|
| Foocha! is a non-profit Web site. We do it for kicks, not for cash. If you're interested in writing for the site, click here |
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
| Movies,
Graham Bower,
02:00:00,
07 May 2001 |
Rating: F3
|
|
| |
| |
|
Computers tend to be best employed behind the scenes in movie making. They can make for great effects, whether it’s dinos chasing after Geoff Goldblum or a bunch of unloved toys rescuing their cowboy friend, but they rarely make it onto the screen in their own right. Sure a PowerBook was used to save the world in Independence Day and in War Games, Mathew Broderick almost launches a thermonuclear attack from his home PC, but when can you ever remember a plausible portrayal of a computer in a movie?
Well let’s face facts, AntiTrust, starring Tim Robbins and Ryan Philippe is not about to redress the balance. It does, however, make a valiant attempt at being more tech savvy than your average high tech thriller. It even makes an impassioned argument for the Open Source Software movement – perhaps the first time that Open Source Software has been glamorised with the good looks of a hunk-du-jour like Philippe – let’s face facts, he’s not your average geek.
But let’s get down to the eye of the duck – this movie is not going to please Bill Gates one little bit. Nope, no way. In fact, if I were Bill, and I watched a private screening of this little flick in the private leather-lined viewing theatre in the east wing of my mega-mansion, I’d be a little cross. And who could blame Bill for being cross. The big bad company in the movie, Nurv, looks suspiciously like Microsoft. Tim Robbins dons a shaggy Gatesesque wig, and his second in command has a bald pate highly reminiscent of Microsoft CEO Steve Bullmer. After grappling with the complexities of the Microsoft Anti Trust trial for all of a couple of minutes, however, it seems that the makers of AntiTrust concluded it would be simpler to make Nurv the uber-baddies by turning them in to murderers. Now Microsoft may be guilty of any number of atrocities (like Windows 98 for starters) but it’s hard to image them as cold blooded criminals who will stop at nothing to get the next version of Windows out the door.
In a nutshell, this is the story of Milo (Philippe), a talented programmer who turns down the opportunity to be involved in a start-up developing Open Source software, and instead accepts an offer he can refuse from a big bad software giant Nurv. Milo soon discovers that Nurv and not friendly folk.
On one level, AntiTrust appears to be little more than a mud-slinging vehicle for Tim Robbins (co-director and star), who is presumably frustrated that thanks to the new presidential administration, Microsoft looks set to wriggle out of its legal difficulties. But it’s not all bad. AntiTrust has to get some respect for trying to make a movie serious movie about computers and giving the Open Source Software movement it’s first, and perhaps only outing on the silver screen.
UK rating:
12
US rating:
PG-13
Peter Howitt
Ryan Phillippe, Rachael Leigh Cook, Claire Forlani, Tim Robbins
Top Home |
|
|
|
|
