't to see Ryan Philippe. I watched one of the featurettes and laughed because of how proud the filmmakers were that they bothered to use real code in the split-second scenes where you see the screen as the characters type furiously. Who cares?

If you want to see what the war to find the next great techno-innovation was really like, watch "Pirates of Silicon Valley. This docu-drama concerns the very real industrial espionage on all sides that went into creating the first PCs. Bill Gates does the most and of course comes out on top. It's everything "Anti-trust" wishes to be, and without the preposterous murders.

'Antitrust' takes a potentially interesting topic, tortures it into the shape of a teen thriller, and ends up simply embarrassing its audience. Every plot development is delivered with sledgehammer subtlety, every twist and red herring glaringly obvious from the outset in a half-baked script which isn't helped by amateurish editing and direction. Although the actors do try to make the best of it. Ryan Phillippe brings a knowing banality to the sickeningly preachy lines his Milo has to deliver, and Tim Robbins seems to have taken one look at the script and decided he might as well have fun with this wild-eyed, murderous caricature of Bill Gates - either that or he spent the whole shoot high on caffeine. If only he'd written and directed this, it might have been worthy of his involvement. There are at least three better ways this material could have been dramatized: (1) as a serious legal drama; (2) as a sardonic mockumentary about being an intern at Microsoft; or (3) as a true psychological thriller, not about murder and mayhem, but about our paranoia that Bill Gates and his minions really are Satanists with a lust for intergalactic domination, rather than just greedy computer nerds with a penchant for bad art.