recommended

good back-story, and good acting

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

I can watch this movie any time, and I have. It's now 2018, and it's just as enjoyable as it was when released. Suspense. Intrigue. Humor. Doesn't hurt that it features some of my favorite actors. Love this movie. I own it, so I can watch it any time. But there's something great about finding it on a channel when you weren't expecting it. Watch it again? Sure.

In 1969, the idealistic hackers Martin Brice and Cosmos use the computer to transfer funds from conservative politicians to liberal causes. Martin goes out of the building to buy a pizza for them and Cosmos is arrested. Twenty years later, Cosmos has died in prison and Brice use the alias Martin "Marty" Bishop (Robert Redford) to run a company that tests security systems with the specialists Donald Crease (Sidney Poitier) that is a former CIA agent; the blind Irwin 'Whistler' Emery (David Strathairn) that is specialist in sounds; Darren 'Mother' Roskow (Dan Aykroyd) that is an awesome technician that believes in theories of conspiracy; and Carl Arbogast (River Phoenix) that is a young genius. One day, the NSA agents Dick Gordon (Timothy Busfield) and Buddy Wallace (Eddie Jones ) visit Martin's office and he is blackmailed by them that know his real identity. They want that Martin and his crew retrieve a black box from Dr. Gunter Janek (Donal Logue), a mathematician that developed a cryptography system for the Russian government in a project called Setec Astronomy. In return, they would clear his name and give US$ 175,000.00 for Martin and his team. Martin asks his former girlfriend Liz (Mary McDonnell) to help him and soon they recover the box and deliver to the NSA agents. Soon Martin learns that he was lured by Dick and Wallace, and Janek that was murdered was working indeed for the National Security Agency in a system capable to break any computer encryption. Further, he has been incriminated in the murder of Janek and two other men and his only way out of the trap he is involved is recovering once again the black box. "Sneakers" is an entertaining thriller with a promising beginning, good development and flawed and deceptive conclusion. Robert Redford and Ben Kingsley are too old for the role of two men that twenty years before were college students. It would be more logical to cast two actors of thirty and something years old. But they are great actors and the viewer may disregard this detail along the action and suspense of the movie. But the conclusion with the dangerous Wallace, Dick and Cosmos alive and free would be a constant threat for Martin and his team. NSA Director Bernard Abbott offers whatever they want and none of them request protection from Cosmos and the rogue agents. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil) : "Quebra de Sigilo" ("Break of Secrecy")

Movies that try to do a lot fail more often than they succeed. There's no doubt that "Sneakers" attempts to pull off a lot of things during its 126 minute running time. Just look at the genres its listed under on its page (and believe me, the film spends plenty of time in each of them). But while there are many films that suffer from being overly ambitious, "Sneakers" is not one of them. It's hard to imagine how this film could be any more perfect.Martin Bishop (Robert Redford) runs a business in testing security systems with an eccentric group of characters. However, they are hired by the NSA to steal a mysterious box from a scientist. Of course, not everything is what it seems.To say more would be a crime. "Sneakers" has enough twists and turns to keep the viewer guessing where it will go next. This is achieved by both Phil Alden Robinson's excellent direction, and a smart script where the heroes and villains are equally intelligent.The acting is terrific. Robert Redford is terrific as the low-key Bishop. Bishop has a dark past, but he's likable enough that we still root for him. His crew is made up of actors who turn in equally good performances: Sidney Poitier as the weary Creasy, Dan Aykroyd as the conspiracy freak known as Mother (the banter between Mother and Creasy is hilarious), the late River Phoenix as the teen-aged Carl, and David Stratharin is excellent as the blind, but excellent-hearing Whistler. And Mary McDonnell is delightful as Mary's ex-girlfriend Liz. The villains (I won't say who they are) ooze menace.Phil Alden Robinson made his debut with the hit "Field of Dreams," and he follows it up with "Sneakers." The tone is perfect. It's fun, easy-going, but it leaves room for legitimate tension. It's also oddly nostalgic. The result is a dreamy masterpiece.See "Sneakers." You won't be disappointed.

I'm always up for a good caper movie, and this is one of the better ones. It doesn't get overworked with such intricacy and tension that trying to keep up with it would prove unsatisfying. Instead, this one puts together a nice blend of mystery, suspense, intrigue and humor, and does it with a capable cast and clever writing. The hacker group's lone egghead is at the same time a conspiracy theorist (Dan Ackroyd) who balances out his own personality, while the rest are a complementary lot to their leader, Robert Redford, alias Martin Brice, alias Martin Bishop. I couldn't quite see Sidney Poitier as a member of the group in the early going, but he did deliver the film's best line in my estimation - "You guys would be chalk outlines without me".The film was somewhat eerily prophetic in it's treatment of an attempt by our country's enemies to acquire access to computers controlling the national power grid. Recent headlines in the news make mention of just such a scenario with the potential to cripple the nation's infrastructure. The bad guys have been pitted against the good guys since the beginning of time, but with each passing year, the stakes continue only to escalate.I tuned in to "Sneakers" last night without realizing that I had seen it before, and kept wondering for a while why I knew what was coming next. It was Mary McDonnell's appearance that finally brought me to my senses - I remembered that she was also pretty hot the first time around!