At first, the strange phone messages promised great wealth. Soon, though, government agents pursue the young engineer receiving them around the world. Max Peterson is a globe-trotting techno-whiz who installs security systems on computers. He receives an anonymous gift: a phone which sends messages that enable him to win at a casino. Max soon finds himself pursed by hit men, the casino's security chief, and a CIA operative. Who's sending Max messages? Previous recipients of similar windfalls have ended up dead. After a couple of close scrapes, Max realizes he's in danger, so he tries to find out the root of the conspiracy - which seems to have access to every security camera in the world - before he's the next victim. Why is this happening to him, and who can he trust? So, you just found out that you were supposed to be on a flight that just went down. 120 plus people died. And you just go to the receptionist of the hotel, thanking her for not putting you on that flight. Smiling.<br/><br/>Who the F wrote this script? Acting? None. How much did these asses so called "actors" get paid for this crap? The rest of the story? Pure crap.<br/><br/>Ending? Whoa! The Russians are the good guys, because they helped the Americans destroy the bull crap they created (N.S.A. computer turned A.I.) Waste of time, folks. The most useful article I ever read in the late, lamented Premiere magazine was one about how to read a movie poster's credit. An ampersand between two writer's names means they were a team. An "and" means a re-write. One of the two credited writers (and, as usual in movies, there may be more writers involved) must have been the one to dump a whole bucket of stupid over this script. Otherwise, the original writer must have decided to write on a subject about which he knew nothing.<br/><br/>For instance, the main character, Max, is supposed to be some highly skilled computer security expert. OK. So why, exactly, is his security system apparently limited to a user name and password? An 8 character one at that? Any 13 year old code kiddie out there could download an application to crack any 8 character password in minutes. This nonsense would have been acceptable back in the days of "War Games" when few viewers would have access to a computer, but virtually every viewer of this film has a computer - and a password. Would it have killed the director to not be quite so blatantly disrespectful to the audience? Another thing (not a spoiler if it happens in the first five minutes of the film) is that he short circuits a wall socket with a metal belt buckle. I'm pretty sure every person who has used electricity is aware that there are such things as circuit breakers - or at least fuses - that will blow without taking out an entire data center.<br/><br/>Both of these stupid things happen in the first five minutes. It doesn't exactly get a whole lot smarter as the film goes on. Given the passivity of computer use, the "hacker thriller" is film history's great running joke, but special attention should go to Echelon Conspiracy's authors for conceiving a climax that tries to juice tension out of someone using a search engine and staring at a download countdown.
Gilmevis replied
295 weeks ago