New World Disorder

When I first watched this movie I was busy and half-way paying attention to the movie. I had the same negative opinion as some of the other posted reviews. I am a devoted Andrew McCarthy fan (I own all of his movies, yes even this one) and love to watch him act…I thought to myself, "Maybe it's not so bad so I'll give it another try". So I watched the movie again, this time paying attention, and it was not really that bad of a movie – average I'd say. It was not the best movie I'd ever seen but it was not bad either. As for the earlier comments that McCarthy can't pull off the "villain role", I totally disagree (but then again, I'm extremely partial to McCarthy's performances). He plays the villain just fine…I do admit that his specialty is seducing, kissing, and making love to a woman on the screen (and there is No close second in that category) but he can pull off the villain in any role he is cast to do so.

I don't understand why the score of this movie is so low. For me it has been a nice surprise, I bought it in a second hand DVD shop because I like Rutger Hauer but without big expectations (Hauer has starred in some good or very good movies but also in many bad ones). However, what I found here is a very entertaining thriller with good performances and some welcome innovations inside its genre and category (yes, series B action).

Rutger Hauer is obviously overweight here but still cool and charismatic, Tara Fitzgerald is cute and charming, and Andrew McCarthy plays a good and odious villain. I like the concept of a veteran cop who ignores everything about computers fighting against a group of tech criminals (with the proper help from his younger female colleague) and I like the relation between the two main characters and how it develops. Also I like the touch of comedy and some funny dialogs ("I don't know the difference between a microchip and a potato chip").

The movie is well directed, the script is more than average for this kind of product and there are a couple of very good action scenes (I liked specially the one in the nightclub). Also I found the soundtrack cool.

I really enjoyed it and I recommend it to fans of Rutger Hauer and very decent series B flicks.

Geez, couldn't they find a competent technical expert who knows at least SOMETHING about computers when they make a computer movie? I could find a 12 year-old who could have fixed the zillions of plot holes. One of these days Hollywood writers will learn that SILICONE was in breast implants, not computer chips (it's SILICON, stupid!) And the "computer" company headquarters building with a box office (I guess they sell tickets for tours!) Rutger Hauer (who looks HORRIBLE in this movie - who dressed him?) should ask any fourth grader about how many bytes there are in a megabyte (1,048,576 bytes, not 144,000.) I've never seen a movie use so much ammo without hitting anyone! And I guess the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg does not have CLASS (Custom Local Area Signalling Services) with caller ID and call trace. I'll never figure why anyone would have spent money to make such dreck. Insipid, inane, stupid, oh, let me count the adjectives! (by the way - which police department keeps booze in the fridge for everyone to nip at? And where is this hetero rubber/leather dance club in Silicon Valley?) This now tops my list of awful movies - yes, even worse than U.S. SEALS!

Ugh! What an awful film. I was up in the middle of the night (a time when most things on stink anyway) channel surfing and landed on this. I thought I would check it out because the little cable synopsis sounded kind of cool and Rutger Hauer is great. Well, not in this movie. The horrible script managed to kill or at least stifle a great actors performance. The story which centers around a hacker ring or something like that (it was hard to keep track because the story was so askew and boring to boot) it ridiculous and tired. It's been done similarly a hundred times...and usually with much better results. The worst thing about this film would have to be Andrew McCarthy. I just could not believe that was him in that silly goth looking get up. His character was so flat and comical as a bad guy (and it was unintentional by the looks of it). His lines were horrible. Now I'm no fan of Andrew McCarthy by any means but if I may say so this movie was a new low even for him. Ok, so it is a B film and it was straight to video so maybe I'm expecting a little much. Or maybe not, Rutger has been in plenty of other B movies like Mr. Stitch and they still proved to be entertaining. It can be done...good B movies are out there.

Rutger Hauer really should get himself a new agent. Last night I was horribly fascinated by his 1997 movie "Bleeders". It was so awful it was like watching a train wreck... I couldn't look away!

Then this afternoon "New World Disorder" came on, and it didn't sound too bad.

Hauer plays your typical grizzled anti-tech cop. Everything from references to 8-tracks, the beat up old car he drives, to his wardrobe complete with bow tie beats this into your brain throughout the whole movie! Gimme a break! He deserves better. Some of the old Rutger shows through, but generally he plays an old fart and it pained me to watch!

The soundtrack music was lame and many of the characters were flat, it played exactly like a "made for TV" movie. The plot was okay, and it barely kept me watching, but it could have been so much better! How disappointing.

If you really like Rutger Hauer, as I do, you can get a few moments enjoyment from when he is able to put a little personality into the role, but generally this movie was a predictable waste of time.

Rebecca