Imagine if you would, that we could link every communication machine together and be able to send any kind of data we want to any machine, pictures to mobiles, videos to computers and TVs and generally anything to anything. The inventor of such a technology would be a hero right? they’d also make millions nay billions of pounds worldwide selling their product, but what if that person had killed to gain that technology - what would you feel like then?
This is the idea behind ‘Antitrust’ Gary Winston is basically a Bill Gates type character - he runs NURV - the biggest computer technology company ever, think what Microsoft are like now and you’ve got NURVs stance in this movie - everything they do becomes an instant hit, but they’re hated by the programmers world - the Computer Science students who’re trying to run their own projects from their basements, and particularly they’re hated by Teddy Chin, who along with Milo Hoffman is trying to get his own Project off the mark all ran from his basement, that is till Gary Winston recruits Milo to help him with Synapse - a project that is basically what was described in the first paragraph - connecting every machine to each other - all at the touch of a button.
But what Milo isn’t aware of is that NURV aren’t exactly creating the product themselves, they’re watching everyone who ever got involved in the Programming business and if anyone ever creates something they believe to be good enough to add into their product - they take it - leaving a trail of covered up murders in their path. This being a movie you can guess the next bit (don’t worry, in no way is any of this a spoiler - it all happens in the first half an hour), when Teddy finally finishes his product he gets found dead in his Garage - and all fingers point towards the local Racist group for his murder.
This is where we get properly introduced to Lisa, a colleague of Milo’s who agrees to help Milo bring down NURV from the inside, but all isn’t as it seems.
Up above is my perfect idea of a thriller movie - a movie where nothings ever as simple as you think it is, one where there’s twists and turns at every junction and always leaves you wondering whats going to happen next - the thing is, that this only occasionally happens in Antitrust, and it leaves us with what could generally be described as an average movie at best, but read on and I’ll attempt to explain my feelings on it all.
* Storyline *
I’m not saying its a bad storyline, its just a little flawed in places sometimes you’ll find that the story’s seemingly jumped from one place to another without really explaining itself and leaving the viewer to work it out for themselves. Now that’s all well and good from time to time in a thriller movie if somewhere along the line you get an explanation of everything - but you don’t, you’ve just got to work it out yourself.
However having said that when the writers do take their time to ensure you’ve got enough to go by with the storyline there are some witty scenes involved, the type that ensured the movie got a 3 stars out of me instead of a 2 - they’re the type that do leave some of the movie to the watcher to decide, but not all of it, and that is what I personally want from a movie.
* Cast *
When I read the Cast on the case of this DVD I wasn’t overly excited, sure there was Claire Forlani (of Mallrats and Meeting Joe Black fame) and Tim Robbins (Arlington Road and The Shawshank Redemption) there, but there was also Ryan Phillipe (Cruel Intentions and I Know what you Did last Summer) and Rachael Leigh Cook (She’s All That and Josie and The PussyCats) in there as well - to me that was a mixed crowd, personally I’ve never liked Phillipe’s work and even here playing Milo Hoffman I felt like he’d not put as much into his performance as he could have done.
Whenever he was on-screen it seemed that he had one facial expression and that was it, it didn’t matter if he was scared, worried, nervous or just plain working - he was constantly looking exactly and acting in exactly the same way and with Phillipe having the lead part this wasn’t exactly encouraging me to enjoy the movie.
Moving onto Tim Robbins (playing Gary Winston) and I’ve got to feel he played the Bill Gates link a little too much, sure Bill Gates is mentioned by him once in the movie but its obvious that that’s who we’re meant to be thinking about when seeing him on screen.
The thing with both Phillipe and Robbins’ characters is that I feel they’re trying to play the Computer Geniuses a little ‘too nerdy’, We all know that in this world if you’re a ‘whizz with computers’ more often than not you’re seen as a nerd or a geek even when the more sane person in this world doesn’t - however this movie isn’t going to help with it all, when they wrote into the script how one of Milo’s colleagues was shocked when he found out about Milo having a girlfriend - all because he worked for a computer company - its that sort of script-writing that made me weary of the film.
But back to Robbins’ performance - hes just not all there, the whole ‘I’m a billionaire so I must be powerful’ I’d hoped was past in the movie business - but sadly I was wrong as it creeps up here, and Robbins does nothing to make it seem the slightest bit interesting.
However on the other hand the 2 main female characters Lisa Calighan (played by Rachael Leigh Cook) and Alice Poulson (Milo’s girlfriend played by Claire Forlani) are a different entity completely, they are what makes the movie interesting (I‘m biased because I fancy Rachael Leigh Cook I know - but anyway), between them they’ve created a mystique around the set of the movie - you’re constantly questioning their true motives and wondering what’s going to happen next.
* Other Stuff *
It’d be hard to put both the soundtrack and location in as 2 seperate sections, as almost all the movie takes place either in Milo’s office or in Gary’s office and the soundtrack - well apart from a couple of songs played in different dull sections of the movie its all dark gloomy music going quiet when something big is going to happen. It’s all relevant to the movie and what you’re seeing on screen, however its just average - nothing special, nothing really groundbreaking and making you sit back and say wow.
* Overall *
It’s not a great movie, but it’s not a bad movie either - its just average, the tension does rise at some points however it soon subsides, all-told its probably one of those movies that’s best kept for when you get bored on a weekday night some time, just don’t expect it to be a groundbreaker eh?
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Soundtrack
Unmemorable
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