Customer Reviews

War Games (25th Anniversary Edition)

5 star:		(100)
4 star:		(45)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This was an instant teen classic. Far more than a movie about romance, lust or "parents who just don't understand" .... this was a great flick and it still is.

Matthew Broderick introduced the masses to the world of hacking, phreaking and global thermo nuclear war.

The average person at that time had never heard of a phone phreak, but we see the lead character get free calls on a payphone and stealing software via his 300 baud modem before anyone knew there was software worth stealing.

Not only are his parents affluent enough to supply him with a computer, he gets discarded computer hardware from friends at a local university to make the super-duper hacking machine that ends up getting him in big big trouble.

While a lot of this story is pretty improbable, some of the plot was dead on for the time. There were no minature computers and cameras and while the government had satelites, they couldn't count your eyelashes from the stratosphere like they can today.

Nuclear war with the Soviet Union was a real threat when this movie came out... all of my friends talked about it and posters with mushroom clouds were all over our school. Sting came out with the song "Russians" and we all peed in our pants when the show "The Day After" aired on prime time TV.

It was a scary time and this movie masterfully played on the fear of nuclear threats and the real likelihood (and nowadays a reality) of having formerly human-manned stations automated by computers.

Lots of excitement, great background music and lots of 80s nostalgia abound in this film. If you're in your late 20s to early 40s and you haven't seen this film, it's your duty to get it!

I wish the DVD had more features, such as out-takes and interviews with the stars and perhaps others (like folks at NASA or other famous computer geeks) who may have been influenced by this film. The DVD platform isn't taken advantage like it should be, especially w/ a film of this genre. Nonetheless, it's a better format than VHS and definitely watchable over and over again.

This review refers to the MGM DVD edition of "War Games"......

"War Games" is a film to be enjoyed by the whole family. Only the very young may not find it entertaining as it may be beyond their comprehension.Take a trip back to the early eighties. There may have been "a car in every driveway, a chicken in every pot..", but definately not a computer in every teenager's bedroom.

David Lightman(Matthew Broderick) is a high school slacker. He is highly intellegent but for the most part an underachiever when it comes to his school work. Not a problem though. He only has to go home where he has a very high tech computer set-up for the time period. Once there he justs hacks his way into the school computer and changes his grades! Brilliant! So brilliant in fact, that one day he finds that he has broken into a high security system, and finds himself in the Defense Department's war computer. He was only looking for games, and he found one..."Global Thermonuclear War"!

The computer starts playing the game with him, he thinks it's a blast(excuse the pun)he even takes the Russian side, until he realizes...this may be no game. The military is perplexed by what they see on their big screens and they immediatley go into a defense mode.The only hope now is to find the creator of this game and hope he can make the computer stop playing before WWIII begins!

You'll be riveted by the thrilling and high tech action as David and his girlfriend(Ally Sheedy) go on the run with the FBI close on their heels, and try to prevent this terrible tragedy from occuring.

The young stars steal the show in this one, but it is rounded out by fine performances by Dabney Coleman and John Wood. It was directed by John Badham who keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout.

A very nice DVD. You'll view all the action in sharp colors and an outstanding picture. You have the choice of widescreen or standard.(No need to figure out which side it's on, you make that decision at the beginning of the film)Very good sound in Dolby Dig 5.1. There is feature length commentary by the director and the writers. Be sure to GO BACK to RESUME after pressing on this choice to get to it.It also includes a nice booklet and may be viewed in French or with subtitles in English, French or Spanish.

This is one everyone in the house should be happy with.. and may even take up Chess afterwards...enjoy...Laurie

This is a review of the 25th Anniversary Edition.

This DVD was made from a full screen version where the left and right sides were cropped. From that image, they cropped the top and the bottom to produce this so-called widescreen version. The image you see when watching this DVD consists of a small rectangle cut from the center of the original movie. If you could find a full screen version, you would see more of the original movie than if you watch this so-called widescreen version.

The package says "widescreen". In the past, the term widescreen meant that you see the entire original image. More and more, when a DVD package says widescreen, that means they cropped the top and the bottom so the image will fit a modern TV. Whereas in the past, widescreen meant you see more than with full screen, now it means you see less.

Why all the positive reviews here for this horrible product? Please, we can find movie reviews on imdb. Here on Amazon, we need critiques of the DVD. If everyone here would give mutilated movies the lowest rating, maybe the DVD makers would get the message and stop mutilating the movies we like. At least it would warn people against buying them.

Watching this movie again brings back some great nostalgic feelings -- back in these days computers were *special*, something amazing and almost magical. Being a software professional, I often yearn for those times again, where we weren't something as boring as "IT professionals" but "wizards". Reading an old copy of BYTE from 1980 or watching WarGames helps :)

I won't praise the movie further, but I want to highlight the commentary audio track: the director, John Badham and the two writers, Lawrence Lasker and Walter Parkes comment every scene in the movie. It's really great stuff, not the usual junk you might hear actors say about their own role in the movie (that seldom sounds convincing) but lots of technical details about how the movie was made (for example, the initial blizzard scene was apparently created with the help of helicopters) to exactly what sort of computer equipment was used (a TRS-80) and why. The commentators are having lots of fun and manage to share a lot of trivia (for example, W.O.P.R. was considered named PSIOP(sp)).

WarGames is a classic film of the early 80's, being both a cold war thriller and a cautionary tale about technology. Yet in all that, it's still a fun film to watch - hooking in both adults and kids, and having one of the best climactic scenes in cinema with hundreds of virtual World War III's being played out on the computer screens at NORAD. It's still mesmerizing to this day. The script, directing and acting are all excellent, with wonderful onscreen chemistry between Ally Sheedy and Matthew Broderick.

The 25th Anniversary Edition has a far superior transfer than the previous DVD, being from a much cleaner print of the film, and presented in true widescreen (not merely letterboxed). There are also a few new bonuses added to the release, the best of which is a new documentary with interviews of the cast and creators delving into how the film evolved from its original concepts, survived a directorial change, and came out as the film we know today. There are a few other new features as well, including an interesting look into NORAD and a brief documentary on the history of hacking. The commentary track is the same as the previous edition of the DVD, but that one was already excellent, so there was no need to replace it (although their introduction is cut-off for some reason, so you can't readily figure out who is who).

It's nice to see WarGames finally given a quality DVD release, although there's still room for improvement. It would have been great to have an additional commentary track with some of the actors, a gallery of deleted footage from the first director (if it still exists), and there has yet to be a proper CD release of Arthur B. Rubinstein's excellent soundtrack (something that could easily be done using a Dual-Disc, or even as an alternate audio track). Also - why can't DVD producers add a subtitle track for commentaries so you know who is talking? Even just the name of the person talking at any given time would help. Maybe some of these will be addressed if there's ever a Blu-Ray version. Still, the 25th Anniversary Edition of WarGames is absolutely well-worth having.

In spite of what it says on both Amazon & DeepDiscount this is a ONE disc release. It's chock full of some great features, and has very nice audio/visual quality (anamorphic ws). It's only $9.99 at Best Buy & $9.72 at DD which should've tipped me off that they'd cut out one disc. Overall I would still highly recommend it though.

I think it's safe to say that "WarGames" is the movie that defines many of those who came of age in the early '80s. I was about 10 when I saw the film in the theater. Although I didn't come to own a computer until several years later, certainly the idea came to me through "WarGames". Other movies I saw as a child defined a lot of my later interests -- "The Muppet Movie", "Star Wars", and "Superman" -- but this was the first film I could relate to on a real-life level.

Watching the DVD was the first time I'd seen "WarGames" in about a decade. The movie still holds together quite well, especially when you realize that's Michael Madsen right there in the first scene. It takes a short while to get to Matthew Broderick, but he owns the movie once he shows up -- until John Wood arrives as Professor Falken in the final reel and makes things even more interesting. The progression from suburban Seattle to the brink of World War III is done without the slightest hint of dramatic overkill (until perhaps the computers explode in a shower of sparks), and even the love story is charming. Ally Sheedy was so good in her small role that you sort of wish her career had fared better.

The DVD edition is a bit dated by 2002 standards -- the only special feature is the commentary track, by director Badham and the two screenwriters. I enjoyed this, as it pays special attention to the construction of the script and shows just why the movie holds together so well. It may seem obvious when Badham points out which lines are the jokes, but you can learn a lot about dramatic structure just by listening to these guys. ...

Oddly, the DVD case lists "trivia and production features" among the special features, but these aren't actually anywhere on the disc. There is an accompanying 8-page "collectible" booklet, but power up the 200-watt bulb and grab the magnifying glass before you try to read it. There is a brief easter egg accessible through the main menu, but I'm not quite sure why it's there.
The trivia booklet also describes Dabney Coleman's later TV series "Drexel's Class" as successful. What was the writer thinking?

This really is a must see movie that combines two of the most important cultural events in the eighties, the cold war and computers.

What's I'm really going to review here is not the movie (its great BTW and the DVD transfer is well done) but the commentary by the producer and writers. I was really impressed with this commentary, its non stop information and the only time they pause are a couple of times when they want to let the viewer take in the scene they just finshed setting up or explaining a certain aspect they would like you to take notice of.

The commentary really shows that the writers did their homework for this movie, they really do know their stuff when it comes to computers.

When this movie was released it was very up to date with the technology it featured. In this day of laptop computers and Internet access to mobile phones it certainly looks dated but put that aside and you are still left with a really good movie with a plot idea that still works today.
The story revolves around an underachieving, bored teenager (played by a very young Matthew Broderick) whose main interest in life is his computer. From his bedroom he can alter his school grades, reserve flights, and download software, all by hacking into other computers. While searching for new games from a software company he comes across a set of titles he assumes are games and decides, with his girlfriend, to play Global Thermonuclear War. Unfortunately it isn't a software company he has hacked into but a military system and he is playing against NORAD's computer. When the realisation hits that the NORAD computer, when it's turn comes round, will launch atomic missiles for real, the race is on the stop the game.
This is still a gripping film that can well pump up the tension even after several viewings. Recommended

This is, simply put, one of the movies that touched off the 80s -- and, I think, ignited public awareness of the slacker/hacker/geek subculture. This is just one of those common-denominator movies.

David is a teenaged geek -- undersocialized, twitchy, and smart-mouthed -- with more than his share of electronics skills. When he breaks into the wrong computer, persuading NORAD that a Soviet attack is imminent (and the Soviets that the Americans are gearing up for something), the government goes after him while the computer merrily deliberately freaks out the Russians to stoke WWIII. David has to figure out a way to get the computer to stop the game. It is a charming movie, filled with little moments that bring smiles and knowing grins (like David's interaction with schoolmate Jennifer, and his meeting with fellow computer wonks). It is rather slow in getting started, and some of the characterizations ring false (Falken is a total fruitbat; his dinosaur fetish is just a little contrived-sounding). There are also some plot holes that most computer geeks will recognize quickly. But overall, a fun movie, worth re-watching.

I should mention that the DVD does not include a lot of extras, and the one I got had a bizarre quirk -- the audio commentary was set to "on" by default. The only way to fix it is to set the language to "English" every time the DVD loads, which turns off the commentary automatically (I imagine it would toggle back on easily if you wanted it).