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- eye WEEKLY September 21 1995
- Toronto's arts newspaper .....free every Thursday
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- ON SCREEN ON SCREEN
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- HACKERS
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- Starring Jonny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie.
- Screenplay by Rafael Moreu.
- Directed by Iain Softley.
-
- (eee of 5 eyes)
-
- by
- CAROLYN BENNETT
-
- Judging by the amount of inline-skate-bound kids and their bored-
- looking parents at a matinee of Hackers, computer technology and its
- culture are dominated by youth and defines "generation gap" the way
- rock `n' roll or drugs once did. This isn't just a matter of not
- understanding junior's Nirvana tunes -- adults failing to expose
- themselves to computers and cyberspace will be victims of the
- information age with their kids lording over them. Hackers doesn't
- raise any of this intentionally; it's too entertaining and fun for
- that.
-
- A cast of virtual unknowns (pun intended) comprise the Hacker squad.
- Jonny Lee Miller is Dade (a.k.a. Crash Override, a.k.a. Zero Cool), an
- antisocial computer genius who can break into any system and wreak
- havoc. He hooks up with a group of gnarly teens led by Kay, a.k.a.
- Acid Burn (Angelina Jolie), a gorgeous, cool chick who hacks with the
- best of them. When the Hackers break into a bank system and
- accidentally uncover something suspicious, they're tracked down by the
- FBI for all the wrong reasons.
-
- Movies about computers are generally pretty deathly and it takes a
- talent to bring electronic sabotage to life. Director Iain Softley
- (Backbeat) succeeds by taking the viewer on a wild psycho-electronic
- ride, through image, space, codes and digits, into the brains of
- systems and networks. The kids are appealingly androgynous and their
- cyberworld hangouts (techno cafes and clubs where everybody smokes and
- drinks caffeine) are hip. The story ends up sliding into convention
- (guy gets grrrl) but hey, we're not cyborgs yet.
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