The Movie: Hackers is one of a few mid-90's internet/computer films born out of the infancy of the then strange and new (to most people) Internet. While it exhibits some of the computer movie clichés of the time, it actually puts itself a small step above some other, similar films by being slightly more hacker-savvy and of course, by not using the ever annoying "have the actor speak out loud everything they are typing into the computer" trick.

But it's still a pretty terrible movie, with only the lightest of grips on what the real world of computer hacking is like. I mean let's face it, just look at these kids clothes. They are terrible. Most of the guys in this film look like they are about to head off to a 1990's gay club or something. But it's not the fact that these guys dress gay that makes it unrealistic -- it's the fact that they actually appear to care that much about what their clothes look like that is so unrealistic. I don't know about you, but most of the real computer hacker's I've been in contact with have not had any concern, let alone much of an eye for fashion!

And of course all of the computer graphics are fake and cheesy and lame... actually there's a lot of things about this movie that just had me asking "why?". For example, why are there mathematical formulas floating around the dude's head as he's hacking? And why is Angelina Jolie wearing a surfer's rash guard?

Oh yes, somewhere in there, there is a plot, and if you're interested, it's about a child prodigy genius type that gets in trouble as a kid for hacking into some big thing and basically he's not allowed to use or touch a computer until his 18th birthday. Fast forward to his 18th birthday. He's back at the hacking thing again, but now he has to build up all new street cred since he's been out of the game for the last 10 years. Well, not really "street cred" since these guys are hackers and not thugs haha. Anyway, another hacker is about to hack his way into tens of millions of bucks and is poised to let this group of little hacker friends take the fall for it. They discover the plan and must put a stop to it (as well as saving the planet from a global ecological disaster, no less!).

So if you're looking for some unintentional laughs, or just a whole lot of 90's kitsch, Hackers just might be up your alley, but otherwise... this is a pretty terrible movie and I do not recommend it at all.

The DVD: The anamorphic video transfer on this DVD is fairly clean, with no dust or scratches and the like to speak of, but it did have a touch too much edge enhancement, and I've definitely seen better contrast, but I guess I'd have to say it's about par for the course for one of the earlier (say within the first two years of the existence of the format) DVD releases.

The musical score during transition sequences seemed way too loud compared to the rest of the film, and had me reaching for the remote quite often. Dialog seemed somewhat muffled, though music and sound effects were quite clean.

The only extra you get is a trailer (which is in anamorphic widescreen), and that's it!