Algorithm

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.

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.

I haven't seen a lot of movies, let alone hacker movies, but I can safely say that this one is NOT worth your time.

For a start, it's really slow. This film could have easily been shortened down to half an hour without losing anything important, because there are countless of slow pans that feel like they are there to just because they look good and take up time. Also, many scenes could be skipped entirely.

The story's message has a good intention, but is badly delivered, partly because you don't care about the characters, because you don't get to know them. You get bored by watching it. And that's a pity, because it feels like it has the potential to be a good movie, at least if you know something about the hacking stuff they are referring to. Right now it mainly wakes thoughts (and even that it somewhat fails to do, because of the above mentioned reasons), rather than being a enjoyable movie to watch. I have to say that I find the constant voice-over pretty good. Most of the things said feel meaningful and sound credible, and that is what saves the movie.

The cinematography looks like you would expect from a student, with more bokeh than thought going into the shots. It often looks pretty good, though. Unfortunately, the nice shots don't make up for the bad editing and the lack of camera angles in many scenes.

Many cuts are poorly made and makes it harder to follow the already not-so-great story. Also, you can clearly see many mistakes; the one time CGI is used, it's laughably obvious, for example. Another fail is in the very first scene where it looks like they remembered to add an effect halfway through the scene.

The sound editing is the worst I've ever heard. Terrible ADR, awful L-cuts and clumsy and audible switching between different microphones. I also miss music, especially in some unnecessarily long scenes, and when there is music, it's the same feeling throughout the whole movie.

I don't find the acting as bad as many other things in the movie, although it would probably not be considered acceptable in a good movie. I'm not that fussy with actors, though.

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To summarize, this movie is not worth your time, even if you are into hacking movies. It fails to deliver an enjoyable experience due to shortcomings in many areas. However, there is a small chance that you like the pacing and the way they try to deliver a message. Up to you if you want to risk 90 minutes of your life ;)

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.