A Rede

I'm sad to see this movie has a relatively low rating. It isn't a perfect 10 but it's a very decent and enjoyable yarn. Get over the fact that it portrays a romanticised version of the internet that never existed - this was made a few years before it became commercially viable, so the majority of people didn't know a thing about it or what it looked like. Ignore this and you have a decent conspiracy thriller. Plus, the portrayal of the internet is infinitely more realistic than its cartoonish contemporary 'Hackers', which came out the same year. The tech isn't the star of the show here, and it doesn't rely on spectacle.

Okay, firstly I like Sandra Bullock anyway, but do admit she is not often lost in her characters and plays herself. She often plays slightly socially awkward characters however, she's believable, every-girl, and relatable and necessarily not too contrived especially in a storyline where you have to believe its happening and get involved.

Bullock is a computer analyst/programmer who works from home and gets sent a disk by a friend to look at. This disk causes problems which she has to work out during which she has to go on the run, her identity is erased. Angela Bennett is no more. It's scary stuff, and would have been more so back in the 90s when much of this was fairly new - it's very true that all our personal information is on computer so we all are vulnerable.

Sandra plays increasing desperation well, and the story unravels rather than unfolds, and is quite emotional in places - especially those including her mother with Alzeimer's. Jeremy Northam, Brit actor, and rather dishy, plays the antagonist, and plays it well. Being so attractive, his nefarious ways are even worse, and as all her safety is stripped away, he's always there to make her run again. I like that the programming scenes don't have silly graphics (see Hackers) but are clear key/screen clicks and code being typed and this is one of the most realistic of the many hacker films that came out in the 90s.

This has aged well, except some of the technology of course, and it's still relevant. It is interesting to see technology changes ie the ease and normalcy of tracing mobile phones now for example. Note the policeman reading the Miranda rights off a piece of paper - was this filmed around the time they had changed? Historically interesting watching it (again) now, in 2013. A good, entertaining film in a similar vein as The Pelican Brief - intelligent writing and not predictable.

This was made in 1994-1995 at the beginning of the internet craze and the dot-com bubble, and this movie was wholly appropriate for the time era considering many people were just starting to get on the internet at this time. There are a lot of flaws in this film I agree, which is why I have rated it a 6, but my main complaint here is some of the reviewers on this site. Granted this movie was made at the beginning of the internet era, but some people on here make it sound like 1995 was back in the "horse and buggy" days. Either they were born after 1990 and don't remember a time without the internet or they are old as heck and were finally dragged down to the computer store just recently by their kids to get their very first computer.

I saw this film just last night, and I liked it. I know a lot about the Internet and so I DID notice the factual errors, but I was able to ignore them and enjoy the suspense. Sandra Bullock was good, and Jeremy Northam was creepy as the bad guy, mostly because he was so goodlooking and smooth that he was hard to hate.

I'd give it an 8 out of 10 for good suspense and an interesting look at the Internet when it was just beginning.

This is one of those movies I loved as a kid. I gave it another watch now that it's on Netflix but sadly didn't live up to my memory. The movie has an interesting premise, especially for 1995: everything we do or own is just data on a computer. What if someone decides to change all that? It's a cool idea but it's not executed well with very little excitement.

Still, some things I learned:

• You could order a pizza on the net in '95
• You could already book a plane
• You only had a fancy BMW if it had a carphone
• She's using an Apple, I should have bought apple shares in '95
• Sandra Bullock was really hot in '95. Probably the main reason I loved it as an adolescent