Antitrust (Peter Howitt, 2001)
One reviewer, the day before this opened, called this the film where Ryan Phillippe attempts to break out of the teen-movie genre and into the big time. Okay, let's think about this for a moment. The film is directed by Peter Howitt, who made his feature film debut with a teen movie that wanted desperately to be a serious flick (Sliding Doors); his co-stars are Rachael Leigh Cook (The Babysitters Club, the upcoming live-action Josie and the Pussycats) and Claire Forlani (one word, Mallrats); the movie is based on the idea that Microsoft will take over the world. So, serious art or teen flick?
Tim Robbins plays Gary Winston, very obviously modeled on Bill Gates (check out the house!) without the geekiness that keeps Bill Gates from looking like the Overlord he really is. Winston is very interested in hiring two wunderkind programmers, Milo Hoffmann (Phillippe) and his best friend Teddy Chin (whose name is oddly not listed at IMDB). Chin is an idealist who believes all code should be open source, and turns down the offer; Hoffmann accepts, and soon finds that, of course, the Evil Empire really IS evil. Surprise, surprise.
Still, it's not a bad little flick for what it is. One expects more depth and better plot twists from Howard Franklin (The Name of the Rose, Someone to Watch Over Me), but sometimes it's fun to watch even when you can see it coming, no? It's slick, stylish, has geeks enough to satisfy most gearheads, and as an added bonus contains a bang-up performance by rising star Tyler Labine (if you're an X-Files fanatic, you'll remember him as one of the trio of stoners who followed Mulder and Scully around for a couple of seasons, meeting their demise at the jaws of the same alligator that got Queequeg). Worth a trip to the cheap seats. ***
One reviewer, the day before this opened, called this the film where Ryan Phillippe attempts to break out of the teen-movie genre and into the big time. Okay, let's think about this for a moment. The film is directed by Peter Howitt, who made his feature film debut with a teen movie that wanted desperately to be a serious flick (Sliding Doors); his co-stars are Rachael Leigh Cook (The Babysitters Club, the upcoming live-action Josie and the Pussycats) and Claire Forlani (one word, Mallrats); the movie is based on the idea that Microsoft will take over the world. So, serious art or teen flick?
Tim Robbins plays Gary Winston, very obviously modeled on Bill Gates (check out the house!) without the geekiness that keeps Bill Gates from looking like the Overlord he really is. Winston is very interested in hiring two wunderkind programmers, Milo Hoffmann (Phillippe) and his best friend Teddy Chin (whose name is oddly not listed at IMDB). Chin is an idealist who believes all code should be open source, and turns down the offer; Hoffmann accepts, and soon finds that, of course, the Evil Empire really IS evil. Surprise, surprise.
Still, it's not a bad little flick for what it is. One expects more depth and better plot twists from Howard Franklin (The Name of the Rose, Someone to Watch Over Me), but sometimes it's fun to watch even when you can see it coming, no? It's slick, stylish, has geeks enough to satisfy most gearheads, and as an added bonus contains a bang-up performance by rising star Tyler Labine (if you're an X-Files fanatic, you'll remember him as one of the trio of stoners who followed Mulder and Scully around for a couple of seasons, meeting their demise at the jaws of the same alligator that got Queequeg). Worth a trip to the cheap seats. ***