Good idea lost in the noise

Expected more

Brilliant and touching

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

While Antitrust is definitely dated, I was surprised with how authentic the computer stuff was. They weren't using laughably fake graphics and animations on the monitors (*cough*The Net*cough*), they were actually showing regular, old, boring code on the screen. The story isn't great - it's a lesser version of The Firm - but this is a fun little thriller I enjoyed watching.

Antitrust (2001): Dir: Peter Howitt / Cast: Ryan Phillippe, Tim Robbins, Claire Forlani, Rachael Leigh Cook, Yee Jee Tso: Phony contraption where Ryan Plillippe and a friend receive opportunity to work at a high profile firm. The head of the firm is a Bill Gates type who delivers long speeches about future and technology. Phillippe investigates when his friend back home is beaten to death. He notices aggressive behaviour from his boss, and he suspects that his girlfriend may not be who she claimed to be. Only the woman at the firm he seems able to trust. While Phillippe solves the plot with wit and brains, it doesn't take away from the fact that he makes too many narrow escapes. Robbins is embarrassing as the villain who seems to be constantly sneaking up on Phillippe. Claire Forlani and Rachael Leigh Cook play two women who are more mysterious than interesting. Forlani is his suspicious girlfriend, and Cook is his suspicious co-worker. Either way neither one is suspicious regarding how pathetic this film is. Yee Jee Tso plays the murdered friend although that could have been his way out of the film. Directed by Peter Howitt who previously made Sliding Doors with Gwyneth Paltrow in duo roles. The production is okay with a highlighted Lego sequence. One could say that this film is about people in high places but the delivery and suspense is so juvenile that it fails to be nothing more than something out of the recycle bin. Score: 3 / 10

I don't write reviews. In fact this is my first for many years and I don't know if it classifies as a review of the film itself but rather a critique of the incompetence and lack of thought that went into the making of this film.I feel compelled to warn anyone against watching this film if they value the time they have on this planet. Fortunately, after 20 minutes or so I turned off. If I hadn't I might have thrown something at the TV screen in disgust.The plot is naïve, unworldly and the scripting and dialogue has to be seen to be believed. How Tim Robbins got caught up in this I don't know.Even more surprising is that I see it won some awards. A "golden goblet". I think a wooden spoon would be appropriate.I won't say any more except that you should give this a VERY wide berth. How it sits there with a 6 star rating at the time of writing is beyond me.

I think the target audience for this film is too small. Hardcore programmers will dislike this film because the code they used was pretty much bullc*** code and because the way this company doesn't really resemble the atmosphere in a real IT company (I know from experience). Also, the entire plot was way too far-fetched to really come off as realistic at any time.People not into IT are not likely to enjoy this film either, since there's too much techno-babble for anyone not familiar with IT to get some insight in what's going on half of the time. When they speak of an IP address, an interface, an OS or decompressing the audience is expected to understand all of these terms to have an idea of what's happening.So what's left as a possible target audience is a group of geeky kids and teenagers who're into computers enough to understand all the techno-babble but who are too naive and inexperienced to have any idea what working in an IT company feels like.... Not a good move, I'd say.Overall the movie does make a decent effort to keep some tension alive, but the far-fetched plot, the silly situation, the more than average amount of techno-babble and the bullc*** code seriously limit the possible target audience for this film.