With the help of his new friends Alex Danyliuk turns to a life of crime and identity theft.With the help of his new friends Alex Danyliuk turns to a life of crime and identity theft.With the help of his new friends Alex Danyliuk turns to a life of crime and identity theft.
Summary
Reviewers say 'Hacker' garners mixed reactions. Critics point out its lack of technical accuracy, unrealistic plot, and weak performances. However, some viewers find entertainment value, an interesting storyline, and engaging characters. The depiction of social engineering as hacking receives appreciation. The ending sparks varied reactions, with some finding it clever and others contrived. Overall, 'Hacker' is seen as an uneven film that may entertain but fails to deliver a realistic hacking portrayal.
Featured reviews
For any real hackers (aspiring hackers, hacktivists, otherwise criminally engaged computer wizards, or simply people in general who know their stuff) it's probably best not to touch this movie... but to people who hardly know anything about the world of hacking, who can enjoy a lower tier "morally justified" heist movie, it might work pretty well.
That said, the plot is dull. Really dull. Perhaps not so much the plot itself, but rather the execution of it. It's pretty obvious (from the narration, the cast) that this movie was meant to piggyback on the hype-train of Mr. Robot. Whereas Mr. Robot actually goes into detail pretty accurately, there's hardly ANY hacking going on in this movie at all. It's just a bunch of scammer kids, with a very infantile approach to the hacking phenomenon. A mash-up of jargon, combined with really poor dialogues and acting skills in general. A "hacker" that isn't familiar with the Dark Web or Onion? I mean, really?
Apart from that, it has a nice pace with just enough going on, to maintain a certain entertainment value that made me watch it through to the end. I'm glad that I did, 'cause it has a nice twist at the end... albeit pretty far fetched.
That said, the plot is dull. Really dull. Perhaps not so much the plot itself, but rather the execution of it. It's pretty obvious (from the narration, the cast) that this movie was meant to piggyback on the hype-train of Mr. Robot. Whereas Mr. Robot actually goes into detail pretty accurately, there's hardly ANY hacking going on in this movie at all. It's just a bunch of scammer kids, with a very infantile approach to the hacking phenomenon. A mash-up of jargon, combined with really poor dialogues and acting skills in general. A "hacker" that isn't familiar with the Dark Web or Onion? I mean, really?
Apart from that, it has a nice pace with just enough going on, to maintain a certain entertainment value that made me watch it through to the end. I'm glad that I did, 'cause it has a nice twist at the end... albeit pretty far fetched.
It was entertaining enough that I didn't turn it off, but barely. If you know anything about hacking or computers in general then you will laugh your butt off at these actors who just spit out hacker terms without knowing what they mean (and it's obvious). They should have just went the route of having these actors be "script kiddies" and use that as the platform. Maybe change the title to Script Kiddies as well. At least then it would be believable.
I saw this movie a few years ago.
It was one of my favourites, before I became a software engineer.
It's a great story and chain of events that leads to the center piece.
A nice journey indeed, but this has nothing to do with hacking.
I am giving it a 7 because of nostalgia.
The real rating is more like a 5.9
The movie tried to portray how a life of a typical hacker would be with the usual suspects: a migrant who is rationally sleeping till a turning point in his family's life pops us which is generally related to finance. The usual suspects suddenly decides to awaken his sleeping cyborg and decides to be utilitarian just to end up in an existential circle. Also, it doesn't really reflect the mind of a hacker but rather a mind of someone who wants to get rich and regret later. Most of the hackers fight for a cause and they wouldn't back up. There are scenes in the movie that depict a hacker as being someone who rushes in his decisions and is not proactive about what would happen and does not assess the current situation on the spot in which the movie failed to give a close-to-reality snap on how a hacker react and assess a risk.
I like a good hacker movie. This starts brilliantly - but goes nowhere and flounders around like a, er, flounder in a floundering thing.
As others have said, it's not so much about hacking as about scamming. It's full of very poor research and just plain wrong technical stuff. Sigh.
That there's 'something off' is so obvious but the characters don't twig. Uh oh... Dummies! Oh, and the film summary itself gives half the game away.
Apart from that, the plot just did't hang together.
Writer/director - uh oh....
He tries to bring in a character arc where the protagonist learns the errors of his ways but, heck, it's enforced, not realistic given the character and, well, total dumbbells.
Add a terrible, contrived unrealistic and dumb ending and you've got a so-so movie for people who don't know Windows from door frames - no, strike that - for people who are still looking for the Any Key!
Yup, I'll say it again - Writer/director - uh oh....
As others have said, it's not so much about hacking as about scamming. It's full of very poor research and just plain wrong technical stuff. Sigh.
That there's 'something off' is so obvious but the characters don't twig. Uh oh... Dummies! Oh, and the film summary itself gives half the game away.
Apart from that, the plot just did't hang together.
Writer/director - uh oh....
He tries to bring in a character arc where the protagonist learns the errors of his ways but, heck, it's enforced, not realistic given the character and, well, total dumbbells.
Add a terrible, contrived unrealistic and dumb ending and you've got a so-so movie for people who don't know Windows from door frames - no, strike that - for people who are still looking for the Any Key!
Yup, I'll say it again - Writer/director - uh oh....
Did you know
- TriviaThe director and producer first spoke about the story in June 2013. By August the film was fully financed, and a year later, the film was fully completed. It shot in Toronto, New York, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Kazakhstan, edited in Los Angeles, and finished in Toronto.
- GoofsThe Australian actor playing Alex refers to himself early in the movie as an "adult" with an accent on the second syllable, while every Canadian--including Ukrainian and Russian immigrants--would place the accent on the first syllable. In other words, he was using an American accent after having supposedly grown up in Canada according to the plot.
- Quotes
Stock Exchange Research: You know, ever since the banks started to suffer these cyber-attacks, the market has been shaky. Fortunately, the federal reserve chairman started to pull more money into the economy and things started to stabilize, better housing, less taxes, more money for you, more money for me, more money for all of us.
- ConnectionsReferences Myster Mask (1991)
- Soundtracks24 Ghosts III
Performed by Nine Inch Nails
Written by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Published by FORM AND TEXTURE, INC
UNIVERSAL MUSIC PLUBLISHING CANADA on behalf of SONGS OF UNIVERSAL INC
Administered by KOBALT MUSIC PUBLISHING AMERICA INC
Courtesy of THE NULL CORPORATION
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Transmission
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $2,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $11,239
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $6,716
- Dec 4, 2016
- Gross worldwide
- $11,239
- Runtime1 hour 35 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39:1
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