Antitrust
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DVD details
Actor: Claire Forlani, Ryan PhillippeBrand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 109 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-05-15
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of Antitrust
DVD Review: Is this a comedy?
Summary: 3 Stars
What a time the late 1990s were, eh? Everywhere you looked, the computer age was underway. Or was it the information age? Or the digital age? I'm not sure they've decided on a title yet. Anyway, the rise of the Internet had everyone and their grandmother running to the store to buy a computer with a modem so they could access the best adult websites America has to offer. Words and terms like "E-mail," "Windows," "search engines," "AOL," and "Netscape" formed the building blocks of a new lingua franca for those in the know. I still remember the hysterics revolving around the release of Microsoft's Windows 98 operating system. Extraterrestrials landing on the White House lawn wouldn't have garnered more press coverage. All that excitement for a system loaded with bugs that crashed--at least on my computer--at least once a week. All hail the relative stability of Windows XP! Anyway, the revolution wouldn't be complete without Hollywood jumping on the bandwagon. Surprisingly, or perhaps not considering most people in Tinseltown aren't smart enough to understand the rudiments of computers, it took them until 2001 to release a film like "Antitrust." Say hello to a big bellyful of good old Hollywood anti-corporate claptrap.
Milo Forman (Ryan Phillippe) has just about everything going for him. He's got a good-looking girlfriend named Alice Poulson (Claire Forlani), he just graduated from a top-notch college where he won numerous awards for his computer programming skills, and Gary Winston (Tim Robbins) wants to offer him a job. Who's Gary Winston? A Bill Gates type geek with a few hundred trillion in the bank and a smile one expects to see in a morgue. Forman planned on working with a few of his school pals in their own little company devoted to open source software, but Winston's offer is too good to pass up. So it's off to visit Gary at NURV headquarters (yep, NURV; I couldn't make this up if I tried) to learn the ins and outs of working for the big boys. It is here that Milo makes nice with the ethereal beauty that is Lisa Calighan (Rachael Leigh Cook), and it's also here that he soon learns that he's Winston's golden boy. Gary and his executives are working on a new system, Synapse, which will link together every communication device on the planet through a bunch of satellites. And it's up to good old Milo to put the pieces of this amazing hardware together. Winston drops by at times to provide him with code and other interesting tidbits.
Problem is, Milo soon suspects that Winston and his cronies are stealing a lot of their information from other computer programmers. Not other companies, mind you, but from programmers sitting around in their garages writing code. In other words, stealing from people like Milo's friend Teddy Chin (Yee Jee Tso). The jerk! Of course, it's not easy to prove such a grand conspiracy, although Winston's occasional outbursts and his win at all costs mentality lends credence to the idea that NURV would resort to anything to stay ahead in the game. Even, do I dare say it, MURDER. After Teddy takes a one-way trip to that great operating system in the sky, Milo Forman launches an investigation of his employer fraught with peril. Hopefully, our brainy hero can count on the help of Agent Lyle Barton (Richard Roundtree) at the Justice Department, who is leading an anti-trust investigation into NURV. Then again, maybe he can't trust anyone. He certainly comes to distrust Alice Poulson, and with good reason. After all, why would a chick this good looking have anything to do with an ubergeek like Milo? Surprisingly, that's not why he suspects she's in on Winston's plan for global domination. It's got something to do with sesame seeds and...ahhh, just watch the movie.
I'm not sure whether "Antitrust" is a comedy or a thriller. The movie possesses elements of both, although one strongly suspects that those situations pointing to the former were unintentional. I liked a lot of the suspense elements in the movie, once it gets going in the second half, and I simply adored the angelic vision that is Rachael Leigh Cook. These things work and merit praise. But I found I couldn't stop laughing long enough to appreciate fully the serious issues presented in the film. The funniest thing about "Antitrust" is its paranoia. This movie absolutely reeks of far left-wing paranoia of the type currently espoused by those tin foil helmeted kooks manning the Bush barricades down in Texas. Big business run amok, massive surveillance operations, murder conspiracies; I could go on and on. It's like big brother with a pocket protector. And Winston's diabolical plan to take over the world? Who came up with this idea? As far as I can tell, it was either Snidely Whiplash or a Bond villain. Like any government or big corporate concern would unquestioningly turn control of their networks over to Gary Winston. Thank goodness we've got geeks like Ryan Phillippe--and by extension Hollywood--running around protecting us from Bill Gates wannabes!
Extras on the DVD include a commentary track from director Peter Howitt and editor Zach Staenberg, a music video, alternate opening and closing sequences, deleted scenes (I love Rachael Leigh Cook in the bathroom!), and a behind the scenes look at the movie chock full of interviews with the cast as well as proof that the filmmakers and all involved really researched the computer industry before making the movie. Uh huh. Even citizen of the world Tim Robbins deigns to drop in for a few comments about his transparent impersonation of Bill Gates. I'll give "Antitrust" three stars since I always enjoy a thriller, but the film's ability to draw a laugh when none was intended sort of takes away from what the filmmakers tried to accomplish.
Description of Antitrust
In a world where unseen enemies can watch your every move, who can you trust? Ryan Phillippe (Cruel Intentions), Rachael Leigh Cook (She's All That), Claire Forlani (Meet Joe Black) and OscarÂ(r) winner* Tim Robbins star in this fast-paced, sizzling thriller that crackles with "genuine intrigue (Entertainment Today), "considerable suspense" and an "ingenious, stunningly cinematic payoff" (Los Angeles Times) you have to see to believe! Young, brilliant computer whiz Milo Hoffman (Phillippe) lands an exciting and lucrative job at the world's largest computer company, NURV. Handpicked by powerful C.E.O. Gary Winston (Robbins) to work on a project that will change the way the world communicates, Milo thinks he's found his dream job. But whenhis best friend, Teddy, is brutally murdered and clues lead to NURV's involvement, Milo becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth. With his cunning and beautiful girlfriend (Forlani) and a sexy programmer (Cook) to help him, Milo races to beat Teddy's murderers at their own cyber game. But as theyclose in on him, he realizes he may be too late to learn the most important code of all: Keep your friends close. Keep your enemies closer. And know which are which before you're killed. *2003: Supporting Actor, Mystic RiverThe term suspension of disbelief was invented for the idea that Ryan Phillippe could be a computer genius. As Milo, a slacker brainiac recruited by smilingly ominous software giant Gary Winston (Tim Robbins) to help build a global communications system, Phillippe still looks like a million bucks. He is also still doing the clenched, pouty grown-up voice that he always uses to show that he means business in this acting stuff (he's nothing if not earnest), and a pair of designer glasses completes the transformation. He's well matched in Antitrust by Claire Forlani, who, in turn, spends time pursing her lips and squinting her dewy eyes as Milo's troubled girlfriend, an artist who proves to be a liability when Milo discovers that Winston is killing off clever competitors like a dot-com führer. Robbins, looking like David Letterman, seems willing to either take his role dead seriously or goof around a bit, but director Peter Howitt doesn't know how to play any of it (the actor was better used as a grinning madman in another flawed paranoid thriller, the underseen Arlington Road). Without any underlying menace or enough satirical bite to keep it interesting, the whole thing slips by passively in a mindless matinee kind of way until the over-the-top finale. Production designer Catherine Hardwicke has had some big, glossy fun creating Winston's campus and ornate private kingdom, and there's the cheapest of kicks in seeing Robbins's Bill Gates taken down publicly, but the film is definitely junior league. --Steve Wiecking
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