ANTITRUST ---------
Young computer genius Milo Hoffman (Ryan Phillippe, "The Way of the Gun") plans on partnering a hi-tech startup with his best friend Teddy (Yee Jee Tso) to provide digital convergence as open source software. Then he gets a call from Gary Winston (Tim Robbins), the Bill Gates-like owner of N.U.R.V. (Never Underestimate Radical Vision), who wants Milo's expertise for his similar SYNAPSE project. Milo's charmed by Winston and disappoints his friend by going with 'the enemy,' only to learn that the big corporation is indeed a dangerous foe in "AntiTrust."
LAURA:
"AntiTrust" is like "The Firm" without the suspense or romantic intrigue, (I suppose that's what one would expect exchanging software nerds for lawyers) with a dash of "Enemy of the State" thrown in for good measure.
The film, written by Howard Franklin ("The Man Who Knew Too Little") has an intriguing enough, albeit unoriginal, premise - what if a Microsoft-like behemoth was squashing the little guys by stealing their software and then, well, squashing them. Unfortunately, the film's so obvious it invites laughter in all the wrong places.
Milo leaves southern California for the misty Northwest (Portland rather than Seattle) with his girlfriend Alice (Claire Forlani, "Meet Joe Black") and falls for the apparent programming eutopia that is N.U.R.V's campus. He gets Winston as his personal counselor (a first time honor at N.U.R.V), a beautiful new home, flashy new car and a look from Lisa, (Rachael Leigh Cook, "She's All That") the loner female programmer that has the nerds drooling.
He also gets unexpected help from Winston in programming the highly complex adapter that will allow any digital device to communicate with any other digital device. The first time Gary presents him with a CDROM, Milo's desktop is displaying CNN footage of the car accident death of a top MIT software engineer - my, could there be a connection here? Milo doesn't get a clue until it's hammered into his head - not only does his best friend get murdered in an apparent hate crime, but Gary parrots back Teddy's very words as he slips Milo yet another disk.
"AntiTrust" is the type of ludicrous flick that has a CEO whipping up his team to produce a highly sophisticated product within 49 days, then shows that project's lead programmer playing Nancy Drew while the rest of the team generally keeps 9-5 hours. A supposedly exotic plot twist involves an allergy to sesame seeds.
Director Peter Howitt, whose last film, "Sliding Doors," was a pleasant enough entertainment, doesn't just take a step back, he falls wildly backwards into a ditch. He gets little in the way of performances. Phillippe, who showed surprising depth in "The Way of the Gun," acts by way of his eyeglasses in this one. Robbins pulls out his "Arlington Road" villain and makes him less interesting. Rachel Leigh Cook is a statue while Forlani fares somewhat better by at least using facial expressions.
John Bailey's ("For the Love of the Game") cinematography is nice enough, but relies on 360 degree camera swirls once too often. Editting by Zach Staenberg ("The Matrix") throws the film's pacing off - it flows along too leisurely then lurches forward with too many important plot points compressed into too little time - repeat cycle. Some special effects are interesting, such as the changing digital art in Winston's palatial home.
The climax of the movie requires one too many leaps of faith from its audience (as if it hasn't already been taxed at this point). "AntiTrust" is a hack.
D
For more Reeling reviews visit www.reelingreviews.com
laura@reelingreviews.com robin@reelingreviews.com
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews