Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Hackers Blu-ray Movie Review

Remember when AOL stood for Almost Online?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 15, 2015

Elementary’s at times whimsical modern updating of the venerable character of Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) has the iconic detective often utilizing 21st century tricks of the trade that would have probably confounded Arthur Conan Doyle’s original formulation of this unforgettable personality. Among those techniques is Holmes’ appeals to an Anonymous-esque group of computer hackers called Everyone, a relationship which is fraught with certain humor, as the Everyone collective routinely insists that Holmes humiliate himself (often in public) before they hand over whatever information it is Holmes has asked for their help to glean. Fans of Hackers, a film that offered Jonny Lee Miller one of his first starring roles, might wonder if Everyone’s hidden population might include one Dade Murphy, Miller’s computer obsessed character, who is first shown as an 11 year old whose expertise at crashing the then nascent internet leads to a supposedly precipitous drop of a whopping seven points on the New York Stock Exchange, as well as the blue screen of death on thousands of other computers, all of which saddles his family with a huge court ordered fine and a stern warning from a no nonsense judge that Dade is forbidden from getting near a computer or even a touch tone phone (hey, it was the dial up era) until he turns 18. The film then segues forward seven years to find Dade and his mother (Alberta Watson) moving to New York City for her to pursue a new job offering and Dade to enjoy the supposed delights of attending high school in the Big Apple.

Finally armed with a new computer, Dade sequesters himself in his bedroom and quickly manages to hack into a local television station, where he is able to broadcast an episode of The Outer Limits. Within seconds, however, he’s confronted by another hacker going by the handle Acid Burn who warns him away from previously claimed “territory.” Meanwhile, Dade’s Mom has figured out he’s connected his computer to the phone line (the horror!) and flips out, obviously concerned that her little boy may be heading to prison if he continues down this path. That particular angst is soon replaced by the somewhat more mundane nervousness of having to matriculate to a new school, with Dade having to navigate a somewhat treacherous hazing ritual at the hands of schoolmate Kate Libby (Angelina Jolie).

One of Hackers’ narrative elisions is how it suddenly posits Dade in a whole world of teenaged computer experts, with a gaggle of other kids (all armed with playful “handles”) at his school evidently already well ensconced in the world of cyber intrusions. These include Emmanuel Goldstein (Matthew Lillard), who goes by the name Cereal Killer; Paul Cook (Laurence Mason), whose alias is Lord Nikon; and Ramon Sanchez (Renoly Santiago), also known as The Phantom Phreak. (There is a “real” Emmanuel Goldstein, albeit pseudonymously, named after a character in George Orwell’s 1984. This Goldstein, actually named Eric Gordon Corley, published an early hacking manifesto called 2600 and also served as a technical consultant on the film. He provides several interesting comments in interviews included as a supplement on this new Blu-ray.)

Meanwhile a hacker wannabe named Joey (Jesse Bradford), easy to identify as a wannabe due to his lack of an online moniker, manages to break into a system at a huge corporation where an IT guru named Hal (Penn Jillette) notices, alerting the firm’s cybersecurity honcho Eugene Belford (Fisher Stevens), who of course has his own alias, The Plague. Joey wants proof of his hacking acumen and begins to download a file called “Garbage,” but his mom disconnects his computer before the download has completed. In the meantime, Eugene admits to his cohort Margo Wallace (Lorraine Bracco) that the so-called Garbage file is in fact a virus that Eugene has been planning to use to create a diversion which will allow him to skim untold millions off of the corporation’s coffers without anyone noticing. The quick thinking Eugene actually blames Joey for the virus, setting an investigation into motion that ultimately involves harried FBI agent Richard Gill (Wendell Pierce).

Joey is taken into custody but has secreted a good old floppy disk with the partially downloaded Garbage file where no one can find it (much to the dismay of both Gill and Eugene). Of course Dade and his gang are soon involved. (Though it won’t be “officially” spoiled here, most aficionados of Screenwriting 101 will be able to figure out who Dade’s early nemesis Acid Burn turns out to be, and that character is also involved in the ensuing shenanigans.) Hackers ultimately traffics in fairly standard “rage against the machine” (and/or The Man) tropes, but it does so in an inventive milieu, one which director Iain Softley invests with some really interesting visual flourishes. Several times, for example, otherwise routine settings like an aerial view of the Manhattan skyline morph into things like a computer circuit board.

While occasionally more than a bit on the cartoonish side, performances are generally quite winning. Miller displays some of the same snark he evinces as Sherlock in Elementary, and his scenes with Jolie have the requisite spark and banter. (Miller and Jolie married shortly after the film wrapped, separating and ultimately divorcing a couple of years later.) The supporting cast is large and eclectic (to say the least), with some nicely colorful turns. That said, Fisher Stevens simply doesn’t emanate much menace as The Plague, seeming to be more like The Low Grade Virus (pun probably intended) instead.

Hackers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hackers is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.34:1. While elements are in generally very good condition, there may be just a slight amount of fade in evidence, as things like flesh tones can look just a little pallid or skewed toward the pink side of things at times. Otherwise, though, the palette is refreshingly vivid, offering some evocative purples and blues in scenes like an arcade where Dade bests Kate's all time high score on a game. Some of the recreations of computer imagery are relatively soft and unconvincing looking, but overall the image offers very good to excellent fine detail (you'll be able to see tiny elements like the fine hairs on Miller's ears in several close-ups). The film has a higher than average amount of opticals, and as should be expected, sharpness and clarity are minimized during these moments. Contrast is solid throughout, offering decent shadow detail in several dimly lit environments. Grain resolves naturally and the presentation has a commendably organic look.

Hackers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Hackers features a winning DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix that offers excellent separation for the film's frequent use of source cues. Dialogue is well rendered and well prioritized. The film's sometimes silly sound effects are also presented cleanly and clearly. Fidelity is fine, though dynamic range somewhat restrained aside from a couple of scenes where, for example, the feds come barging through various doors to take hackers into custody.

Hackers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Keyboard Cowboys: A Look Back at Hackers (1080p; 1:03:55) is a typically excellent Shout! Factory supplement, split into three parts that detail not just the background of the film but the whole hacker culture of the 1990s. There are a ton of fascinating interviews offered up here, including some really fascinating comments from Emmanuel Goldstein. Other interview subjects include Matthew Lillard, Fisher Stevens, Penn Jillette and director Iain Softley.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080i; 2:36)

Hackers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Hackers is unavoidably a bit of a time capsule, and it will probably strike younger viewers as impossibly quaint. The film would have been more effective had it established the coterie of hackers in a bit more of a detailed fashion, rather than simply positing it all as a fait accompli. Miller and Jolie are a lot of fun in early roles (though Jolie has one of the more unfortunate hairstyles of her career), and the supporting cast is by and large quite effective as well. Director Softley invests the film with appealing visual panache while also keeping things well paced, something that helps the film to overcome some of its narrative stumbles. Technical merits are generally strong, and the supplemental featurette is excellent. Recommended.