The Net (1995)

Now this was a blast from the past, my teenage years (I was 17 at the time). It might seem crazy these days but I distinctly remember watching this in the cinema with a friend, and both of us scoffing at how ridiculous the movies premise was. The whole idea of the internet (something that was more of a joke back then) being able to bring down someone's entire life. The idea of people actually having portable computers and being able to use them, online! everywhere! The idea of someone's life revolving around a computer...or more specifically the net, was at the time almost inconceivable (unless you were rich). Yes these were simpler times my friends, back before the internet was an integral part of people's lives, or before the internet was even taken seriously. Hell back then movies like this were the only introduction some people had to the, so called, information highway. This and movies like 'The Lawnmower Man' were pretty much the only things most common people saw of the internet, hence why we all thought it was a gimmicky flash in the pan. Even British videogames TV show 'GamesMaster' would mock the internet with its limited abilities at the time. We were told one day we'd all be surfing the net, we all ridiculed the notion, how wrong we were.Anyway the movie. Systems analyst Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) is accidentally drawn into the dark world of cyber terrorism when her work college sends her sensitive information on a floppy disk (remember those?!). The information revolves around the death of the US Secretary of Defense and a large software company CEO, Jeff Gregg. Whilst on holiday Bennett gets wined and dined by mysterious British gent Jack Devlin whom she starts to have feelings for. But before she knows it this British gent is trying to kill her so he can get his hands on this disk. Following a nasty accident where Bennett tries to escape Devlin, she awakes in hospital to discover her life has been deleted. Bennett must now try and find help to recover her life, evade Devlin, and uncover the truth on the disk.Yeah so the plot is your typical computer hacking/expert, on the run type affair which is now a dated concept. This idea was quite new at the time but director Irwin Winkler really tapped into the public's interest by utilising the newfangled internet contraption. The internet wasn't unheard of at the time of course, but it was intriguing to the masses and was used a lot to present an exciting new angle to movies. It was almost like an unexplored universe and Hollywood wasn't gonna let it slip by without milking its every potential.The other main draw for this movie was actress Sandra Bullock who was literally the biggest thing in Hollywood between 1993 - 1995. Hot off a trilogy of blockbusting hits that were 'Demolition Man', 'Speed' and 'While You Were Sleeping', Bullock could do no wrong. She was America's sweetheart with her adorable, girl next door looks and squeaky clean image. People just went to movies starring Bullock, no questions asked, she was huge.This movie also used the highly unpopular nerd image which was still something to mock at the time. Nowadays nerds are all the rage but back in the day oh no, being a nerd was not cool. But what baffled people even more was the introduction to a sexy female nerd, this was virtually unheard of at the time. This did present a problem for the movie simply because no one believed a sexy female could be a whizz- kid on computers or a nerd. Especially Bullock who was Hollywood's new darling leading lady. And admittedly it is hard to believe Bullock in this role because she simply doesn't look like she understands what shes talking about half the time. She also looks surprisingly unathletic considering her previous action movies, she kinda sleepwalks through this looking bored.Looking back now this movie is fun simply to see all the retro hardware and early programs in action. All these chunky laptops, very basic net page layouts, disk swapping and loading etc...it does bring back many memories. The action is kinda sparse but reasonably thrilling I suppose, it was never gonna be a violent movie with Bullock in the lead. Bullock was the queen of PG-13/12 rated movies. So the movie cuts away for any violence and there is little profanity, if any. Jeremy Northam is easily the best thing about the film with his devilishly charming contract killer, probably why his character is called Devlin.In the end this is a very safe and harmless action thriller that didn't want to rock the boat for its leading lady. Bullock is still cute and cuddly while under the stress of being hunted down by a hit-man. Being a movie about computers director Winkler obviously couldn't pass up a chance to film at the Macworld/iWorld trade show in San Francisco. So naturally the tense unrealistic finale is shot there. It is hilarious to watch Bennett downloading/uploading such large chunks of data onto floppy disks just in the nick of time. I'm just gonna assume that the trade show would have had the best of the best computers on show so that made it possible. Its all very silly, cutesy and charming these days, so amusing to think this was a big serious release back in the day.5.5/10

Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) is a computer program systems analyst who works from her home in Venice, California. Working for Cathedral Software, Angela identifies and removes viruses from her clients' computer systems. A recluse, she does all of her work by modem and telephone, and in her spare time enjoys playing computer games and visiting chat rooms, and when it is time to eat, orders pizzas on- line. Via FedEx, Angela mails to colleague Dale (Ray McKinnon), a friend who has never seen her, at Cathedral's office building a red diskette containing a virus that causes crashes. She specifically warns him not to strike the Escape key while this diskette is inserted into the hard drive. Previously Dale had sent a green diskette that alerts her to a program ("Gatekeeper") that propels her into top secret government databases, like the US Federal Reserve. This is accomplished by clicking on the pi (π) logo in the lower right corner of the screen while pressing the Control plus Shift keys. (Dale had created the Mozart's Ghost website that picked up a virus that transported him to Gatekeeper.) The bad guys modify data and raise havoc among government departments, airports, banks, etc. After they hack into agencies' computer systems to create chaos, they offer a solution by selling their "security software." But when the damaged party buys this security software, they unknowingly put themselves at risk to those who initially generated the problem! Dale wants to see Angela right away about the "glitch," but she explains that she has finally planned her first vacation in six years - to Mexico. He convinces her to see him before her departure, as he can fly to her location the following morning so they can finish business before noon. She agrees and copies the Gatekeeper website's programming code onto a diskette to further research the problem. But before they meet his small airplane strangely crashes (because of skullduggery), killing him instantly. At a Mexican beach with her laptop and diskette, Angela is approached by a slick dude, Jack Devlin (Jeremy Northam). They strike up a conversation, which develops into friendship. Devlin, though, is devious. He is actually after the Gatekeeper computer diskette that Angela holds in her purse. Devlin works for the "Praetorians," the Gatekeeper syndicate that knows she has it (perhaps they monitored her computer transmissions in chat rooms). After her purse is stolen by a slimy thief hired by Devlin, whom he shoots to death, she escapes Devlin's clutches on a motorized raft. But she crashes into a rock, is knocked out, and ends up in a Mexican hospital. After three days she awakens and discovers her diskette was damaged because of water and sunlight exposure. Returning to her hotel, Angela discovers she had supposedly checked out earlier. As she has no identification, she goes to the American Embassy. There she is compelled to sign "Ruth Marx" to get a temporary visa. Her identity was stolen by the Praetorians, who have changed her name to one with a criminal record: larceny, illegal drug use, parole violations. Marx is wanted by the police. At least Angela can use the money she has from Devlin's wallet.Angela finally arrives at the LA airport to find her car missing. Eventually coming home, she finds it empty and for sale. She seeks help from her former psychiatrist and lover, Alan Champion (Dennis Miller), who checks her into a motel and tries to help her even though he believes her to be somewhat delusional. Because of her cloistered lifestyle, she has almost no interpersonal relationships and cannot prove her identity. Compounding the problem, her own mother (Diane Baker) has Alzheimer's disease so even she cannot identify Angela. Doesn't Angela have any other relatives or neighbors or doctors? Over much of the rest of the film, Angela is involved in a series of narrow escapes, especially from Devlin. There is a credibility problem here, as it is difficult to believe that such a recluse could continually elude a contract killer. But she does, and even escapes from police custody. Meanwhile Alan is chemically murdered in the hospital, leaving Angela alone. Eventually Angela hitch-hikes a ride to Cathedral's San Francisco office building, and uses an unoccupied workstation to smoke out Ruth Marx, the fake Angela. When she sets off the building's fire alarm systems, she learns of Marx's location, which she occupies. (But how did Marx ever position herself there?) Angela works into Cathedral's mainframe and inserts data that protects her true identity and deletes Marx's info. Successful there, Angela then finds the red diskette (virus) she earlier mailed to Dale. She quickly saves the details of the computer scam onto a blue diskette, and, with BOTH diskettes, departs to the advertised Pan Pacific Computer Convention at the Moscone Center. There, on a vacant computer at Cathedral's display booth, she sends the proof (blue diskette) exposing Gatekeeper to the US Department of Justice /FBI. Then she inserts the virus-containing red diskette into the drive as Devlin arrives and pushes her away. Not realizing that the red diskette is inserted, he strikes the Escape key, thinking that he has reversed Angela's work. But his action activates the virus that attacks Gatekeeper's mainframe. Angela escapes from him one final time as both he and Ruth Marx eventually die chasing her. In the end Angela gets Jeff Gregg, the top Praetorian, arrested and recovers her regular life. One needs to suspend his belief system and just enjoy the movie for what it is, as there is much technological impossibility, like clicking on π and getting into the Federal Reserve (!). Also, has anyone been at an airport and read "Crashed" or "Hijacked" on digital screens? However, Ms. Bullock's performance is splendid. Don't blame the film on twenty year-old technology: small computer screens, wide monitors, dial-up modems, and large cellphones. Twenty years from now what we have will also be obsolete.

I caught this on TV the other night and stuck with it. Its seriously dated now (1995) and laughable in terms of computer technology and giant cell phones but still a good thriller for the most part. Actually all the outdated technology just ended up making this kind of fun and campy.I think its the hook of Sandra's entire identity being erased and replaced with that of a wanted criminal that's so good -scary and intriguing there.The bad guy (Jeremy Northam) becomes very one dimensional after his initial charm wears off but Sandra Bullock does a great job all the way through, with lots of running and evading of the cyber thugs.This opens with Angela Bennett, a reclusive computer programmer who works from home, orders pizza online and only associates with her cyber friends. After she unwittingly comes into possession of software that allows access to secret government information Angela's life is put in danger as the bad guys try to gain access to the floppy disk, culminating with them deleting all evidence of her existence. Dennis Miller plays her sort of boyfriend here and there is a brief cameo from Ron Howard. I always forget how AIDS paranoid we were in the early 90's. 4/11/15

The Net whilst an entertaining movie, sadly suffers as a movie of it's time. The pc's, the laptops, the computer images and games, the pagers and the mobile phones, and not to mention the dial up modems. Plot In A Paragraph: Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) is a computer expert, who works from home. This beautiful analyst is never far from a computer and modem. The only activity she has outside of computers is visiting her mother, who suffers with Alzheimer's disease. She is sent her a program with a weird glitch for her to de-bug. Her life then turns into a nightmare, her records and identity are erased from existence and she is given a new identity, one with a police record.I enjoyed it when it was released, but had never revisited it. Watching it now with my kids, 15 and 8 they laughed at all the ancient devices, and it detracted from the movie and a good performance from Bullock. She was gorgeous then and even now she remains one of the most talented and beautiful women in movies, and her ladylike sexiness is in rare supply. Any movie becomes promising just by having her name in it's cast.