ANTITRUST

A review by Camilo Arenivar

AntiTrust is the year's first obvious disappointment. A technological thriller, it somehow manages to be unoriginal and predictable, with poor acting thrown in for good measure. Despite that, there is a certain degree of guilty pleasure you receive in the movie of the week type of excitement.

The movie is the story of a young man who gets call to work for the software genius he has idolized as a teenager. Ryan Phillippe is Milo Hoffman, a computer genius who has just graduated from Stanford and is planning on starting an internet startup with his best friend. All that changes when he gets a call from Gary Winston (Tim Robbins) during an online chat. Winston, a Bill Gates like entity offers Hoffman and his genius best friend positions at Synapse, Winston's Microsoft like empire in Portland, Oregon. I am surprised Bill Gates did not object to this film because Winston's company is also undergoing investigation by the Justice Department for breaking antitrust laws and becoming a monopoly. The similarities between the two would be offensive to Gates one would think. Hoffman takes the job, his best friend scoffs, because they believe in "free code" and the two depart. Once in Portland at the Synapse "campus", things start to happen. And once things start to happen, the movie moves up from a snore to a Movie of the Week Special quality.

The acting is not good. Phillippe seems to be playing a variation of every character has ever played. Same tone, same expressions. The supporting cast comes across dorky and cheesy, making one wonder if they were actually recruited or borrowed from a software company. The story becomes so predictable and the scary thing is, we have seen 70% of this before in a movie called The Net. Pretty much the same kind of movie. It also reminds one of War Games, if you remember that film. It does get exciting and "twisty" towards the last 45 minutes with typical deceptions and surprise villains, but unfortunately, it's the same old thing we have seen before and we have nothing new done with an old story.

Save AntiTrust for a slow week at the video store unless you are a Tim Robbins or Ryan Phillippe fan, in which case I'd advise a matinee!

Rating: 70

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Rating Scale:

90-100: Run to it,youre dead or a jealous aspiring screenwriter if you don't like it! Okay to pay full price! (Excellent= A)

80-90: Good, but not a classic. If you like this genre, you will like the film. If you're not sure that you like these kind of movies, a matinee would be a safer bet.(Good = B)

70-80: There are redeeming factors to this movie, and it has high points and low points. Worth a matinee depending on how close to 80 the rating is, a video rental if closer to 70. Nothing real special about it. (Fair = C)

60-70: Barely passing! Only slightly entertaining, not worth paying for at the movie theater. Rent it if you like this type of film otherwise stay away! (Poor = D)

50-60: Don't even rent this! Unless you like BAD movies. (Failure = F)

0-50: Run from it! Boycott the video store that would carry it! This is HORRIBLE, how did it get made?

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