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Sneakers

(1,744)IMDb 7.12 h 5 min1992X-RayPG-13

HD. Robert Redford leads a highly skilled tech team against a top computer thief in this caper.

Directors: Phil Alden Robinson

Starring: Robert Redford Dan Aykroyd Ben Kingsley

Genres: Drama Suspense

Subtitles: English [CC]

Audio languages: English

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Supporting actors: Mary McDonnell River Phoenix Sidney Poitier David Strathairn

Rating: PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)

Content advisory: Drug usefoul languageviolence

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5 star		81%
4 star		12%
3 star		5%
2 star		1%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Proberta Gerber

Geeks, humor and a bit of action

Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2016

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Enjoyed this a lot. I particularly loved David Strathairn -- an actor who always pleases, no matter what the role. A young River Phoenix showed the promise we all remember, and the rest of the star packed lineup -- Mary McDonnell, Sidney Poitier, Dan Akroyd, Robert Redford and Ben Kingsley brought no surprises but did their usual good jobs with the material.

Premise: A group of hackers who hire themselves out to try to crack business security systems for the business owners (to demonstrate vulnerabilities), is hired by NSA to break into a megabillionaire's private lair and steal a very dangerous "black box" for the good guys. As you may guess the good guys turn out to be almost as bad as the bad guys. The hacker group has the usual lineup of the charismatic leader, the conspiracy theorist, the math genius, the kid and so on.

Lots of famous actors doing their famous actor thing, some quite funny moments, some action, some conspiracies...what's not to like? Dated, of course, but maybe even more fun to watch because of that.

23 people found this helpful

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Hilarious and fun!

Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2017

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Review of Sneakers
Hot Toasty Rag, September 25, 2017

If you read a plot synopsis, nothing will seriously be ruined for you, but if you just pop in Sneakers and let every scene unfold without any prior knowledge, it’ll be an extremely entertaining ride!

Without giving too much away, because I’m an advocate of the second type of viewing, Robert Redford is the head of a secret group of hackers, including Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, David Strathairn, and River Phoenix. Everyone has skeletons in their closet, Robert Redford in particular, so when they’re threatened to take on a particular case, they’ve got no choice but to accept.

The entire team has great comic timing and chemistry together. Robert and Sidney make a few jokes about getting older, but they really don’t look much older than their heydays. I’d never seen David Strathairn in a movie before, and he was so convincing in his role as a blind man, I thought Hollywood was starting the career of an actually blind actor. Sneakers is a fantastic movie with a perfect blend of humor, action, suspense, and romance. It’s full of quotable lines and memorable scenes. If you don’t start laughing the next time you hear someone say “password”, you probably need to watch the movie again. Every time I watch it, I get inspired to chop off my locks because of Mary McDonnell’s adorable haircut. It’s one of the cutest do’s ever!

11 people found this helpful

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rica

SETEC Astronomy

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2017

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It's true - I love this movie & watch it about once a year. It's played for light laughs for the most part, although there are a couple of brief "uh-oh!" moments in the film. The actors all seem at ease and almost laid back in their portrayals, and seem like they're having a really fun time making the movie.

It's basically a light-hearted caper film with an interesting twist for those viewers who are interested in technology and how it can be used, in both "good" and "unscrupulous" hands. It's not a particularly fast-paced film, but if you like at least one of the actors involved with this picture (just take a look at the cast list!), and you're looking for something pleasantly funny with a little wit and banter, you should watch this. It's a lot of fun.

6 people found this helpful

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John W. Allen

Setec Astronomy

Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2018

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Posit: There is a great film you want to watch right now.
Consequence: It's never available on television.
Result: You become impatient, and purchase the film on DVD.

This is a terrific film starring some of my favorite people, and as a fan of spy movies, and comedies, you can't go wrong with Sneakers. Great cast, fun story, intriguing premise, especially considering the world we live in today. Just don't go spilling too many secrets once you see it.

4 people found this helpful

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Secrets and Adventure

Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2018

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You start with a secret group of hackers that have their own business of sorts- they do things like break into banks to test their safety measures. Each person on this team has their own strength, one is good at subterfuge, one is good at hacking into computers, etc etc.

Sadly, what makes this movie not as great as it was when it was first made is that time has passed. The equipment used by hackers is very much 'old school' now. Also, some of the things they get away with in this movie would be much harder to do now. (Talking your way into a place that requires ID for instance).

If you can overlook some of that and just enjoy the ride, this is a great movie. The characters have great chemistry together. The characters are believable in their actions and their motivations. There is some action and a little bit of romance.

This is a family friendly movie and I would show it to my teen age kids with no worries.
Enjoy.

One person found this helpful

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Movie Scumbag

Not aged well, well it’s boring cute garbage

Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2020

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What’s to like not much. I saw this as a kid and thought it was great. Now even Robert Redford looks like a fake news dork to me. Nothing in this movie makes sense hard to suspend belief. Dan akroid wastes and I’m sure he wants this one flushed. The blind guy a nice touch. I recommend you don’t watch and stop hyping please

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

D J Jackson: Passionate about Film.

A DELIGHTFUL JOKEY SOUFFLÉ, WITH HARD TRUTH AT ITS HEART.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 27, 2020

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This is a review of the excellent 2013 All Region Blu-ray from Universal Pictures UK.

American director and screenwriter Phil Alden Robinson is not prolific, but he is a man whose output is certainly high quality. In 1989, he directed the hugely entertaining and successful sports fantasy, ‘Field of Dreams’, and he won numerous awards for 2 highly regarded TV works, the drama ‘Freedom Song’(2000) and the first episode of the acclaimed HBO miniseries ‘Band of Brothers’ (2001). Holding, as he does, a BA in Political Science, this 1992 comedy thriller with a radical theme, was a natural vehicle.

It was also familiar ground for star Robert Redford. Redford, an environmental campaigner, advocate of minority rights, and supporter of Barack Obama’s re-election for President, has made a number of films dealing with political issues or Government conspiracies, including playing campaigning journalist Bob Woodward in ‘All the President’s Men’(1976), ‘Three Days of the Condor’(1975) and ‘Lions for Lambs’(2007).

Redford’s agreeing to lead the cast as Martin Bishop, brought a tremendous group of other Hollywood names on board. In a genuinely all-star ensemble, stand-outs include veteran Sidney Poitier providing gravitas; Ben Kingsley, deliciously villainous as Cosmo; and the always-reliable David Strathairn. Mary McDonnell, twice OSCAR-nominated for earlier films, is excellent as Liz, the sane woman amongst what she clearly views as a bunch of over-grown kids and their toys.

The screenplay was co-written by Robinson, and by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F Parkes, who had collaborated on ‘WarGames’, a Cold War-set Sci Fi film made nearly a decade earlier. Research for that film gave them the idea for ‘Sneakers’. Films about computers, codes, hacking and Big Government are certainly not new, but this film puts all the pieces together in a delightfully entertaining and exciting fashion. It keeps the action going full-tilt, introduces us to several fun characters, and gently sends up the genre in a very satisfying manner. It even manages to keep the jeopardy wholesome, without gratuitous violence at any point. The knowing, jokey script delivered by real professionals is a treat. The scenes involving Liz and her dreadful dates with ‘anal’ Werner (played by Stephen Tobolowsky, unforgettable as Ned Ryerson in the later ‘Groundhog Day’) are a delicious highlight.

Jokey and tongue-in-cheek though it is, ‘Sneakers’ contains nuggets of genuine comment that remain true. When Cosmo tells Martin ‘…money’s most powerful ability is to allow bad people to continue doing bad things at the expense of those who don't have it’ and ‘There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information’, perhaps, given the world today, we shouldn’t be laughing.

2 people found this helpful

Hisham

Brilliant movie.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 11, 2019

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I love this movie and was delighted to spot it had been given a Blu-Ray release.

I'm giving it 4 stars mainly because the movie is so awesome. It has one of the best ensemble casts ever. So many quotable lines and moments.

It's a masterclass in storytelling.

I was a bit disappointed to discover that the picture quality hasn't been improved for this edition. I was hoping they might have gone back to the source to improve the quality for the Blu-Ray - alas they did not. This is the same picture quality you will get from a DVD.

There are no special features, which is another disappointment. I was hoping they might have dug up some old interviews etc, but hey.

Sneakers is still a brilliant movie and is worth your time for that alone.

Note: for any curious buyers, this Blu-Ray did NOT include a digital download code.

2 people found this helpful

J. Reddington

Sneakers is simply an enjoyable 126 minutes that you wouldn’t believe is now 20 years old.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 20, 2016

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A review I once wrote for an online site:

here is a simple formula for the plot of a caper movie. You introduce the gang, and it is always a gang, performing a caper for the first act, you spend the second act motivating the gang to do a much more serious caper, and in the third act you pull off the serious caper. Fade to black.
Sneakers sticks to the formula religiously. The sub-plots are similarly formulaic, and for the whole film you can’t shake the feeling that you are watching a cover version of a film you’ve seen before.
We can dispense with the plot in a few sentences. Robert Redford is a security expert who tests the security of companies by breaking into them. He’s blackmailed – via reference to a shady past- into breaking into a new place and stealing the MacGuffin. He has second thoughts and breaks into the blackmailer’s place and steals it back.
But… the simple story is told beautifully, even unambitiously by director and writer Phil Alden Robinson (who also put together Field of Dreams) and what the script lacks in grandeur in makes up in lovely touches of characterisation. Personally, I’m inclined to think the star of the production must have been the casting director: to line up Mary McDonnell, River Phoenix, Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, and Ben Kingsley, and not only convince them to do the movie is one thing, to ensure that the personalities have chemistry and that each star is playing a role they can clearly revel in is quite another.
What elevates the film from forgettable once-seen to enjoyable Sunday-afternoon movie is the excellent dialogue and the obvious chemistry of the team (any two of Redford, Aykroyd, McDowell, and Poitier riff beautifully together and this isn’t lost in the larger groups). The director sensibly gets out of the way of his cast and lets them work with a script that carefully treads between comedy and drama. The main crew are ably supported by Ben Kingsley in chilling, rather than hammy, villain mode and Stephen Tobolowsky, whose transformation from bumbling victim to chilling creep, is handled effectively in a short amount of screen time.
There are imperfections in the film, notably the opening scene ignores the main cast in favour of establishing the said shady past, and James Earl Jones‘ one scene is fabulous, but insufficiently foregrounded. It also suffers a little from not really creating much in the way of a sense of peril, the viewer just presumes that Redford’s character is going to be charming at people until everything goes to plan. However, the overwhelming feeling is of a film of enjoyable triumph.sneakers2
Some points deserve special mention: the dialogue, timing and delivery is sure-footed and solid, the set pieces, which are of course the mainstay of a caper plot, are nicely held together and the plot survives repeated watching. Two things stand out as exemplars that other film-makers should pay attention to: the quality of the technical dialogue and the enduring longevity of the film.
First the technical details: viewers of film and TV are used to characters delivering a few lines of technical gobbledygook whenever the writer needs a technical reason to drive the plot. Invariably this gobbledygook causes groans from those who do pay attention to technology. One of the astonishing things about Sneakers is that the technical gobbledygook – while serving the classic dialogue purposes of making the character sound smart and also driving the plot – does make sense, and does provide reasonable justification for the actions taken in the movie.
All of the security plot (the creation of the MacGuffin the team is to steal and the methods used to steal it) is reasonable, possible, and, amazingly the cast manage to say the right words in the right order and stress the right words in such a way that they genuinely convince sceptical technical nerds in the audience that they know what they are doing… (sadly this only extends to the dialogue and the actors, the visual effects department didn’t get the memo and so we are treated to some very dated visuals of ‘decryption’ happening in a very odd way). This is a film that is an example of how easy it is to get small details right when you take the time.
Finally, this is linked to another point: the film has barely dated. Most characters are seen as scurfy and unfashionable so the hair and clothes haven’t dated, and the technical details -somewhat fortunately – describe problems that still exist. There are almost no scenes where you think, “Well he’d just sort that out with an iPhone these days” (although someone does use a car-phone at one point), and because the direction is so laissez faire there is no sense that the film is from another time, or trying to make a particular statement.

3 people found this helpful

Mark Pack

Still a great light-hearted technology caper movie

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 24, 2015

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The light-hearted technology caper movie Sneakers came with an all-start cast including Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Ben Kingsley and many more.

But most importantly this 1992 movie came with a great script that relies on smarts and wit rather than over-dramatic action.

Although technology has moved on, its core ideas (especially the question of quite what the NSA is getting up to with its snooping) are still very relevant. As one of the computer hackers says: "It’s not about who has the most bullets. It’s about who controls the information. What we see and hear. How we work. What we think. It’s all about the information."

Yet for all the occasional seriousness, this is really one to watch for fun, right from the anagrams in the opening titles and especially for the famous scene where the route that kidnappers took with Robert Redford in the trunk of their car is recreated by dissecting the sounds he heard along the way.

Great fun.

4 people found this helpful

Helena

DVD "Sneakers"

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 1, 2014

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Loved this movie when it first came out and its remained a favourite for years. I thought the bouncing off each character, the fun & nonsense that went on between Dan Ackroyd and Sidney Poitier and Redford looking his usual handsome self - probably in his prime. Sad to think that the late River Phoenix, so good as the team's young apprentice, would have only a few short years to live - shame. Nevertheless, if its a rainy, cold Saturday afternoon, this is the movie to watch, its just old-fashioned professional fun...

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