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24 out of 36 people found the following review useful: Good Suspense; Bullock Tolerable For Once, 5 November 2006 Author: ccthemovieman-1 from Lockport, NY, United States
This is a typical Sandra Bullock movie in which she plays a mousy (but profane) woman who is in trouble but finds a way to survive and be the hero. Sound familiar? There are plenty of holes in this story. Things just don't add up and some of the suspense is a little corny. But - that suspense is very good. There is a lot of tension in this story which has strong paranoia running through it. The story starts off slow but kicks in pretty soon and stays that way, making it an involving movie for the viewer. That's why I give it a pretty good rating - the movie gets you involved in it. Bullock is more cute than annoying, which she normally is to me, so this is my highest-rated movie with her in it.
20 out of 30 people found the following review useful: 25 years ago this would have been science fiction. Today it's cliché., 25 July 2004 Author: Michael DeZubiria (miked32@hotmail.com) from Luoyang, China
Odd the way technology works. Less than a decade ago, there was this completely different technological world, a world of pagers, floppy disks, dial-up modems (which are as obsolete as typewriters), and gigantic brick-like cell phones. I remember being amazed at that little tiny flap at the bottom of the phone, as thin as a credit card and yet able to pick up your voice and transmit it through the air. Now it's a feature so obsolete that it may as well never have been there. Sandra Bullock plays Angela Bennett, a lonely computer analyst who is so connected to her computer that she sits on the beach in Mexico, on her first vacation in six years, with her laptop on her lap. It's not only like a source of nourishment but her connection to the world and the establishment and maintenance of her identity.This is where her problems begin. Like The Manchurian Candidate back in the 1960s (and again in less than a week from this writing), The Net plays on the popular fears of the society in which it is released. The Manchurian Candidate originally played off the fears instilled in people by the recently ended Cold War, while The Net, a much less potent thriller, suggests the scary possibilities of a world in which we are so inextricably connected to computers. Probably the most interesting thing in the movie now is the computers, such as the massive laptops with the tiny screens, the indispensable floppy disks which are now almost nonexistent, the graphics, etc.Angela Bennett has had her digital identity stolen and replaced with that of Ruth Marx, who has a lengthy police record and who thus takes over Angela's identity. It's pretty clever, I suppose, the way the movie presents Angela as though she hasn't left her apartment in six years and with a mother suffering from Alzheimer's (and thus not able to help identify the real Angela later), but it's pretty hard to believe that not a single person in the office where she worked noticed that Angela started being a completely different person. She had no significant other, was not dating, and no parents who could identify her, but was she such a recluse that even the people in the office she worked in didn't even know what she looked like?At any rate, the plot of the movie is pretty smartly created, although it is created as though it were an excuse for a lot of chase scenes, one of which takes place on a merry-go-round in a great homage to Hitchcock's Strangers On A Train, one of the many classic films to which the movie alludes, several of them other Hitchcock films. Bennett has been given a disk which contains a website, I suppose, which turns out to contain a weakness in a security system about to be set up to protect everything from banks to Wall Street to the CIA. By holding down Control and Shift and clicking on the little Pi icon in the corner of the screen, you are transported from a ludicrous page about Mozart's Ghost, apparently a god-awful metal band, and into highly classified government documents. The disk provides the bad guys with a reason to want to capture Bennett, and thus you have a movie.Angela goes from a comfortable but bored computer analyst, doing a lot of her work from home and ordering pizza on the Internet at the end of the day (presumably one of the future possibilities of the internet which never came to exist), to a wanted fugitive, ultimately caught and put into a jail cell for someone else's crimes. She has lost her home, her job, her identity, her life. Bullock actually puts in a pretty good performance in the movie. I'm not a huge fan, but I appreciated the realness that her character had, since she is not an over the top actor, her characters are generally very real because she is as well. Where the movie trips up is that it tries to suggest that such identity theft could happen to anyone in our technological age, but given the effort put into presenting Angela as someone with no personal contacts with just about anyone, really it could only happen to someone like Angela, and are there really that many people that no one can identify by looks? Even the guy at the local video store might recognize her as the lady who rents under her account. Oh well. There's also a glitch in the end of the movie that Mick LaSalle points out and that only people familiar with San Francisco, where the climax of the film takes place, will notice. As Angela rushes through a Macintosh exhibition at the real Moscone Center, she desperately tries to copy all the computer files before the bad guys get her. Pretty tense, but if she had been smart, she could have gone to The San Francisco Chronicle office, which is a block down the street from the Moscone Center.But hey, maybe the Chronicle doesn't have high enough walkways out back.
22 out of 37 people found the following review useful: Her driver's license. Her credit cards. Her bank accounts. Her identity. DELETED., 11 November 2005 Author: Jessica Kolk from Brazil
The net is an excellent movie! It's about Angela Bennett(in a great performance of Sandra Bullock) who is a computer expert who works for the Cathedral Company, cleaning virus and testing games for the clients. Angela is a typical nerd who doesn't have friends outside of the cyberspace,almost doesn't take vacations and go out, and stays almost all the time connected. One day her friend Dale Hessman(Ray McKinnon) asks her to help him,sending Angela a disk with a strange program that has many confidential informations. At the same night, when Dale was going to meet her, he is suddenly killed in a plane crash.Going to Mexico in her vacation,Angela meets a beautiful guy called Jack Devlin (Jeremy Northam)who shows to be a cold blood killer bastard and one of the guys behind all the secret of the Diskette.Her life then turns into a nightmare: All her records are erased and she is given the new identity of Ruth Marx, a woman with serious problems with the police.This movie is great because it shows how we, humans,depend a lot of the computers and machines(sometimes more that we should) and how vulnerable we are if someday ,someone decides to control and change our personal records,without letting us the chance to prove the error.
9 out of 12 people found the following review useful: Cyber-thriller has a few internal glitches, but it keeps on running., 17 February 1999 Author: Jason C. Atwood from Suffolk, Virginia
This isn't a bad movie thriller to keep you off the Internet for two hours, but can you take the risk? THE NET sounds unconvincing since our love of computers and cyber-sputting expresses what the story is all about, and a possible fad to recognize. Thankfully, it does attempt to bring some raw suspense that is head-and-shoulders above other lame films that contend to "artificial communication". Once again, Sandra Bullock knows how to keep her fans happy, and even though it's no "chick-flick", she's still the likeable character inside. This time, she's stalked in a game of cat-and-mouse and becomes ruined by an identity crisis. Even with the brand new concept of cyberware, that's just normal for a suspense thriller. An old, traditional "chase" plot gives the movie a blip on the screen, but the story is greatly paced and exciting enough to increase your pulse rate to rapid highs. The computer mess is the biggest fuss some viewers will have in common, including all those not used to this new style. A good shot at a modernization of mystery-suspense films, but you know exactly what to predict here. Why the new TV series?
10 out of 14 people found the following review useful: THE NET : Irwin Winkler Wastes The Film's Potential..., 3 January 2006 Author: cwrdlylyn from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
THE NET I certainly didn't expect this movie to be classic when I put it in last night. I was thinking it would be a "no-brainer" stupid little thriller starring Sandra Bullock. Essentially... I was right.THE NET had the potential to be a better film. The storyline actually creates situations of immense suspense and is paced rather well. The whole computer virus storyline is so confusing to someone not too familiar with computers... and I'm sure there are plot holes in there, but I didn't notice.What keeps THE NET from being truly good is terrible direction. Lately, I've started to notice how easily a bad director can destroy a film and this was a good example... certain moments in this film are just comically bad.The scene of Sandra Bullock's boat get away and her impending crash looks terrible. And normally I can forgive obvious special effects... but I'm sorry, the obviously fake rocks, the poorly edited stunt woman, the ridiculous close ups on Bullock's face. This moment is so terrible and just acts like a giant speed bump in the growing action.Aside from this, Jeremy Northam is god awful in his role. He goes so far over the top trying to be this seductive threat in Bullock's life that I was laughing many times when I wasn't supposed to be. The more threatening, angry, and sexual he tries to get... the less frightening he becomes. Not an ounce of nuance or subtlety. Where was a director telling him to hold back? Or just to tell him... get off my set... you suck! Otherwise, the director, Irwin Winkler, takes far too long at times when he doesn't need to. I liked the Dennis Miller/Sandra Bullock love story that started to develop. But in the end, the scenes are pointless and they come to an abrupt end. And anytime Sandra Bullock was on the run, Irwin Winkler just keeps the camera rolling. There is no example of tightly constructed... suspenseful editing.On the plus side, despite the flaws, the movie still can be exciting at points... and Bullock has some good moments that show some deeper potential. Had this film been done by a director with a keener eye, perhaps both Bullock and the film could have been much better.As is, it's the kind of film that's easy to sit through... but that's partially b/c it's so bad it's good. It's not the worst film that ever was, but it could have been far better.... C/C- ...
12 out of 19 people found the following review useful: Very well done and thought out., 10 April 2005 Author: (jww@jwcomp.com) from Lawrenceville, NJ
If you're actually reading this review, I give you a lot of credit. You care enough to actually look up this movie, which most people have forgotten about and then cared to read beyond the first review! So for your reading pleasure...I'm assuming you know the plot line already so I won't waste time typing that out. I will mention that Sandra Bullock did an amazing job with this movie. She really brought a lot of sympathy to the role of a computer programmer, often difficult to do. I can say this because I happen to be a computer programmer.Anyway, I thought the basic plot was a very good one. You can easily build sub-plots upon its mainframe and turn it into a very enjoyable movie. The premise is also scarily realistic in that this can all really happen if the right precauctions aren't taken.To make a long review short...oops! Too late! If you enjoy Sandra Bullock bringing a role to life and want to see a very well made movie for the time, take a look at this little gem. You won't be disappointed. :-)
13 out of 21 people found the following review useful: What computers?, 20 December 2006 Author: ZeR04U from Washington, USA
This movie is such a piece of unbelievable crap. First let me talk about the pros: Sandra Bullock in a black bathing suit.Now the rest of the story which is all pretty much bad. We have said computer programmer Angela Bennett (who's online profile is ANGEL - HOW WITTY!!! I bet the directors cheered over that one for an hour) who basically checks other Company's software for errors/glitches etc. So we start with her ordering pizza on the Internet and then putting on a fireplace on her monitor (EXTREME computer skills shown thus far). This is after she finds some virus on a macintosh program which crashes the whole system after hitting the escape key. This is apparently a HUGE problem yet the virus created to do such could be done in about 1 minute with a simple batch file.Any event, we move on. She gets this call from some other bloke (that works at the same company) and this fool says to go click this symbol which apparently opens up some secret Internet gateway to a bunch of unprotected 'top secret' data woohoo! Angela saves this crap on a disc and now the people that created this loophole are out to get her. This of course is only after she hooks up with one of the bad guys only BEFORE he tries to kill her BEFORE she jumps in the ocean off his boat, BEFORE she winds up in a random hospital.Problem #1: You can't create a loophole on the Internet to gain access to a bunch of top secret FBI data. Where the hell did this come from? Since when can a group of hackers control the basic flow of the Internet (even in 95)? Problem #2: Angela would need proper identification before a hospital or clinic would release her. She could not just pack her things and go.Then these 'hackers' or whatever change Angela's ID so she can't get help from anyone and conveniently enough all her ID is gone. So she returns home and a cat and mouse chase goes on and on and on.Apparently all police and FBI people are stupid and don't believe her. So then she has to utilize a bunch of tactics to enter into the building where she works (where the person who is now filling in for her is) and get back to her old computer. She starts talking to some other random bloke and finds out who is behind everything through some BS IP address that the director knows the audience is too stupid enough to believe.Then she runs to some center to mail all this information to the FBI. She apparently HAS to use a mainframe to email stuff to the FBI. But then the same fool that tried to kill her BEFORE throwing her in the water catches her and easily hacks into the FBI again (wtf?). But remember that cool virus? Well somehow she luckily gets that and even though the virus only worked on software, it now works on the entire system too. It brings down the whole mainframe which has all the fake information because the mainframe was just sitting in the middle of some convention... WHAT THE HELL IS THIS CRAP! Anyway, the now uber virus works and Angela (the real one now) runs away and later kills the evil dude with a fire extinguisher. He of course has a gun, runs up to her so he's like 2 feet away and then decides to aim. CLASSIC Hollywood.All in all this movie is so full of BS and crap. Anyone who doesn't know a lot about computers will be wildly fooled into thinking this crap is possible but not one thing is accurate concerning computers or the net. And I honestly doubt I'd see a multiplatform virus for Mac and a mainframe computer (*cough LMAO*).
7 out of 11 people found the following review useful: Great movie for its time., 19 October 2007 Author: kornbug12 from United States
Personally, I love Sandra Bullock and she always gives an outstanding performance in every single movie she does. You can tell she puts her heart right into it. I didn't think this was a terrible movie, to be honest there were some scenes that could have been done differently. There are also certain points of the movie that are very predictable, but again, I guess it's like that with most movies. Not a bad flick. I have to say, considering it was released in 1995 and I've only just seen it now, 2007... it wasn't bad for its time. One of those movies you rent on a rainy day with nothing better to do with your time. If you are looking for a mind bending thriller, this is definitely not the movie for you. Enjoy.
8 out of 13 people found the following review useful: Not to be taken internally or seriously..., 1 July 2002 Author: James Houston (thermoj) from Las Vegas, NV
In the dim, dead, dark days preceding my ownership of a PC, I was rather intrigued with the movie. Very Hitchcockian in its tone, and kind of a David-beats-Goliath theme that every one can relate to (Apple vs. Microsoft, employee vs. boss, ad infinitum). Seven years hence...I realize that many of the governmental entities supposedly "hacked" were, at the time of this movie, utilizing systems built when leisure suits were still the rage--and IBM was lord and master of the computer domain. Granted, hackers can be considered a real and acknowledged threat, but we should take this movie for what it is...Just some passably good entertainment and not too representative of R/T (Real Time for all you Netsurfing newbies). However, the plot remains fundamentally sound, and not too taxing on the mind. Sandra Bullock gave a reasonably credible performance as programmer/support tech/consultant Angela Bennett. I realize that sex appeal fuels Hollywood, and it IS possible to have beauty and brains. But the story seems to have some fundamental flaws. What are the odds that NO one would know who you really were...It's impossible to think that we really have become the so-called "ghosts in the machine". As long as we have receipts, hard copies,friends and loved ones, we won't be caught in "The Net." Some good performances by the smooth but irreverent Dennis Miller, and by the suave but deadly Jeremy Northam make for a movie worth watching when there's nothing better on the boob tube...Or if you're a closet geek like yours truly, you call friends and laugh about all the inaccuracies.
5 out of 8 people found the following review useful: Silly suspense, 9 February 2003 Author: John (J-Eire) from Cork, Ireland
Made and released at the time when the internet was just becoming huge, this is a storyline Hitchcock would have loved.Sadly, Hitchcock wasn't around to make it, and we're left with an occasionally suspenseful but mostly silly thriller, that is held (barely) together by Bullock's intelligence.It was released in 1995 but is already dated, and the amount of mistakes and inaccuaracies regarding computers must be seen to be believed, and you don't even have to be a dot.com person to spot them!
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