Antitrust (2001)

You won't be disappointed!

So much average

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Gary Winston (Tim Robbins) is the mercurial CEO of tech giant NURV. He is introducing new program called Synapse promising to revolutionize the communication world. Milo Hoffman (Ryan Phillippe) is working on his own program with friend Teddy Chin. Winston invites them to see him. Teddy refuses to go and argues for open source against Winston. Lyle Barton (Richard Roundtree) from Department of Justice tries to hire Milo and asks him to keep a lookout at NURV. Winston hires Milo to fix a big problem with the pending launch. Milo brings his girlfriend Alice Poulson (Claire Forlani) along to Portland. Redmond Schmeichel (Tyler Labine) and Lisa Calighan (Rachael Leigh Cook) are some of his new fellow programmers. New advancements magically appear from Winston without explanations. Somebody kills Teddy Chin and trashes his work.The obvious comparison to Winston is Bill Gates. It's hitting so close that it's rather distracting. Ryan Phillippe is a weak lead actor. The plot lacks believability. The movie lacks tension. I would put that down to director Peter Howitt. I can't really pinpoint the exact problem or maybe problems. There are a few too many twists and turns. The turn on Alice is wrong but what's worst is that the twists keep coming. It's always more difficult to be cinematic with computer programming and this doesn't succeed. There are a few little problems that add up to a not-so-stellar thriller.

To be honest when I stuck this on one evening, it was to just put something on in the background. I actually found myself keeping track of what was going on, but not through paying much attention to the storyline. It was by guessing what was happening as it tends to follow pretty much the same storyline as The Firm (The John Grisham one, not the cockney git one). Basically, computer dude gets his dream job and is getting along great guns with Bill Gates until he finds out he's evil so he goes about trying to expose his crimes and bring him down.It's horribly predictable all throughout. I was cooking during the first twenty minutes, but my mate had been watching it from the start. I did not miss out on anything in the storyline. I kind of assumed who everyone was and what had already happened. Very obvious that Ryan Phillipe's mate is going to get killed when he tells him it's good to hear from him again, even though he is working for their enemy.The best part of the film was noticing that the three main henchmen who carry out the murders and stuff on behalf of the Bill Gates type character (Tim Robbins) are called Schmeichel, Sheringham and Solskjaer. Seriously, that was the most entertaining part.I would say, as usual, that watch it with a pinch of salt and a few beers and it'll be a good laugh, but it's not. This is a film trying to be good and for that reason I did not enjoy it. If it at least starting taking the mick out of itself, I would've had a good laugh.The two birds are pretty hot, but I cant help but feel disappointed that he doesn't get off with either of them. The quality of this film could have been vastly improved if there were some breasts on display. A major disappointment.I was astonished to see that the average rating for this piece of work was 6/10. I am currently in the middle of watching the Tourist whilst watching this and it only got 5.9/10, and it has Timothy Dalton in it! (Something that immediately warrants a 10/10 rating in my book - he certainly is tenacious)

Milo Hoffman belongs to a handful of computer wizards, recently graduated from Stanford. Boy, is he smart. And the group of youngsters in their garage are happy, proud, and independent. But Milo is called up to the offices and home of Gary Winston, played by Tim Robbins. Winston is obviously a Bill Gates figure. He even looks a little like him. And he's a genius at innovation, marketing, and quashing the competition.Well, Hoffman is gathered up in "the sure-enwinding arms of cool-enfolding Death", as represented by the fake idealism, quietly expansive personality, and enormous wealth of Winston. Hoffman parts with his friends in the garage and takes his girl friend to live with him in a finely appointed home.His poor friends, in their ripped jeans and trainers, gradually lose touch except for Teddy Chin, a nice Chinese kid. But their infrequent conversations are limited because they are now adversaries in the world of business. These two, who had worked together happily, are now reduced to shading their accomplishments from one another.Not that it matters much because, when Chin announces he's found some kind of arcane technological breakthrough, he's promptly and brutally murdered. Hoffman, in his grief, is consoled by two women -- his pur-sang girl friend (Cook) and the sexy mole sent to keep an eye on him by Winston. The sexy mole is Claire Forlani. I've given her a lot of thought and decided that her exquisitely Saurian features and flawless figure are such that she can come and spy on me anytime she wants.In one of his last conversations, old friend Teddy Chin told someone that his breakthrough, of great commercial value, was in discovering that the problem was not in the staff but in the band -- or the other way around, I forget. It's all part of a worldwide communications scheme being developed by Winston, called Synapse or Sinovia or Synchronomia or something. I forget that too. It doesn't matter. Hoffman hears from a friend about Teddy's discovery. Later, Winston calls him aside and informs him that the problem with the Dodecahedral Myoneural Plate "lies not in the staff but in the band" -- Chin's exact words! Uh-oh.If you enjoyed "The Firm" with Tom Cruise as the dupe and Daryl Hannah as the company mole, you should enjoy this movie because the plot is very similar indeed, although of course computers are sexier than the law. I mean, after all, you can find Paris Hilton performing tricks on the internet. Can you find that in a stuffy book like "Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England"? No. No, you cannot.Bill Gates isn't really an evil guy, of course, but he's a fascinating one. He's the richest man in America, his income amounting to something more than $150 per second. That's a lot of money. It means that if, for instance, he was walking into his office and saw a one hundred dollar bill lying on the floor it wouldn't be worth his time to stoop down and pick it up.I think I may have nodded out towards the climax of this moral tale because I can't remember that, either. My intermediate term memory may be going. Maybe I spend too much time on the computer. I've had adumbrations of carpal tunnel syndrome lately too. There goes my left pinky now.

I saw "AntiTrust" (or "Conspiracy.com" for those of us here who are Europeans) on an International flight back to the US when it first came out. I had no idea what it was about, hadn't even heard about it, but the flight was a red eye and I had drank too much coffee. :^) I work in the Industry, so movies like "Hackers" (salami techniques are so "Superman 3/Office Space") and "The Net" (Sandra Bullock just reminds me of a cheaper, less talented hack version of Julia Roberts) never impressed me much in the way that "War Games" had when I was young.Anyhow - I was pleasantly surprised that the writers actually did some research on the subject, the code shown was real, it didn't splash a lot of goofy futuristic computer screens into my face, and NURV reminded me of a smaller dot com I had worked for in Seattle (that has since gone belly up when the dot com bubble burst). I also worked at Microsoft around the time AntiTrust came out, so NURV's campus environment wasn't too far off for 2001.Yeah - it had a lot of Microsoft/Gates bashing in it. Gary Winston was a Bill Gates clone. But overall, I found the acting to be fine (not weak like some have stated). Don Davis did a heck of a job on the soundtrack (I listen to the audio CD when I code every once in awhile now). Most of it I could believe (as far as a movie goes) - the industrial espionage, the monopoly, the do anything to achieve your goals up to and including murder.If I had one bone to pick about the movie, it would be all the unbelievable "fiber optic, fish-eye cameras" that NURV used to spy on non-NURV coders. Of course, in 2001, "spyware" wasn't as much of an issue (wasn't even a household term) as it is today. If AntiTrust was released today - spyware and OS vulnerabilities would have been NURV's back door to those programmers' systems.Too many people look at movies like AntiTrust and pick apart them apart because of they don't portray the Industry realistically. Okay, but let's face it, the IT Industry 99% of the time is boring 8 to 5 drudge work. No more exciting that watching paint dry or ice cubes melt. And no one will go see a movie like that. I liked this movie for its entertainment value, if I wanted a movie that accurately portrays the IT Industry ... I'll just go to work in real life.