"The Net" takes you on an exciting adventure through cyberspace. With the feeling of a thrill ride that has an Alfred Hitchcock feeling behind it, director Irwin Winkler misses his opportunity to take a potentially fascinating account to boldly go into world that was not covered much into at the time only to end up falling into the trap of a formulaic standard thriller. The early scenes were amazingly gripping and heart curdling, but the end was excruciatingly weak and if it wasn't for Sandra Bullock starring in it, this film would've cured my insomnia.
Just like her previous two outings before like "Speed" and "While You Were Sleeping", Bullock's facial expressions are convincing enough to garner some sympathy to the audience. Even through the more absurd situations, we can still remain invested in her characters. She's not just playing a character, she is the character.
Bullock plays the role as Angela Bennett, a software engineer who lives her life in cyberspace. Every thing she conducts is by computer or modem. Even ordering a pizza she does it online which was rare back in 1995. The only time she breaks from her reclusive phase is when she's on hiatus to Mexico and even carries her laptop there too. Just as she was going on her vacation, Angela gets into possession of a disk that contains pivotal information towards serious criminal activity from cyber thieves who call themselves the Praetorians. They know she's got the disk and will stop at nothing to get it back.
While sunning herself on the beach, she meets a handsome fellow hacker named Jack Devlin (Jeremy Northam) who had the right amount of style and charisma to rival James Bond. The problem is he is armed with a gun and is not afraid to use it on her. She avoids his wrath, but by the time she gets back to the States, she's suspicious that the Praetorians have hacked into her system and changed her identification. Now she goes by the alias Ruth Marx and is wanted by the cops. Her mother (Diane Baker) isn't of great help in defending her daughter due to her advanced Alzheimer's disease. The only person who knows her identity is her ex-boyfriend, Dr. Alan Champion (Dennis Miller), but he thinks she's just having a meltdown. While this is happening, the real Ruth Marx (Wendy Gazelle) has taken Angela's job and her life.
The first hour of the film is virtually exciting with great moments of intensity to have your heart pounding. By the second hour, it become a formulaic cat and mouse chase as all the original intentions is reduced to just an afterthought. By the latter hours of the film it's just Angela running away from villains with their arms and the thriller clichés become more commonplace making everything all the more mundane and the final solution becomes more anti-climactic.
"The Net" has a premise into believing that being dependent on computers can have is assets and liabilities. If this movie was made in the 1970's or 1980's the genre would've been labeled as a science-fiction film. By today's standards it would be more reality based with its constant advancements making it more dependable than ever, this film was and still is a bit ahead of its time. Computer security systems are never fully foolproof and if put into the wrong hands, it can be quite catastrophic. Here we don't have Big Brother under the watchful eyes, but he's taking action in as well. It's a shame the move doesn't further look into it. My guess is car chases and gun chases are more exciting.
When all the smoke clears, "The Net" was still enjoyable mainly due to the casting of Sandra Bullock who succeeds in keeping the film tense due to her low-key performance. While the film is not up to par with an engaging thriller to hold onto in its entirety, we still have a character we can truly show empathy towards in spite of all the formulaic situations she's confronted with. Sure the suspense into the early days of cyberspace may have an exciting level of intention, but it's Bullock's performance that makes you sit through to the end.
Just like her previous two outings before like "Speed" and "While You Were Sleeping", Bullock's facial expressions are convincing enough to garner some sympathy to the audience. Even through the more absurd situations, we can still remain invested in her characters. She's not just playing a character, she is the character.
Bullock plays the role as Angela Bennett, a software engineer who lives her life in cyberspace. Every thing she conducts is by computer or modem. Even ordering a pizza she does it online which was rare back in 1995. The only time she breaks from her reclusive phase is when she's on hiatus to Mexico and even carries her laptop there too. Just as she was going on her vacation, Angela gets into possession of a disk that contains pivotal information towards serious criminal activity from cyber thieves who call themselves the Praetorians. They know she's got the disk and will stop at nothing to get it back.
While sunning herself on the beach, she meets a handsome fellow hacker named Jack Devlin (Jeremy Northam) who had the right amount of style and charisma to rival James Bond. The problem is he is armed with a gun and is not afraid to use it on her. She avoids his wrath, but by the time she gets back to the States, she's suspicious that the Praetorians have hacked into her system and changed her identification. Now she goes by the alias Ruth Marx and is wanted by the cops. Her mother (Diane Baker) isn't of great help in defending her daughter due to her advanced Alzheimer's disease. The only person who knows her identity is her ex-boyfriend, Dr. Alan Champion (Dennis Miller), but he thinks she's just having a meltdown. While this is happening, the real Ruth Marx (Wendy Gazelle) has taken Angela's job and her life.
The first hour of the film is virtually exciting with great moments of intensity to have your heart pounding. By the second hour, it become a formulaic cat and mouse chase as all the original intentions is reduced to just an afterthought. By the latter hours of the film it's just Angela running away from villains with their arms and the thriller clichés become more commonplace making everything all the more mundane and the final solution becomes more anti-climactic.
"The Net" has a premise into believing that being dependent on computers can have is assets and liabilities. If this movie was made in the 1970's or 1980's the genre would've been labeled as a science-fiction film. By today's standards it would be more reality based with its constant advancements making it more dependable than ever, this film was and still is a bit ahead of its time. Computer security systems are never fully foolproof and if put into the wrong hands, it can be quite catastrophic. Here we don't have Big Brother under the watchful eyes, but he's taking action in as well. It's a shame the move doesn't further look into it. My guess is car chases and gun chases are more exciting.
When all the smoke clears, "The Net" was still enjoyable mainly due to the casting of Sandra Bullock who succeeds in keeping the film tense due to her low-key performance. While the film is not up to par with an engaging thriller to hold onto in its entirety, we still have a character we can truly show empathy towards in spite of all the formulaic situations she's confronted with. Sure the suspense into the early days of cyberspace may have an exciting level of intention, but it's Bullock's performance that makes you sit through to the end.