The film revolves around a whole range of interesting events. The film begins with a computer genius who designs a devastating virus that is captured by the US Secret Service and prevents the computer from being used until the age of 18. But returns to the creation of dangerous things in the midst of a host of criminal events.
After the mechanics of the thriller plot start to kick in, the film drags. And when it's time for the big cyber-showdown, we're stuck, once again, with footage of frantic typing.
Without being any sort of miracle, this engaging and lively exploitation fantasy-thriller about computer hackers, anarchistic in spirit, succeeds at just about everything The Net failed to.
What's most grating about Hackers, however, is the guileless way the movie buys in to the computer-kid-as-elite-rebel mystique currently being peddled by magazines like Wired.
