The Net (1995)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

the audience applauded

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Think back to 1995, did you even know what I.D. theft was? Well Michael Ferris and John Brancato did, and at the time, it wasn't really that scary. In the film, Sandra Bullock lives alone, spending most of her time fixing her company's computers online. She seems to rarely go out or socialize except with others by computer. She even orders her food over the computer, and it's delivered. Because she keeps to herself, hardly anyone knows her personally, and her mother is in a nursing home with Alzheimer's Disease, so she doesn't remember her. Her only friend is an ex boyfriend, who happens to be a psychiatrist, and she's broken up with him. The fact that she's so incognito has a lot to do with the film. Before leaving for her first vacation in years, she get's a call from a friend in her company who is confused about a weird disk that's come into his possession, and wants her to help him. Not willing to figure it out over the phone or on the computer, he tells her he needs to see her in person and he's flying to her home in L.A. He never arrives...The cast is great, with Sandra Bullock pulling out all the stops in her fight for what is right. There are no sex scenes, no violence or over-indulgent special effects, just content. Every movie lover should own a copy of this film as an example of how to make a film without over indulgence and heavy reliance on effect.. This is a film that can be viewed several times, with each time revealing a little more detail. There is less obvious comedy and glamour in this role, but Sandra Bullock is excellent and intense, as the woman fighting for her life, and ends on a happy note caring for her Mother, and with a new status, working from a new home. There were a lot of conspiracies in this movie, in my opinion its a film that makes you really think how controlled your life is by the internet. Very compelling story.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

Futile Question revealing gross stupidity: 'Shark-fishing with a silencer?''Cliché-ridden and dated, this movie has little to offer in terms of suspense, and, despite Bullock's charm, fails to live up to the attraction of the premise behind it. One can imagine that the pitch of a freelance computer analyst unmasking a conspiracy to control information on the internet, then becoming herself a victim of identity threat as the criminal organisation attempts to silence her, held great promise for the studio chiefs. However, the finished product contains too many flaws to deliver. The first issue, beyond the director and producers' control, is that the constant evolution of information technology underlines the inherent risk of focusing a plot so closely upon it. As a consequence, the grainy graphics on display, and outdated formats like the dependence on floppy discs, can so readily lose immediacy for current audiences. Moreover, the film suffers as any would in terms of pace by having to focus on what is happening on a computer monitor. As such, the screenplay opts for the lazy option of having Bullick's supposed computer genius constantly read out what she types. Yet, other deep-rooted plot deficiencies are far more harmful to the film's overall success. The narrative thread throughout requires the audience to suspend disbelief at how our heroine's gullibility, and random coincidence, trigger one chase scene after another. In returning to the first point, one only has to reflect on the risible reactions of our supposed gifted analyst upon discovering that the object of her holiday romance is a professional hit-man sent to eliminate her. Worse follows, with her seconds-long flight ended crashing into rocks large enough to be seen from another celestial body. Yet, of all the implausible scenes within the movie, this reviewer would give pride of place to our beleaguered and detained heroine choosing to make her one available phone call to establish her true identity to her mother, who it has already been established suffers from Alzheimer's. From evidence present here, it appears that the same writing team of Brancato and Ferris' later success with 'The Game', a remarkably similar screenplay of a stranded individual battling against identity threat, must owe much to the skills of the director of that project, David Fincher. Sadly, in this instance, director Irwin Winkler, much more adept at producing than helming, shares the fortunes of his writers' more customary run of disastrous releases. Another negative aspect concerns both the implausible ineptitude of Jeremy Northam's professional killer, and his own leaden performance in that role. This performance is ham-fisted enough without being further lain open to ridicule by Winkler's choice of a close-up on his villain's demonic stare to establish the threat he poses - a technique more akin to silent movies, and better executed by them. Equally as bereft of either acting ability or believability is the presence of Dennis Miller as our protagonist's ex-shrink and ex- lover cum stalker, Dr Alan Champion. So unappealing is his character that his demise at the hands of the cyber-criminals arraigned against our heroine is welcomed rather than evoking a sense of tragic loss. Overall, though this feature attempts to construct a Hitchcockian style suspense, it never rises above the lowest made- for-TV movie production levels.

Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) is a computer program systems analyst who works from her home in Venice, California. Working for Cathedral Software, Angela identifies and removes viruses from her clients' computer systems. A recluse, she does all of her work by modem and telephone, and in her spare time enjoys playing computer games and visiting chat rooms, and when it is time to eat, orders pizzas on- line. Via FedEx, Angela mails to colleague Dale (Ray McKinnon), a friend who has never seen her, at Cathedral's office building a red diskette containing a virus that causes crashes. She specifically warns him not to strike the Escape key while this diskette is inserted into the hard drive. Previously Dale had sent a green diskette that alerts her to a program ("Gatekeeper") that propels her into top secret government databases, like the US Federal Reserve. This is accomplished by clicking on the pi (π) logo in the lower right corner of the screen while pressing the Control plus Shift keys. (Dale had created the Mozart's Ghost website that picked up a virus that transported him to Gatekeeper.) The bad guys modify data and raise havoc among government departments, airports, banks, etc. After they hack into agencies' computer systems to create chaos, they offer a solution by selling their "security software." But when the damaged party buys this security software, they unknowingly put themselves at risk to those who initially generated the problem! Dale wants to see Angela right away about the "glitch," but she explains that she has finally planned her first vacation in six years - to Mexico. He convinces her to see him before her departure, as he can fly to her location the following morning so they can finish business before noon. She agrees and copies the Gatekeeper website's programming code onto a diskette to further research the problem. But before they meet his small airplane strangely crashes (because of skullduggery), killing him instantly. At a Mexican beach with her laptop and diskette, Angela is approached by a slick dude, Jack Devlin (Jeremy Northam). They strike up a conversation, which develops into friendship. Devlin, though, is devious. He is actually after the Gatekeeper computer diskette that Angela holds in her purse. Devlin works for the "Praetorians," the Gatekeeper syndicate that knows she has it (perhaps they monitored her computer transmissions in chat rooms). After her purse is stolen by a slimy thief hired by Devlin, whom he shoots to death, she escapes Devlin's clutches on a motorized raft. But she crashes into a rock, is knocked out, and ends up in a Mexican hospital. After three days she awakens and discovers her diskette was damaged because of water and sunlight exposure. Returning to her hotel, Angela discovers she had supposedly checked out earlier. As she has no identification, she goes to the American Embassy. There she is compelled to sign "Ruth Marx" to get a temporary visa. Her identity was stolen by the Praetorians, who have changed her name to one with a criminal record: larceny, illegal drug use, parole violations. Marx is wanted by the police. At least Angela can use the money she has from Devlin's wallet.Angela finally arrives at the LA airport to find her car missing. Eventually coming home, she finds it empty and for sale. She seeks help from her former psychiatrist and lover, Alan Champion (Dennis Miller), who checks her into a motel and tries to help her even though he believes her to be somewhat delusional. Because of her cloistered lifestyle, she has almost no interpersonal relationships and cannot prove her identity. Compounding the problem, her own mother (Diane Baker) has Alzheimer's disease so even she cannot identify Angela. Doesn't Angela have any other relatives or neighbors or doctors? Over much of the rest of the film, Angela is involved in a series of narrow escapes, especially from Devlin. There is a credibility problem here, as it is difficult to believe that such a recluse could continually elude a contract killer. But she does, and even escapes from police custody. Meanwhile Alan is chemically murdered in the hospital, leaving Angela alone. Eventually Angela hitch-hikes a ride to Cathedral's San Francisco office building, and uses an unoccupied workstation to smoke out Ruth Marx, the fake Angela. When she sets off the building's fire alarm systems, she learns of Marx's location, which she occupies. (But how did Marx ever position herself there?) Angela works into Cathedral's mainframe and inserts data that protects her true identity and deletes Marx's info. Successful there, Angela then finds the red diskette (virus) she earlier mailed to Dale. She quickly saves the details of the computer scam onto a blue diskette, and, with BOTH diskettes, departs to the advertised Pan Pacific Computer Convention at the Moscone Center. There, on a vacant computer at Cathedral's display booth, she sends the proof (blue diskette) exposing Gatekeeper to the US Department of Justice /FBI. Then she inserts the virus-containing red diskette into the drive as Devlin arrives and pushes her away. Not realizing that the red diskette is inserted, he strikes the Escape key, thinking that he has reversed Angela's work. But his action activates the virus that attacks Gatekeeper's mainframe. Angela escapes from him one final time as both he and Ruth Marx eventually die chasing her. In the end Angela gets Jeff Gregg, the top Praetorian, arrested and recovers her regular life. One needs to suspend his belief system and just enjoy the movie for what it is, as there is much technological impossibility, like clicking on π and getting into the Federal Reserve (!). Also, has anyone been at an airport and read "Crashed" or "Hijacked" on digital screens? However, Ms. Bullock's performance is splendid. Don't blame the film on twenty year-old technology: small computer screens, wide monitors, dial-up modems, and large cellphones. Twenty years from now what we have will also be obsolete.

Why a rating of 5? Because 10 stars go to to Sandra's black bikini... To be more precise, to Sandra's wonderful body and her amazing face shot in close up. 0 stars go to everything else, especially the way they present software. I suppose that the at the time Apple managers sponsored the film, just to destroy their own brand: A computer network that's so easy to hack and that lies about everything was not the best way to promote Apple... Thanks God Steve Jobs returned back and stopped immediately those ultra expensive, self destroying ad campaigns. If you love Sandra Bullock, watch this movie, it's worth it. Otherwise forget it.