Encrypt (2003)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Fantastic!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

"Encrypt" is a medium-budget film that tries to do at least three genres simultaneously: post-apocalyptic sci-fi, commando-type action, and philosophical rumination on what it means to be a human or a machine. It achieves modest success in all three fields. Occasionally the budget constraints show through and it becomes a bit too talky, but in general the effects are pretty good and the relatively unknown actors play their parts solidly (the most familiar name is probably Vivian Wu, who appears exclusively as a hologram). The script is rather ambitious and concludes with a hopeful but not happy ending. If you can find this movie, it's worth a look. **1/2 out of 4.

This isn't a bad movie, as much as it is a bland movie.The plot has much more to do with human "melodrama" than it does with any particular science fiction element. The story could be told in the middle ages as much as in the future.It is watchable, and there are some fairly attractive images. I'd watch it again, but mostly only if something better wasn't on. I gave it a 7 but it's probably only a 5 or so.

As the "other writer" on this project, let me give a few of you an eduction on the wonderful world of TV production. While the original screenplay Encrypt, written by Richard Taylor, was solid, it was written as a big movie. At a studio level, it would have been budgeted between $60-80 million. On an independent level, it probably would have cost around $10 million. The original movies for the Sci-fi channel are budgeted at $2 million, which after above the line costs (actors, directors, writers, producers), it's actually considerably less. Obviously, for this kind of money, the production quality on every level is going to be less than your standard Fox movie of the week. Secondly, this is a TV MOVIE, which means it has to fit into a formula predetermined by the network by past successes (i.e. commercial breaks every twenty minutes, and a structure that leaves cliff hangers before every break). It has an "episodic feel" because it is episodic TV. And for this genre, that means action beats with a body count. That means adding a team. Now, while the character development for the team members clearly didn't work, some of that was due to casting (Torontonian actors don't seem to "get" the American commando stuff), and a last minute order to "cut one character" riddled the piece with lost lines and lost moments. Lastly, (and we go back to the budget for this one), everything has to take place in one or two locations (moving around is costly), which means you usually end up forcing your set-pieces into whatever rooms are available at your primary location. As a result, things feel less organic than they should. That being said, Encrypt was better received than the few readers here have commented. The director did tremendous things within the limitations given him and both Grant and Vivian grounded the film with strong, emotional performances. Could the movie have been better? Sure. But given the time, budgetary and other constraints, the efforts put forth by many deserves a little more respect, especially given all of their good intentions.

Guys,As the author of the EnCrypt screenplay that was the basis for the Sci Fi Channel movie of the same name, I must point out that writers receive no credit when a film is good (because it's the result of the 'director's vision'), and often all of the blame when it's bad ("Man, this was a piece of crap! What was that writer thinking?") The EnCrypt film is not the spec screenplay I wrote, which, after all, was shiny enough to sell to strangers at the Sci Fi Channel. Another writer was brought in behind me and extensive changes were made resulting in the film you saw. If anyone is interested I'll email them the original spec screenplay. Judge for yourself what EnCrypt would have been in a perfect world.The world is not perfect.-- Richard Taylor