I.T. (2016)
Mike Regan is a successful, self-made man who has it all: a gorgeous wife, a beautiful teenage daughter and a sleek, state-of-the-art “smart home”. But he soon finds himself in a deadly, high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse when his I.T. consultant, Ed, starts using his skills to stalk Mike’s daughter and endanger his family, his business, and his life. In a world where there is no privacy, and personal secrets can go viral by the click of a mouse, Mike needs to rely on his old connections to defeat a new kind of nemesis.
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This completely predictable "thriller" stars Pierce Brosnan as Mike Regan - the head of an airline which is about to go public, and James Frecheville as Ed Porter - an IT temp working at Mike's company who so impresses Mike that he brings him into his home to fix the wifi. Yup. That's how this all starts. While he's there, Ed develops a fixation with Mike's daughter Kaitlyn (Stefanie Scott) - which Mike and his wife Rose (Anna Friel) don't like - because Ed's like 11 years older than Kaitlyn and, well, he's a bit creepy. He tries to crash family events, he shows up unannounced where he shouldn't be. Eventually, Mike fires Ed and tells him to stay away. But Ed has hacked into the Regan's "smart home" system, so that he can see and hear everything going on and control all sorts of things from his apartment - which looks a bit like a starship bridge from Star Trek. Eventually, we find out that Ed is a lot creepy, as he takes his revenge against Mike for the way he feels he's been mistreated.Yes, it's very predictable. A lot of it doesn't make sense and doesn't seem particularly well thought out. When Mike hires a guy to "fix" the Ed problem, he talks to him on the phone while lying in his bed. Why doesn't Ed know about it? Doesn't he have the house wired? Shouldn't he have heard? And unless I missed something, Kaitlyn actually kind of liked Ed - so why did Ed target her? I could understand him going after Mike and Rose - but why Kaitlyn? There are a variety of other things that made little sense, but those are the two I remembered most.The movie leads up to one of the most unbelievable confrontations I've ever seen, and then the movie kind of ends with a whimper as all goes back to normal. To be perfectly blunt, this isn't really worth your time. The performances were uneven. There's a bit of a reflection on privacy in this, and it might succeed in making you a bit paranoid if you've gone big time into the whole "smart house" thing. (2/10)
I will be real with you, this is not a 10/10 movie and the director would shake my hand and admit it. This was the typical Netflix n Chill type movie for the more masculine viewer (so not a rom com but a semi-drama semi-thriller). The reason why many are only rating it at 50% rather than the 70% I give it is because they are judging it against movies that actually intended to be 10/10s; this movie was not supposed to be masterfully plot-driven or to grip you at every stage it was supposed to be for you to watch on Netflix while chatting up your girlfriend or bantering with the guys about the nerdy villain or about how the daughter is a b**** and deserved what he did to her or alternatively white knight and say how much you want Mr. ex-James Bond to beat him to a pulp.This was 'by men for men' type of movie so of course the women are plain, what do you think men feel when we watch Rom Coms? All the men are pathetically shallow in them, here the women are because this is for men!Get over yourself with the need for every movie to be perfect. Do you want that the villain isn't partially autistic and psychotic on top of that? Do you want a boring characterisation but amazing storyline? Go read a damn book if you can't appreciate the brilliant acting by that villain! It was a damn good watch and oh my god the antihero hacker was PERFECTION. From the accent to his body language, he was everything that a white-hat hacker is and many less malignant coders will adore how he uses his talents and knowledge to defend the innocent against abuse from black-hat hackers.If you are into coding, this movie is in fact one of the pinnacles of what the difference is between a good and an evil hacker and proves that being sneaky and intelligent does not mean you need to abuse those weaker than you but that you can still fight for a greater good and earn money doing it.
Based on the plot, I expected this to be a fairly good thriller. I was not ready for the level of disappointment it delivered.The first suspension of disbelief was the voice-over in the first few minutes describing Brosnan's character (an aviation company owner) as 52. Come on, it's Pierce Brosnan! He was 63 when this was released, he looked late fifties in the movie. They should have made him 57-59.Honest, I heard the voice-over and I choked with laughter.But it simply got worse.Brosnan is Irish by birth. His bizarre accent was dreadful. I think he was trying to do a Northern Ireland accent - that part of the United Kingdom north of the border with the Republic of Ireland, but it was a real ham of a performance.Then follows a creepy story ticking all of the boxes for a predictable, by-the-numbers, talented I.T. guy stalker movie.I took issue with the idea that someone in charge of a multi-million dollar aviation corporation could be so careless as to give out his home wireless password so easily and not change it to something else to secure it.When the smart house system acts up, no thinks to pull the cable to the internet router.Why is the I.T. guy using an AC voltage detector to check CAT5 cables? Who was the technical support person employed on this movie? Fire them.The I.T. guy mentions features of the control system and Brosnan tells him they have been disabled for privacy. Hmm, I.T. guy has your home wireless password and knows the smart home has cameras in the control panels. No chance of some mischief then...There's a completely gratuitous scene of the daughter taking a shower. To be honest, they could have cut this entire subplot and it would not have been missed.Even Anna Firel, playing the wife, could have had all of her scenes deleted and it would have made no difference. What was the point of her character? I hope she was paid well.By the time the retribution angle arrived, I had lost all interest and simply sat on to see what else might turn up. All the expected twists turned up including a night time tropical storm which was presumably included to 'heighten tension' during the last scenes. For the rest of the movie, the weather during the day was calm and the nights were without incident. This sudden tempest was another unnecessary addition.Best watched with a group of friends who want a good comedy - a thriller it is not.
The trailer and concept of the movie really reeled me in; I love advanced technology movies. Although the idea wasn't too bad and had potential the execution was terrible. This movie just raised my blood pressure. Really unrealistic, terrible acting, unrealistic decision making by the victim, etc. I would definitely not recommend this movie to anyone.