There's a weird Taming of the Shrew thing going on in Hackers. The lead female character's name is Kate, and she's kind of nasty, but she happens to be smarter than all the boys she hangs out with. She falls for a Greek god of a hacker named Dade, after which she mellows significantly.

There is also frighteningly bad acting and writing that will make you cringe. You may even hate this movie the first time you see it. I know I did. I saw it in a theater when it first came out, and I giggled at the serious parts and rolled my eyes at the funny parts. I even made the finger-down-the-throat gag gesture at one especially corny bit of dialogue. But then it kind of grows on you. It's fun. It's full of weird, oddly dated special effects that look like some Saturday morning t.v. special from the 70's.

Jonny Lee Miller, who was Sick Boy in Trainspotting, looks like no computer geek I've ever known. He has this face like Michelangelo's David and he clearly visits the gym far more often than, say, Bill Gates. His character, Dade, was a ten-year-old prodigy who crashed dozens of computers at a government agency and was thereby banned from using a computers or telephones until his eighteenth birthday. By some kind of divine providence, he's moving from Seattle to New York on his eighteenth birthday, where he will coincidentally encounter the Hacker Elite, led by Angelina Jolie.

Like Miller, Jolie looks like a supermodel and just can't pass for a hacker. She's delightfully snotty, however, and watching her trade barbs with Dade is the best part of the whole movie. She gives by far the best performance in this film. One of my favorite actresses, Lorraine Bracco (Dr. Melfi on The Sopranos), in contrast, is so hard to watch that I just ached. I seriously had no idea what she was doing in this movie. It was like seeing Carmela Soprano in a small role in a remake of Tron. Bracco is a tough New York broad and it was obvious that her role was written for somebody less fear-inspiring.

Fisher Stevens is the villain and is less evil than snide and annoying. Think David Spade after too much coffee. He's not really a villain; he's a punk kid with a big ego. Dade threatens him; so he has to outdo him. The presence of such a non-traditional villain made the plot seem a little less clichéd, but not much, since the rest of the hackers are all walking computer geek prototypes. My favorite character is Emmanuel Goldstein, aka Cereal Killer (Matthew Lilliard) because he's the spitting image of my best friend, Nate.

The trickiest part of this film to reconcile is how the special effects can be so overblown and excessive while parts of the film look like they were shot in almost complete darkness. The sets appear to be pulled together at the last minute at the crew's friends' houses. The film is supposed to be set in New York, but there is such a thing as too much atmosphere.

We sprung for the DVD and both soundtracks. The soundtracks are two of the best in the last decade. Hackers is a cult favorite and is full of memorable quotes, so it's worth a watch. Hey, drag your boyfriend, even.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older