One of the biggest problems with movies that feature tech geek culture is how poorly it resonates with geeks, because they usually get it all wrong.
Hackers, I’m convinced, knew it was wrong from the start and set out to deliberately create something that would portray the geek stereotype that non-geeks expect (ie, lots of words, TLAs, and specs they don’t understand) while being so fantastically outside of reality that they crossed the line twice and made a geek farce. And geeks freaking love farces.
I don’t know what I loved to wince at more: the over the top MOFOS (MOvie Fake Operating System), the painfully overwrought “handles” everyone had (ZeroCool – tee hee), the scene where they all hover over what it obviously a Mac PowerBook and talk about it having the new Pentium processor, or the idea that any high school anywhere actually has a sprinkler system with a nice GUI control system. Combine that with Angelina Jolie’s boyish good looks and Jonny Lee Miller’s girlish figure, and they’ve got a cult classic.
Techie’s assessment: The Dick Clark of movies, won’t truly show it’s age until it’s 135. Go watch or conjure your own memories of this classic and tell me if you think I’m wrong.
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This movie, as a geek, is like watching Top Gun for me, as an aerospace engineer. I have to force myself not to analyze it. Turn off the brain and just enjoy it. Then, it is a fun movie. Again, it's not going to win any prizes (Cereal Killer? Really?), but the plot is suitable and a young Jolie is delicious. Technically, it's crap, but that doesn't stop me from being entertained.
This wasn't a bad movie as long as you accepted that it was a techno-fantasy – avoid the temptation to criticize the technical accuracy and just go along for the slightly silly ride. However, it had the deleterious effect of inspiring zillions of weenie-kids to go online and annoy everyone by bragging about their mission and attempts to become leet kewl haquers. Sorry, kiddies, but in 99.999 percent of all cases, spending your life online is not going to get you laid by anyone even remotely resembling Angelina Jolie. Mom was right – turn off the PC and go outside and play.
Man, my memory ain't the steal trap that it used to be, but was The Net any good? At the time, I think it was, but that was a long, long time ago.
<img src=http://www.cse.lehigh.edu/~lopresti/Courses/2006-07/CSE097/Images/the%2520net.jpg">
I thought The Net was one of the poorer techno-thrillers. As far as I'm concerned, the best of the genre was Sneakers.
Good point. Sneakers was awesome. How about Swordfish?
Swordfish was mindless drivel but it had Halle Berry's boobs, so it gets an automatic five star, two thumbs up, "one of the greatest movies of all times" rating.
I share your assessment of that one. Funny how a couple of mid-size credentials can do so much good.
I believe that is also one (two?) of the criteria that elevated Hackers to such a cult-classic movie, except in this instance it was a young Angelina.
Sneakers was awesome. I have it on DVD and watch it from time to time just for fun.
The Net was good the first time I saw it for the action and whodunnit stuff. After that, it lost its luster.
I've been struggling over how to write a post on this. Despite all its technical inaccuracies, this movie was far more true to the "hacker" ethos than any of the "h4x0rz" you'd see on 4Chan right now. That whole "attack" on Tumblr wasn't even enough to earn those kids the pejorative "script kiddie" insult back when I joined the online world. If you're not actually trying to get into the server yourself, and not using any of your own skill set to accomplish your goal, you're just a pain in the ass, not "badass".
But what do you expect? Every photo of a 4Chan member I was able to track down was of a prepubescent teenie-bopper boy.
I've never actually watched Hackers. Do I need to turn in my geek card?
No, not yet, but consider this a warning.
I myself didn't see The Princess Bride until it was almost 20 years old because I had dismissed it as a chick flick.
At least you have seen it – you would be on probation until you can reliably quote a third of the dialogue without the use of the Internet.
I kid, I kid – I hadn't seen Snow White until I was 21, and still haven't seen Bambi. I also didn't see The Exorcist until I was 20, and despite being a horror aficionado for years, it scared the ever-living **** out of me.