Ben Oliver

Now
Banner image for Hackers
film

Hackers

Mess with the best, die like the rest.
07 November 2018

A child-hacker goes back to his old ways when he turns 18, falling in with a rag tag bunch of cyber criminals. When they are framed for a crime they didn’t commit, he must help get them off the hook.

This hasn’t aged well. Young Angelina Jolie aside, everything about this is obnoxiously loud and tries way too hard to be cool. Everyone seems to be desperately clawing for attention in front of the camera and the end result is more of a discount MTV show rather than a feature film.

To its credit, Hackers doesn’t portray the actual process of ‘hacking’ all that badly. Yes there’s the shitty graphics that make no sense and the ridiculous typing, but much of the lingo is about right and the social engineering side of hacking plays quite a big part in the plot. It’s no Mr. Robot but they at least did some research.

The dialogue is ridiculous albeit memorable, everyone delivers very silly lines with utmost sincerity - almost like in a sketch show.

Hackers is just so odd. It’s been dubbed a ‘cult hit’, which is perhaps going a bit far, but it does have a strange quality to it that makes you keep watching. It’s almost like a time capsule, but what it tries so hard to be says more about the time than the actual content of the film.