This movie may have had some people going when it first came out, with its premise that superintelligent computers, large and clunky, may one day program and fight their own armaggedon. Now it seems more of a novelty, dated and thoroughly Reagan. WarGames is a product of the Atari age, one of those ‘80s movies that tried to impress the world with its cutting edge technology. More than 15 years later, the technical aspect produces yawns, but the nostalgia aspect makes the movie invaluable.
WarGames also launched the distinctively ‘80s career of Matthew Broderick, who plays a shaggy-haired computer nerd. A high school senior who flunks tests, only to hack into the school’s computer and change his grades, his motivation lies in his computer and bigass floppy disks. When he reads of a popular computer company releasing new games, he decides to break into its system and play some of the games before everyone else. But the number he dials isn’t a computer company, and the game called "Global Thermonuclear War" isn’t really a game. Cue orchestral swells.
Nope, it’s the Defense Department, with some kind of super-computer that’s supposed to detect and predict possible scenarios for World War III. This is the first computer that can think on its own and learn from its own mistakes, a detail that inevitably foreshadows the cheesy ending. It even talks, in an electronic 2001 voice, and when playing the game, plays for real. So Broderick and his underachieving girlfriend (Ally Sheedy) have to convince the bumblers at the Defense Department that the threat is coming from the computer, not from the Russkies.
WarGames has a few moments of genuine thrill, but it works more on the level of an ‘80s throwback, the kind of movie where the teens are the heroes and the adults are the one-note losers. Look no further than the Dabney Coleman character, the computer head who keeps referring to Broderick menacingly as "the kid," and the General (Barry Corbin), who wants to nuke those Commie bastards. It makes WarGames more fun than suspenseful, particularly with all the exploitation of cutting-edge, Culture Club-era technology. Would you expect anything less from John Badham, the man who directed Saturday Night Fever?
Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller s Day Off) and Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club) star in this compelling drama filled with action, suspense and high-...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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