Sneakers..the movie

[RobertScorpio]

I had nothing else to do last night, so I watched this movie...I loved it when it came out, and watching it on DVD last night, I thought, wow, this movie, at the time it was made, was pretty dead on with the use of computers and how they could be used to do very bad things....I think this movie is definately scifi/thriller because of the tech presented in the movie. Maybe most of it can be done now, or maybe then, I am no computer expert. But I was wowwed by it again last night...

But what makes this movie, IMO, are the characters. Robert Redford, River Phoenix, Mcdonnel and Ben Kingsley, and the scene stealing Dan Akroid (who I usually can't stand) really lift this movie up with great bits here and there...throw in James Earl Jones and, well, its a fun movie with very clear warnings about the age of computers....

Sneakers...Good movie...ahead of its time...
my score? 8+

Rob Scorpio

 

[CaptMurdock]

Regardless of the techno-thrill aspect, the thing that makes this movie great is the characters. It's why Hackers was a big bucket of Fail. The Sidney Poitier-Dan Aykroyd double act alone is worth the price of admission:

"Cattle mutilations are up again..."

"Don't start with me!"

Plus, the last scene with James Earl Jones and they're all blackmailing him to keep silent on the black box...priceless.

"I want peace on Earth and goodwill towards men."

"We are the United States government...we don't do that sort of thing!"

 

[Mysterion]

One of my favotirites! I love the scene with Kingsley and Redford where they talk about the potential of the device. Also, the bit where Redford is trying to break into the office and is getting prompts over the ear-phone ("Yeah...uh-huh...well, okay if you think it''' work." [kicks-in door]). Comedy gold, that.


And Kingsley gets one of the best klines in the movie:

"I can't kill my friend." (pause) (to goon): Kill my friend."

 

[John Clark]

Haven't seen it in ages, but I do remember that I enjoyed it. It definitely had a great cast

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

I think calling this film SciFi is a real stretch, but yeah, I love the movie. It is consistently clever and surprising from beginning to end, and as CaptMurdock pointed out, the characters are great.

"Figi is NOT in Europe!"

 

[RobertScorpio]

Regardless of the techno-thrill aspect, the thing that makes this movie great is the characters. It's why Hackers was a big bucket of Fail. The Sidney Poitier-Dan Aykroyd double act alone is worth the price of admission:

"Cattle mutilations are up again..."

"Don't start with me!"

Plus, the last scene with James Earl Jones and they're all blackmailing him to keep silent on the black box...priceless.

"I want peace on Earth and goodwill towards men."

"We are the United States government...we don't do that sort of thing!"

yes yes...Poitier was great..he and Akroyd should have done another movie together..they had "IT" in their scenes together...

Rob

 

[Neroon]

I wouldn't call this science fiction, good as the movie was. It's more thriller, espionage, action/adventure. Off to GTVM.

 

[btflash]

i loved that film! i especially liked david strathairn.although the whole cast was great.

 

[Reverend]

Defiantly a favourite of mine, but then I've always been a sucker for heist movies.

 

[Amaris]

I love this movie. I wore the VHS tape out. All of the characters were terrific, and the questions posed by the movie were enough to make you pause for a moment. Does that technology really exist, and if it does, who could you trust to keep it safe?

J.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Sneakers is a lot of fun, and highly underrated. Dan Aykroyd, Sidney Poitier, and David Strathairn were really great, and it looked like they were just having a lot of fun in general.

 

[Data Holmes]

I love this movie. I wore the VHS tape out. All of the characters were terrific, and the questions posed by the movie were enough to make you pause for a moment. Does that technology really exist, and if it does, who could you trust to keep it safe?

J.

Who watches the watchers...

 

[Kail]

I own the DVD, and this this is a good film. Good suspense/mystery flick. A smart movie.

 

[Mysterion]

I wouldn't call this science fiction, good as the movie was. It's more thriller, espionage, action/adventure. Off to GTVM.

I would call this movie science fiction.

While it is an espionage action/adventure thriller, the main object of the caper is very much a science-fictional device. Or at least it was at the time the film was made. Maybe it's a bit more plausible nowadays.

 

[General Kang]

I do like this movie - my wife and I watched it in the hotel room on our honeymoon in 1992. Big fan of this movie.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Fantastic movie with a brilliant cast....I love the bit were they are playing scrabble and they are trying to find out what setec astronomy stands for...

 

[Reverend]

I wouldn't call this science fiction, good as the movie was. It's more thriller, espionage, action/adventure. Off to GTVM.

I would call this movie science fiction.

While it is an espionage action/adventure thriller, the main object of the caper is very much a science-fictional device. Or at least it was at the time the film was made. Maybe it's a bit more plausible nowadays.

I wouldn't say so. The device is basically a memory chip with an interface, the somewhat more fanciful part is the program that's hard-written onto it, which supposedly contains some extremely advanced mathematical formula that can be applied to decode any cypher. All perfectly possible, even at the time. The closest thing to science fiction is the formula itself and the odd assertion that it only works on American systems and in that sense than the average spy movie, especially the likes of the bond films. Either way they're just mcguffins and don't make the film sci-fi any more than the ark makes Raiders a religious film.

 

[Roshi]

Sneakers is the best adaptation of Mission: Impossible ever made.

 

[Orintho]

Sneakers was a good and entertaining film. Like you said - the cast really made the movie.

The only thing I did not like was the flashback scene to the 60s. Nobody had PCs back then.

 

[butch101]

A very entertaining and underrated film. One of my favorite of the 90s.

Butch