Takedown
Takedown
R | 28 September 2004 (USA)
Takedown Trailers

Kevin Mitnick is quite possibly the best hacker in the world. Hunting for more and more information, seeking more and more cyber-trophies every day, he constantly looks for bigger challenges. When he breaks into the computer of a security expert and an ex-hacker, he finds one - and much more than that...

Reviews
Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation
Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.
Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
jtncsmistad From thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/ "Adapted from a true story" flashes upon the screen as we are ushered into "Track Down" and our introduction to super cyber security system hacker and convicted felon Kevin Mitnick (Skeet Ulrich in a fine and frenzied performance). And what a messed up megalomaniacal miscreant we will come to know. "Truly"."Track Down" takes us along on a swiftly paced cat and mouse game Mitnick launches versus the feds and fellow hackers during the 1990's. And by all evidence furnished by Director Joe Chappelle (TV's "The Wire", "CSI: Miami"), entirely and simply because he could.The extreme lengths that Mitnick goes to perch himself atop a kind of self-fashioned "hierarchy of hackers" absolutely astounds. It is practically unfathomable to imagine what this "gangstuh geek" may have accomplished had he been of clear mind and even HALF a heart.Mitnick is vividly depicted here as unconditionally brilliant. And while certainly proving to be explosively bright, this is a miserably sad fellow who is emotionally busted to bits. Mitnick reveals to us in pieces a wretched upbringing which has continued to torture him into an angry and malicious adulthood.Here is just one striking example of how SERIOUSLY screwy this dude is. Mitnick has a character played by the paralyzingly gorgeous Amanda Peet all to himself on a couch in her apartment following an evening date. And SHE is even making the FIRST MOVE. It is at this pivotal point in the proceedings that Mitnick actually asks this vision in voluptuousness, even as she is wholesale submitting her most ample charms to him, if she knows how to SCAN? It's enough to make a guy wanna reach into the scene and whack the weirdo over the head with an iPad! Looking at computer screens crawling with programming code and dry eraser boards scrawling with indecipherable mathematical equations is not inherently entertaining. However, human beings desperately wrestling with such daunting data and the havoc it can wreak CAN prove to be compelling. And so is the case with "Track Down".Still, in the end, the reality is that what we are left with is the sordid story of a brazen and bitter man who proved to be nothing more than a viciously vindictive terrorist thug.For more of my Movie Reviews categorized by Genre please visit: thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/
whitehat237 The technologies used and shown in the movie are accurate. This movie is much better then Hackers where ridiculous 3D and CGI are passed off as hacking. As a fellow geek I enjoyed watching this. We all know that Kevin is innocent, so basing your viewing experience on the fact that your watching something based on a true story is absurd. I found myself relating on many levels with Skeet's character, Kevin. The idea's and philosophies correctly portray the ideals of many hackers, even today. Information does belong to the world. This movie gets it right in the sense that it shows the perspectives that most hackers share. This movie is worth owning and is a must have for any geek or information security professional.
yoda_the_jedi Although when i first watched the film i liked it. although i then found out the truth about the Kevin Mitchnick story. And this film is bull Pooh and doesn't portray the truth. if your interested watch freedom downtime i have seen it and they interview Kevin in it to get the truth don't go by the plot of this film. Also if anyone has any more information about Kevin and general stuff along these lines you can send to me greatly appreciated i thought id clear the rumour about it being a follow up of hacker its not can people please not make that assumption its not its an independent filmthanks Yoda_the_jedi Northamptonshire u.k
tedg I was for some time in this business, so know how goofy some of the science is. And the acting is on the cheesy side as you would expect. And I understand that the many elements of the truth have been stretched quite a bit, both by the original participants and the filmmakers.But there are some things about this are very appealing. For one thing, there isn't the ordinary fantasy of cool computer graphics that movies like to pawn off on the unwitting; its pretty much scrolling text, as it is in the real world.What's really missing is the sense of community that all the gangs in this drama have in real life. Moving ahead for all the gangs is a game that encompasses life, something that is played down here as the mano a mano angle is enhanced.I did like a couple things: Amanda Peet has a non-formulaic role and does well with it. Some of the tensionbuilding devices were effective: the gloom, the dutching, the thunder. And it was good that to some extent they showed the real cracker game: it is not so much a game of genius or ingenuity, but of the con.Someday, someone will make a movie that really does exploit the mathematics of elite computer types. These guys tend not to be hackers: programmers are the secretaries of the trade. I'm talking about the few score artists who exist, mostly in obscure corners.Ted's Evaluation: 2 of 3 -- Has some interesting elements.