Algorithm

I have never reviewed a movie on IMDb.com ... but leaving a unique review of 2 stars for Algorithm was not acceptable so I had to reply ! I must be part of the 1% hackers who enjoyed the movie as at least remotely realistic, in which human interactions do define technological endeavours, in which the powerful do win against the weak, and in which those who are believed trustful should not be trusted. I believe this movie is one, maybe not universal, vision of hacker world aimed at discovering the underlying basics to technological breakthroughs. I ended up watching Algorithm after a nostalgic review of Hackers and Hackers2 (no relation between both movies), and found Algorithm a rather realistic reminder of what real life might actually be.

I'm a technogeek, computer nerd, and lover of techno thrillers. So I understood the themes and message of this film. But it was done so poorly that I don't know if I'm just disappointed or confused as to why the movie was even released.

About 30 minutes in, I started wondering if it was actually a cheesy parody of a "hacker" film. The dialog is poorly written and delivered with some of the worst acting I've ever seen. I felt like I was watching the product of a high school introductory film class.

The cinematography showed promise with some beautiful shots, but then degraded into very questionable angles and layouts. There's a scene where we get to stare at the back of the head of the main character for an oddly long period of time. I wondered why the director didn't have the cameraman just swing around to his front.

There were almost believable technical aspects of some scenes, but for a "hacker" movie with its overriding theme of "the NSA is watching everything", some of the technology in play should have been focused on more.

In light of the Snowden revelations, and some other stuff that was later revealed to have gone on in the past decade or two, the premise of this film could have resulted in a great product. It's really a shame that the movie was so badly written, poorly acted, and shot so oddly.

So, as others have pointed out, this is not a very good film. The concept is that a hacker in San Francisco stumbles upon a top secret tracking program built by defense industry contractors and it upends his life. It's not the worst idea for a film; as the Snowden leaks revealed, some of the conspiracy theories out there concerning big brother-ish government surveillance are a little less tinfoil hat than we used to think. But ultimately the film is weighed down by awful acting, stilted dialogue, and abundantly mediocre cinematography, to the point that watching the whole movie becomes more of an endurance test than a pleasurable experience.

The most notable thing about the movie is that the screenwriter took the time to research some coherent information about how hacking and related technologies work, although that said they still manage to get a large number of things wrong or only partially correct. So for instance they reference a security flaw present in many devices manufactured during a certain time range which, unfortunately, is all too real.But then the protagonist mentions that a mystery program was written in a proprietary programming language, which is possible, but very unlikely for quite a few reasons not worth going into here. And then the most important hack is completed by obtaining the username and password of the head of a government agency from just some guy he knows. I can't even begin to tell you how many layers of wrong that is.

But movies rarely get the technical details right, so all of those issues could probably be overlooked if they enabled an interesting story. Unfortunately, they don't. The acting is just so, so bad. And the ever present monotone voice narration is incredibly overused as a lazy exposition tool. Finally, the visual appeal is zero. Every scene feels like it was shot in someone's apartment building under harsh fluorescent lights.

The bottom line is that this just isn't a good movie and I wouldn't recommend wasting your time or money on it.

This movie would be slow and boring, for those who don't appreciate the cerebral. However the cerebral is a big part of the story. The movie tries to steer you towards liking their good guy. But what the supposed good guy does and what he is, is not good. I sympathized with his plight, and what happened to his friends by their connection to him. But there my sympathy ends. He knew what he did was wrong, and he did it anyway. I have no empathy for people who's very job is to knowingly and illegally harm others, however removed they might feel they are from it. This movie is Pandora's box all over again, but with a technological modern spin. I give it an 8 of 10. It proves once again, that the best movies are still about story, even if technology is a big part of the story. One of those good low budgeters we all like to see, and very rarely do.

As one with experience in working with the film industry, I can give few marks for any of the basic metrics of movie making quality. The last six minutes left me wondering what recreational drug the writer and production team was taking when working those scenes. Most unsatisfactory ending.

As an expert/author in the area of privacy/security/abuse of power issues, the film is an important and useful glimpse into the perils of our electronic society, and how insecure you really are, especially from hackers, and more so from government agencies who exceed their charter.

I especially recommend the film to targeted individuals, activists, non PC types, anyone involved in a large law suit, working for a military contractor, holding a sensitive position within any firm or agency involving secrets, proprietary information, etc. YOU are far more likely to benefit from this movie than the average Joe Citizen. But Joe has much at stake, too.

This film will give you much to think about, with little worry that the technical information presented is inaccurate or invalid for the sake of story telling, as is common with most such works, especially on TV. Heed and take care.