SNEAKERS
A film review by Ken Johnson
Copyright 1992 Ken Johnson
126 min., PG-13, Action/Comedy, 1992 Director: Phil Alden Robinson Cast: Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley, Mary McDonnell, River Phoenix, Sidney Poitier, David Strathairn, Timothy Busfield, George Hearn, Eddie Jones, Stephen Tobolowski, James Earl Jones
Robert Redford is the head of a small business that breaks into businesses to check their security. The members are Redford, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix, Sidney Poitier, and David Strathairn. Each of the members have an interesting past. The National Security Agency (NSA) requests Redford to find and bring them a black box, which is being made by a mathematician. The team finds the box and turns it over to the NSA. Redford finds out that the men from the NSA aren't really from the NSA. The fake NSA people try to kill Redford's team and the team has to get back the box.
SNEAKERS is an excellent film, which in some ways is like the earlier film WARGAMES. I highly recommend this film for everybody. This film won't be in theaters for much longer, so I suggest seeing it soon. On a scale of zero to five, I give SNEAKERS a five. SNEAKERS is rated PG-13 for explicit language and violence.
The cast for this film is excellent. Robert Redford, who, believe it or not, I have never seen in a film before, is superb. He makes his character believable without overacting. Dan Aykroyd is great and not in a slapstick role, as he usually is. His character is magnificent, and provides most of the comedy. Nothing is ever made of River Phoenix's character. He isn't on the screen for all that long and he doesn't have much of a speaking role. His character also doesn't do much. Sidney Poitier is outstanding. I have seen a few of Poitier's past films and haven't been that impressed by Poitier (then again most were old films and I am not generally impressed by old films). In this film though I really got into his character and enjoyed his acting. David Strathairn was exceptional as the blind man. His character was also basically there for comic relief. Ben Kingsley, however, I feel was a miscast. He tried his best, but I don't think that he fit the role. James Earl Jones was completely wasted in a cameo appearance. He has good acting talent, but hasn't been using it recently, having only cameo appearances instead. I hope that he will take a real role in the near future. Mary McDonnell was also not on for much time. When she was, though, she did a great job.
The script and story were perfectly written. The story moved along smoothly and was interesting. The characters, for the most part, were well developed. Nobody in the film had moronic lines that no real person would ever have said. The direction was excellent.
This film is a great family film because there is no blood with the violence and there is minimal profanity. The story is one that will entertain the young as well as the old. All the stars work well together and appear as if they are enjoying the whole film. This is one of the best films I have seen in a long time.
-------- Ken Johnson blj@mithrandir.cs.unh.edu
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