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Antitrust by Daniel Papkin In Peter Howitt's slick, hapless cyberthriller, the square-jawed, affectless Ryan Philippe plays a brilliant young programmer (Milo) who goes to work for a massive software company that will stop at nothing in its efforts to foist its software on the world. I don't know what's harder to believe: that a software company would be so ruthless, or that Mr. Phillipe is a genius. No, wait. Scratch that. In case you're wondering which evil monopolizing software concern the film's NURV is referencing, you might check Tim Robbins' performance. He sort of does a taller, warmer Bill Gates with a background-in-theater thing, though he doesn't tax himself overmuch. His biggest acting challenge seems to have been his struggle to unlearn how to eat potato chips. When Milo arrives at the leafy NURV campus he quickly comes under the paternal wing of Robbins' conniving cyberbaron. He wants Milo to help with the programming for his device-connecting software Synapse. PAGE 1 | 2 |
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Sure it's cool and all, but what about all the weird stuff that starts to happen? An old buddy of Milo's gets his head bashed in. Brilliant code arrives out of nowhere. Milo's artsy girlfriend makes dinner. If I'm moving too fast, fear not. The film will cover the same ground at a deathly pace. The thriller appears not to be Mr. Howitt's genre. Ominous music when the villian's name is dropped, plot points driven home with ludicrous zooms, and a surplus of meaningless cutaways indicate that. Even more surprising is his poor direction of actors. Rachel Leigh Cook as the cute girl at work who may or may not be aligned with the forces of darkness feels practically lobotomized. As for the no-name youths in the picture, they act as though they were recently yanked off the nearest cyber sandlot. Stay home and download. It's far more suspenseful. What malfunctions in Antitrust? Sound off in the Movie Forum. Photos courtest of MGM. PAGE 1 | 2 |
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