Customer Reviews

Track Down

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I saw this after watching "Freedom Downtime," and I have to say that if they'd seen the final script they needn't have bothered to protest. The film is quite sympathetic to Kevin Mitnick--he comes out as more of a sympathetic character than Tsutomu Shimomura does (and "wins" in the end despite jail). There's no trial scene, there's no garbage can lid scene (contrary to one of the reviewers, who seems to be reviewing the initial script rather than the final product)--Mitnick is not portrayed as violent in this film. Sure, they took some liberties with the facts to try to make it more entertaining, but that was probably necessary.

Watch for the real Tsutomu Shimomura in the scene where the actor portraying him is speaking at a conference--he's sitting next to Donal Logue (the Lewis DePayne, er, Alex Lowe character), who is giving Shimomura a hard time (as the real Shimomura laughs).

It is amusing that one of the best scenes in the movie (in the strip club where Lowe and Mitnick are meeting with an "Agent Steal"-like character named Icebreaker) comes out of Jonathan Littman's _The Fugitive Game_ rather than the Shimomura and Markoff book. Littman filed a copyright infringement suit over it, according to Kevin Poulsen's review of the DVD on The Register (Feb. 13, 2001).

this movie surprised me, i enjoyed it a lot more than i thought, and was actually on the edge of my seat. especially cause it's based on a true story and is quite accurate.

i watched it again a couple of weeks later and still enjoyed it and then i read "the fugitive game" (available at Amazon.com!!!) i got that book instead of the one the movie was based on, because of the comments of users and it was written by a third party so i felt it would be less biased.

ANYWAY, if you have any interest in computers and find "the art" of hacking to be interesting......check it out!
ah... the movie that is, not the "art of hacking", just something to live vicariously thru the movies!

A really great hacker film that becomes a cat-and-mouse edge-of-your-seat thriller. In the spirit of War Games and Sneakers, this film is exciting, thrilling, and fast-paced.
I don't care how accurate it is, THIS is a great movie!

8-17-06.
Walt D in LV

Takedown and Track Down are basically the same movie with Track Down having a couple very minor, barely noticeable edits. "Little F*cker" is edited out in Track Down after the FBI agent gets his lights cut off; And of course the title is changed in the intro. Other than that, I didn't notice that many more edits but there could have been other subtle edits.

Takedown/Track Down is really an incredible action movie, especially if you like Kevin Mitnick or hacker/tech movies. The cons, in my opinion, is the stuff the director,screenwriters, etc made up. There's a long list of made up stuff like Contempt (Mitnick really copied the NokiTel code and other secret software like the Berkeley Packet Sniffer developed for the military to go onto a Unix system without needing a reboot to work), confrontation with Tsutumo near his Seattle apartment and other inaccuracies. It could have been more widely accepted without the inaccuracies, especially from Mitnick, himself, who boycotted the film and sued because of the inaccuracies. If you can slide the inaccuracies to the side, it really has some outstanding qualities. Real and cool hacking scenes which I wish the movie Hackers had. The big hacking scene where Mitnick does the first ever public IP Spoof hack on Tsutumo's work and home computers is one of the coolest scenes of the movie, it's really a work of art! The sped up effects, eerie music of Ulrich typing on the keyboard and accessing the system, top notch! The music is really quite good, a mix of ambience, alternative rock, it's just too bad they didn't release a soundtrack for this movie ..yet. I have made a fan version of the soundtrack that I'm still working on getting together all the songs. [...] if you can contribute any of the rarer ambient songs in the movie. Enjoy this great movie!

If you like, this "histories" about hacking, here you got some of what MAYBE happen with the capture of kevin mitnick...

I recomend it for perople who really like the type... go for it...

I was looking for this movie. The disc was in good condition and the service was good. Nothing to complain about this item.

This movie is hacker history and entertainment. This movie shows social engineering techniques more than true hacking, but that was Mitnick's strongest point. Even though the movie shows the history of a geek, it was entertaining capture the attention of a layman.

I watched it many years ago and finally decided to get it for my own collection just recently. Good one! I'm glad that it's still available on the Internet.

Coming from a network guy...this is an awesome video! Great story behind Kevin Mitnick!

As an information security professional I know all about Kevin Mitnick and what happened during his flight and arrest. If you are looking for accuracy or facts I would suggest freedom downtime (http://www.freedomdowntime.com/) instead, if you want a fun popcorn movie that just happens to feature hackers, this is pretty good. Skeet Ulrich does a pretty good job of playing uber obsessed but tormented hacker Kevin Mitnick. One of the funny things displayed in the movie is how Mitnick didn't feel he did anything wrong by his cybertrespass. Another intresting thing to note is although Russel Wong's character, Tsutomu Shimomura, is protrayed in the book and movie as a innocent victim and wholsesome security expert, many people feel he commited as many crimes as Mitnick and should have been in the next cell over. The same people also argue the only reason he wasn't is his exploits were legitimized by John Markoff, a New York Times reported who has written several things about Kevin since the 80's although had never met him, who was in book but strangely absent from the movie.
I think Track Down is a fun movie but don't rely on it for facts. I think it won't be long till a Track Down drinking game is made. It has the same "stylized" hacking scenes found in other movies which i want to bash but how else can you depict hacking as an intresting thing? Overall I would rate it at least a rent, I liked it enough to buy it.