SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

nadinesalakovv "The Net" is a great movie, still very watchable to this day. The story line can get confusing, but that is where Rewatching comes in. Some movies are like that, you have to Rewatch to understand the plot fully.Even though the technology compared to today seems stale back then, it still somehow works out because technology is constantly becoming advanced.We see "Angela Bennett"'s life go into turmoil after getting her hands on computer information. We see that she is a clever tech nerd, but is very naive on the social aspect which resulted in her almost getting killed on holiday."The Net" is a fast-paced riveting hi-tech thriller. Sandra Bullock carries the entire movie on her back very well. She is a strong main lead and the supporting characters are also very good in their roles. I'd say the only other main character is "Jack Devlin" (Played by Jeremy Northam) he is also good in his role."The Net" is a cat and mouse game/clear my name/bring justice type of thriller. I would put this next to another brilliant movie of this genre - "AntiTrust", although it is not as well known as "The Net" it is just as good.

Phil Hubbs Now this was a blast from the past, my teenage years (I was 17 at the time). It might seem crazy these days but I distinctly remember watching this in the cinema with a friend, and both of us scoffing at how ridiculous the movies premise was. The whole idea of the internet (something that was more of a joke back then) being able to bring down someone's entire life. The idea of people actually having portable computers and being able to use them, online! everywhere! The idea of someone's life revolving around a computer...or more specifically the net, was at the time almost inconceivable (unless you were rich). Yes these were simpler times my friends, back before the internet was an integral part of people's lives, or before the internet was even taken seriously. Hell back then movies like this were the only introduction some people had to the, so called, information highway. This and movies like 'The Lawnmower Man' were pretty much the only things most common people saw of the internet, hence why we all thought it was a gimmicky flash in the pan. Even British videogames TV show 'GamesMaster' would mock the internet with its limited abilities at the time. We were told one day we'd all be surfing the net, we all ridiculed the notion, how wrong we were.Anyway the movie. Systems analyst Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) is accidentally drawn into the dark world of cyber terrorism when her work college sends her sensitive information on a floppy disk (remember those?!). The information revolves around the death of the US Secretary of Defense and a large software company CEO, Jeff Gregg. Whilst on holiday Bennett gets wined and dined by mysterious British gent Jack Devlin whom she starts to have feelings for. But before she knows it this British gent is trying to kill her so he can get his hands on this disk. Following a nasty accident where Bennett tries to escape Devlin, she awakes in hospital to discover her life has been deleted. Bennett must now try and find help to recover her life, evade Devlin, and uncover the truth on the disk.Yeah so the plot is your typical computer hacking/expert, on the run type affair which is now a dated concept. This idea was quite new at the time but director Irwin Winkler really tapped into the public's interest by utilising the newfangled internet contraption. The internet wasn't unheard of at the time of course, but it was intriguing to the masses and was used a lot to present an exciting new angle to movies. It was almost like an unexplored universe and Hollywood wasn't gonna let it slip by without milking its every potential.The other main draw for this movie was actress Sandra Bullock who was literally the biggest thing in Hollywood between 1993 - 1995. Hot off a trilogy of blockbusting hits that were 'Demolition Man', 'Speed' and 'While You Were Sleeping', Bullock could do no wrong. She was America's sweetheart with her adorable, girl next door looks and squeaky clean image. People just went to movies starring Bullock, no questions asked, she was huge.This movie also used the highly unpopular nerd image which was still something to mock at the time. Nowadays nerds are all the rage but back in the day oh no, being a nerd was not cool. But what baffled people even more was the introduction to a sexy female nerd, this was virtually unheard of at the time. This did present a problem for the movie simply because no one believed a sexy female could be a whizz- kid on computers or a nerd. Especially Bullock who was Hollywood's new darling leading lady. And admittedly it is hard to believe Bullock in this role because she simply doesn't look like she understands what shes talking about half the time. She also looks surprisingly unathletic considering her previous action movies, she kinda sleepwalks through this looking bored.Looking back now this movie is fun simply to see all the retro hardware and early programs in action. All these chunky laptops, very basic net page layouts, disk swapping and loading etc...it does bring back many memories. The action is kinda sparse but reasonably thrilling I suppose, it was never gonna be a violent movie with Bullock in the lead. Bullock was the queen of PG-13/12 rated movies. So the movie cuts away for any violence and there is little profanity, if any. Jeremy Northam is easily the best thing about the film with his devilishly charming contract killer, probably why his character is called Devlin.In the end this is a very safe and harmless action thriller that didn't want to rock the boat for its leading lady. Bullock is still cute and cuddly while under the stress of being hunted down by a hit-man. Being a movie about computers director Winkler obviously couldn't pass up a chance to film at the Macworld/iWorld trade show in San Francisco. So naturally the tense unrealistic finale is shot there. It is hilarious to watch Bennett downloading/uploading such large chunks of data onto floppy disks just in the nick of time. I'm just gonna assume that the trade show would have had the best of the best computers on show so that made it possible. Its all very silly, cutesy and charming these days, so amusing to think this was a big serious release back in the day.5.5/10

thefinalcredits 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.

What_I_Say I'm being quite generous giving it a 2/10.The plot consists of a hacker who finds her identity stolen whilst on holiday after a fling with a man of similar profession. Overall the film lacks any mind grabbing atmosphere to it until right near the end. Possibly from the limits in technology during 1995, but ultimately from Irwin Winkler's poor directing this movie has little to offer the viewer. The scenes are far too slow even when there are potentially gripping moments. The characters are weak to say the least (Sandra Bullock's heart didn't seem to be in it) and Jeremy Northam should have been nominated for worst supporting actor (if only they existed back then 'sigh'), his character being neither convincing or entertaining in the slightest. The script even by today's standards is very relevant. Despite the vast developments in technology (gone are the days of floppy disks and fridge sized computers), the threat of internet fraud is far from over and cyber theft looms within the ethernet of society. I fear that the screen writers John Brancato and Michael Ferris were severely let down by Irwin Winkler's inability to stimulate the actors (Dennis Miller being the most convincing of all with a very meager role in the film) and provide short, snappy scenes to create what could have been a work of genius.