The Net (1995)

Okay, so first off...before I get on with the review, I love Sandra Bullock, (in everything in Speed 2, because come on, that movie sucked haha) and Hope Floats. (terrible movie, but I watch it everytime it's on television, because there's not really anything hotter than Harry Connick Jr as a cowboy, okay....Harry Connick Jr as my husband would be nice).

and...my review will actually be pretty good tonight because noone was on the television when I decided to watch/review a movie, so I can write WHILE I watch, instead of watching, then reviewing and trying to rembmer everything. :).

So, here we go.

A review of 1995's "The Net".

Start off...creepy music. Always a good sign, considering it's a thriller.

We start with, what I seem to remember...the secretary of defense (don't quote me on that, and I'll correct myself later if it comes out later). Having a very ambigious phone call with an unknown caller.

"So this is reality" is his last words to that ambigious caller.

He then bribes his son to do his homework by granting him extra time on the Nintendo/Sega, (aw, remember those days?) tells his wife he loves her, and shoots himself in the mouth.

Good start to a thriller.

Enter Sandra Bullock, a computer security person, who starts by de-bugging a friend's videogame. (and saves it to a floppy disk. Bwhaha, I think I've used one my entire life).

Angela, (Sandra Bullock) later starts chatting online with CyberBob, who asks her out on a date, which she declines (smart woman).

Angela visits her mother in a nursing home; who seems to have demetia of some sort, they begin to play Shopan on the piano, even though her mother has no idea who she is (sad, really.)

A few moments later another virus comes via fedex from Angela's friend Dale; called "Mozart's Ghost". (Dale is played by Ray McKinnon, great actor, really).

Inside Mozart's Ghost is a horrible virus. Dale has come across something he shouldn't have. Dale knows it probably involves the government; and doesn't want to discuss the virus with Angela over the phone, (for obvious reasons). If Angela clicks "concert details" on the Mozart's Ghost page, it directs her to a "not so safe website" that Dale intended to be ticketmaster, or something of the sort, but instead take him to the homepage to (insert city that Angela lives in___electric), there is a small pi symbol at the bottom; click it; press ctrl+shift, and all hell breaks loose on her computer. She thinks its a small virus, Dale knows different. On the way to see her via his own personal plane; his instruments screw up. Only, here's the kicker; they look normal to him; so he thinks he's taking the correct path. Central control knows different and tells him to turn around. But not before he takes a head on crash with several buildings.

Angela, ready to admit Dale found something he shouldn't have?

Dale's boss (i'm assuming...it never says). Asks Angela if she would like Dale's old position. Not knowing she is unaware that he passed away (what a way to hear a friend died).

Flights are now going haywire...just when Angela is going on vacation for the first time in 6 years.

There is a very creepy looking guy (btw; the man who shot himself in the beginning, is(was) the secretary of defense). looking out among the people. My thought is; this is probably the computer hacker, maybe? and yet....I don't know. It could be but then again, we are reviewing a thriller.

Angela meets a cute guy at the beach in Mexico, come to find out; he also does work with computers.  His name is Devlin, Jack Devlin. (sorry; couldn't resist. he is played by Jeremy Northam).

At the bar, thre is another ambigious man; different from the one at the airport. Hmmmmm.

Jack and Angela go for a ride on Jack's company speed boat (I REALLY want his job) and go get a bite to eat at an unnamed sandbar. (Pretty place, I would love to see Mexico's beaches, but sadly...I am a broke college kid).

Angela's purse is stolen by the ambigous man at the bar; Jack quickly runs off while Angela protests "It's not that important". Jack and man from the bar have a quick coversation about it "not being here." My guess, they were looking for Mozart's Ghost disc, which is not with her (she's not that stupid). Jack shoots the man from the bar with a silenced pistol, instead of paying him the money he was going to.... and stages a few wounds on himself to make it look as if he were in a fight. (for a criminal; he's a smart guy).

New clip in the silenced pistol; miles from shore. This probably isn't a good thing for Angela. Yet; she is the main character...chances of her dying (and I'm not just saying this because I've seen this movie more than a few times) are slim to none. Our director, Irwin Winkler would be stupid to kill her off. (He's also directed: Home of the Brave, De-Lonely, Life as a House, At First Sight, Night and the City, Guilty by Suspicion and produced many more, I'm not going to name them all).

It shows nothing (if you're worried about showing this film to kids) but Jack and Angela have intercourse, and it comes out that Angela had an affair with her former shrink, but it didn't last long, but it was her last relationship, in many years; since 1936 as she puts it.

Jack turns out to be CyberBob.....a twist I always forget happens. Angela finds the the silenced pistol he accidently left on the couch of the speedboat, and is smart enough to quietly take out the clip, Jack/CyberBob goes to shoot her "to make the world safe for democracy". and obviously, you can't shoot a gun without bullets, so it fails. They wrestle for a moment, Angela burns his face with a cigerate he had a moment ago and escapes while Jack is writhing in pain.

That being said; what criminal forgets his gun? Wow, that lost major points in the final review of the movie.

Wine bottle to face as a tatic to escape, always a classic. Angela decides to try and use the radio to get some help from the man trying to killer her...but Jack disabled it. You're on a boat. SWIM! But if she did that, we wouldn't have a movie. She does however, go snooping around for something to defend herself and finds a floppy disc with a label that cant be read to the audiance, pockets it and escapes on a smaller motorized boat used as a lifeboat, Jack jumps in to try and kill her, but is thrown off the boat when the motor starts. The boat Angela is on hits rocks, pops, and she wakes up in a hospital 3 days later.

Computer errors are now effecting Wall Street.

Angela goes to check out of the hotel after being discharged from the hospital. Come to find out; Angela Bennent checked out of the hotel a week ago. Maybe she doesn't remember, maybe it's computer error.

She then goes to a payphone to check her bank account. Her mastercard no longer works, a woman approaches her about the temporary Visa she applied for in order to get back into the states, but she is no logner Angela Bennent, she is now Ruth Marx, according to California's department of motor vechicles.

Stolen identies are always fun, aren't they?

Angela Bennet also sold her house; from LA, while "Ruth Marx" is in Mexico, pretty smart criminals.

The police come to the scene and run the name Ruth Marx, only to find that Jack forged fake crimes to her record. Angels runs, like anyone would. Jack, who is obviouly back in the States as well; goes after her himself telling the police he hasn't seen anyone.

The fact she's smart makes up for the fact he's was an idiot on the boat. Points won back.

Angela calls, what I assume to the police, she is transferred to a woman named Angela Bennent; and the fake Angela tells the real Angela to "give us the disk and we'll give you your life back", except the real Angela doesn't know that what they want is the Mozart's Ghost disc, at least not yet.

Angela finds console in her friend Allan (played by Dennis Miller).  who gets her a laptop from his house and then takes her to a motel in order to figure things out. Allan has always been my favorite character in this movie. Come to find out, Allan is her former shrink, ya know? The dude she had the affair with? Least it was someone she could trust, his paitent records are confidential, and since this is 90s, chances are not many of the files are online yet. Angela asks Allan to take her mother to a sanitarium under a different name under the ruse that she needs observation, Angela isn't sure what Jack and the few other people trying to kill will do in order to get to her.

When Angela was in the hosptial she found on her person a small business card with numnbers written on the back, it is a passowrd to a hosptial website revealing that the secretary of defense, did not in fact have AIDS, but the password only works after Angela does the familiar crtl+shift thing after clicking the small pi symbol at the bottom of the page. The news realeased earlier in the movie that the secretarty of defense killed himself because he had AIDS and could no longer deal with it.

Angela goes back to CyberBob, only this time CyberBob is not Jack, chances are it never was, Jack was only watching....smart man. The pi symbol is the symbol of a very dangerous cberterriorist group. "They want to take the big house down" says CyberBob, they agree to meet at a public place.

Allan's friend Ben wants to meet Angela and discuss her idenitiy situation, but Angela chooses to meet CyberBob instead. Jack finds CyberBob instead.

Jack is a smart criminal, but of course, you have to be smart to be a cyber-terriorist.

Allan is poisoned by pills he took a moment ago, he's allergic to penillcin, and yet, somehow got prescribed it. But he does live. Good, I like Allan. Angela leaves the hospital to meet CyberBob, they decide to meet a fair, there's for sure enough people, but I don't know if they ever thought fairs like this usually don't have much security. Loosin points for pickin this place.

Switcing back to Allan, who is currently sleeping in the hospital. The nurse switches out his IV's like a routine, but they don't show the nurse's face, making it seem to me like something is up.

Jack finds Angela at the fair and tries to take her hostage. Only to be thwarted by a man in a bunny suit who wants a hug from him. Angela is able to escape. The bunny was a little cheesy, but cool. Points won back.

Angela goes back to the hospital, not knowing where else to go other than to Allan, come to find out, there was something up. Allan was poisioned, this time he doesn't survive.

Points lost for killing my favorite character. Okay, not really; but it still sucks.

Angela is now right where the cyberterriorts want her. Alone. Scared. Hopeless. Lost.

Angela is phoned by Jack on the car phone (is it weird I've always wanted one?). Jack tells Angela that they're a lot alike. Except ya know, the part about Angela not being a criminal?

Jack goes to where Angela's mother is, only to find out that she was moved by Allan. Jack, our of spite does some more hacking and reports Angela's car as stolen, police pick up on it, Angela does what anybody would do in that situation. Runs. Points for being realistic. Only to drive off into a field, car wrecked, but Angela is unharmed and decides to run. Well, unharmed except for a gash to the head, but that seems to be the last thing on her mind. The police finally catch her, arrest her, all that jazz and the name Ruth Marx still pops up.

Angela explains to a public defender her story, which is not believed. (played by L. Scott Caldwell). But the PD tells her the computers have been protected by a program called "Gate Keeper", Angela now realizes it's the program that has the fault. Fixing faults in programs in her speciality. If only she can get someone to believe her.

So what's her next move? Calling her mother from a jail phone. I suppose, even if she has dementia, sometimes a mother's arms are the best place to be. Angela asks her mother to tell the PD that she is who she claims to be. Only, her mother is unable to do that because of the dementia.

Ben (Allan's friend, played by Robert Gosset) comes in and does believe the story. Sidenote: if anyone reading this watches the TNT show The Closer, Robert Gosset is amazing in the role of Captain Taylor. :)

Except, Robert Gosset isn't Ben. He works with Jack. Trying to get the disc, Angela knows because "Ben" mentions how it was ruined in Mexico, which is true, but the only person she told was Allan, who literally "took the secret to the grave".  Angela drives "Ben's" car off the road, killing him.

Jack chases down Angela in his car, but Angela comes to a folding bridge, (the ones that allow boats to go under, ya know?) while it is in the process of folding up, Angela jumps down onto the lower platform, but Jack knows if he tries to do that in his car, he's as good as dead, and that's no good. Angela escapes again.

Once Angela sees her name on the televison (well, "Ruth Marx"), she runs again. Being as carful as she can not to stay in one place for a prolonged period of time.

Angela sneaks into a computer software company, where she used to work and finds the woman posing as her. Sets off the fire alarm from a computer to evacuate the building so she can do what needs to do.

Points for creativity.

She gets access to the program, but in order to delete the "Ruth Marx" file, she needs mainframe access. The fire department is on the way, she has a matter of minutes, I take that back, a matter of seconds.

However, Angela is quick, she gets what she needs.

Points for quickness.

Jeff Gregg came up with the program, Jeff was going against the title of secretary of defense, what better way to win than to take out the target, by a fake positive-AIDS test, to a homophobe? Dale gave him the virus that Angela sent to Dale. Angela attaches it to "Angela's" computer and makes a break for it. Except she forgot to exit out of what she was looking at.

Points lost for being careless.

Jack spots Angela outside of the computer software company and begins to hurt her down. With thirteen minutes left in the movie, he needs to step it up.

Angela hides out in the one place she feels comfortable. A computer convention. Angela uses a computer at the convention to send files of evidence that Jeff Gregg was behind everything to  the authorites. Proof that Dale and the security of defense's murders were orcatrated by Jeff Gregg, Angela plants a virus into the computer before Jack finds her, and once Jack hits the escape key in order to wipe out, what he thinks his her files, the virus eats through Jeff's program faster than a speeding bullet. Jeff shoots Angela, only to shoot the woman pretending to be her, not the real Angela.

The files were still sent to the FBI and Angela still has the disk that they're on.

Points for creativity, quick thinking, and just being all around smart.

However, now it is just Jack and the real Angela, alone on what looks like a Catwalk. With seven minutes left in the film, one of them need to step their game up.

Jack still has pistol, Angela has nothing. Should be intresting. Except a fire extingusher to Jack's head, knocking him off the catwalk and dead on a platform on contact.

Angela has her life back. and with five minutes to spare.

At the end she meets with her mother (who I forgot to mention is played by Diane Baker).

Nice ending.

So, in a nutshell that's our movie. I personally love it, it's probably one of my favorite thrillers from the 90s.

I give it a 8.7/10