Dan Aykroyd Movie:

Editorial Review:
This enjoyable thriller, written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson (the screenwriter of Field of Dreams), follows a raggedy group of corporate security experts who get in over their heads when they accept an assignment poaching some hot hardware for the National Security Agency. Robert Redford plays the group's guru, an aging techno-anarchist who has been hiding from the feds since the early 1970s; his companionable gang of freaks includes Dan Aykroyd, David Strathairn, Mary McDonnell, the late River Phoenix, and Sidney Poitier, as a veteran CIA operative turned "sneaker." The technological black box that everybody is after, an array of computer chips that can decode any encrypted message, isn't a very plausible invention, but it's a serviceable McGuffin, and the megalomania of the master plotter played by Ben Kingsley has more resonance than most. Modest inferences can be drawn about the very latest high-tech threats to civil liberties. --David Chute

Sneakers Reviews:
Should have been called Hackers
2008-11-19 - Indeed, this was the early 90's and I was DEEP in the "hacker scene." Except for the fact that everyone in the movie is a bit too old, it really has the feel of that sense of power you felt when you hacked into a system, or cracked someone's lame software copy protection. But the NAME of this movie is what limited its distribution. I was invited to see this by a colleague of mine and he only told me the name. Hell, I thought it was gonna be some basketball sports film or something. But I went anyway. Was I surprised! The movie was intelligent and really spoke about how important the "electric village" would really become. But here comes this little film our of nowhere and just really NAILS it. Yes, some of the film was improbable, and the techno sequences are really showing their age if you've really followed tech like I have. But all that stuff about a bunch of guys probing a chip looking for ways we could mess with it. That was just how it was! And this was in a movie! Anyway, when I want to plug into my rowdier days, I give this one a spin.

A fun movie with lots of great stars
2008-11-12 - Robert Redford has been on the lamb for years and now runs a miscreant crew of nefarious characters who are paid to show companies their weaknesses. Along come some so called Government Agents who give him a choice...Help them or go to jail. The plot unfolds and Redford makes a play at the "man behind the curtain" and the girl. This is a great rainy day movie. It's both funny and has some pretty cool Mission Impossible moments.

Classic and a good movie
2008-09-14 - i liked this movie when it came out. robert redford was funny,witty and charming. very interesting and entertaining for the redford fan.

Sneakers - the perfect action comedy!
2008-08-29 - I first saw Sneakers when I was about 13 years old. I was fascinated beyond belief that hackers could be so powerful and that computers could be so powerful. That was back in 1993 or 94 - and it seams a world away now. One wouldn't think that Sneakers could still have any impact on people after all these years. But watching it again made me so happy. It made me realise that a good story with a great plot is much more powerful than new movies a bit like it (Die hard 4, Mission Impossible). Snearkers is not a movie with fantastic special effects. But it has a fantastic cast, and a wonderful child-like fascination of the new world of computers and the more or less promising digital future.
Buy it, if you like super comedy, a good story, great action - and being in the company of some of Hollywood's finest as Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley, River Phoenix and many more...


Who Do You Trust?
2008-07-22 - The film begins on a snowy night. Hackers broke into a computer to issue checks to various groups. One leaves to buy food, the others are caught by the police. [Was such hacking possible in 1969?] Later we see a group who are tapping into phone lines. An alarm goes off because of a device in a safety deposit box. This is all part of a burglary that tests security for a bank: its perfectly legal. Two businessmen arrive at Martin Bishop's company to hire him for a special job. They'll do it for the money. They start to surveil the subject, a professor who may have a formula to create unbreakable codes. Others are interested in that professor's work. "Social engineering" is used to gain admittance to the target corporation. [The slow response to questions tells of the prompting.] Does Bishop talk too much at that party? "Too many secrets?"

Can one device the size of a cassette telephone answering machine allow unauthorized access to secured sites? [Only in a Hollywood film.] Does possession of this device put them in grave danger? "Who were those guys?" Now the mystery begins. Should Martin disappear again? Could a private business have great need for that device? Can official records be changed to create evidence? Who can you trust? The team plans to break into the corporation to retrieve that device. Is it an impossible mission? The film makes it seem plausible. Will there be any problems to hype the drama? Will the good guys win against the odds? The usual formula says they will, with plenty of action at the finish. Does the deus ex machina ending detract from the story?

Does the idea of organized crime owning an electronics company seem far out? Do legitimate companies build trapdoors into their software to allow clandestine access to their customer's data? What do you think?