GENRE: Drama / Thriller
YEAR: 1995
RATED: PG-13

      This movie was trashed by just about everyone, but I like it. Jonny Lee Miller plays Dade Murphy, a high school senior whose life was almost ruined years before when he used his computer skills to crash over 1500 systems. Now that he is 18, Dade can legally return to the computer world. Having just moved to New York City with his mother, Dade comes into contact with all sorts of fellow “Hackers” and “Phreaks.” One of these new friends, the inept Joey, hacks into a powerful oil company to impress the other hackers. Unknowingly, Joey stumbles onto and downloads part of something important. So important that the company’s head computer expert, “The Plague” (played by Fisher Stevens), will do anything to get it back.

      This movie has a great surreal quality to it. Certain shots are just fantastic visually. Of course, HACKERS is not without its problems. For one, the movie is really lacking in the moral area. The director, sadly, never makes what the hackers do look wrong and ultimately and unfortunately glorifies them. While this is a significant weakness, the characters are still likable enough, and story interesting enough, that you can overlook it.