Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

In contrast to most reviewers here I found a lot to like in this movie though I assumed it was a very low budget Indie effort by people with some good ideas but virtually no money. So that means the location shots and atmospherics were remarkably good for the zero-costs and even if some people looked at the camera in the cheapo-film on the hoof public shots, mostly they worked, I had a real sense of San F as a darker and scarier place than I have ever seen. What else? The music is really good and adds a lot to the mood. The characterisation and acting was mixed, though I found the NSA/CIA/Homeland torturers quite credible. The main character is a nerd but then hacking geeks are nerds and the closing line of 'A month ago I was a god' says quite a lot - he is a kind of Gordon Gekko of hacking but his morals are all over the place and he wants to have a conscience. Result is that he carries his morals around like a dying albatross around his neck and we find his a jerk. But I found the hacking community believable if not very lovable - rip- off artists who pretend they are super heroes because they can steal and break and enter using their brain power. Overall worth a watch because it wakes you up to American secret police methods.

This movie would be slow and boring, for those who don't appreciate the cerebral. However the cerebral is a big part of the story. The movie tries to steer you towards liking their good guy. But what the supposed good guy does and what he is, is not good. I sympathized with his plight, and what happened to his friends by their connection to him. But there my sympathy ends. He knew what he did was wrong, and he did it anyway. I have no empathy for people who's very job is to knowingly and illegally harm others, however removed they might feel they are from it. This movie is Pandora's box all over again, but with a technological modern spin. I give it an 8 of 10. It proves once again, that the best movies are still about story, even if technology is a big part of the story. One of those good low budgeters we all like to see, and very rarely do.

I'm giving this movie 3 stars because of numerous things going wrong in it both plot and acting wise.First, The acting is pretty poor. The interrogation scene is as realistic as if it was put together by some high school drama class. The way the protagonists interact with each other is rather fake in a very obvious way. In the part where he runs away with the car the managing guy ain't even mad, like not concerned at all. Plot wise: So many things are wrong: The guy is inside a CTO of the data mining company, yet he hires a random street hacker for debunking his wife's cheating, and moreover he falls about the part where he clicks a link and all his information is gone. Really? The scenes from doing some operation to some other one go without much explanation, and in these cases one either goes into details or just non technically explains it. In the movie they explain for a bit, than everything major goes like nothing happened.

When I started the movie the crude actions of the FBI agent seemed unnatural and I almost turned it off there, however I love hacking based movies so I thought "no let's give it a chance".Once I got into the story the acting was not as bad as I initially thought. Now I am no professional in either acting or films but I thought it was not that bad, now the story is a different subject.The initial beginning of the movie I thought was bland...a man wanting to know about his cheating partner however I could tell there was a larger story coming so I was interested.The main storyline behind this film, it was both clever and interesting to me. The use of information and technology throughout the movie explaining things to those who may not understand and also the main characters views on life which I consider somewhat accurate in my opinion, were both smart, useful and interesting in understanding the movie.During the breakout of their friend was one of the highlights of the movie as my heart was pounding when they were almost caught. Afterwards the twist of them being turned in by the friend they went to help them was gut wrenching and somewhat disappointing.What I mean by disappointing was I saw a different route the movie could have taken which was to fight the government and expose the wrong doings of those supposed to protect and serve.However I guess that the way the movie went would be more realistic. I look forward to watching any future movies this director makes.Overall I am glad I came across this movie and I will most likely watch it again.