Takedown

To be honest I watched this film purely for the fact that I am very interested in Hacker Culture/History.. and to my dismay, this film is far from the truth. However it does have its good sides.. it's portrayal of hacking itself and of people with an over-enthusiastic interest in computing for one. Where other hacker-orientated Hollywood movies show flashy tron-like graphics to depict gaining root on a system, Takedown shows you how it is. And the other good thing about this movie is just that... its a movie. If you ignore the fact that the majority of its plot is based on biased views from people who either disliked Kevin, or never even knew him, it's watchable. It contains all the aspects of a Hollywood movie that grab the viewer.. an original topic, a fast moving storyline, a so-called criminal that you really feel sorry for, an unjust American legal system, and a so-called victim who is just as bad as the depicted criminal. If you can easily switch off, this film is for you, but if you care about freedom of information, moral values and the fact that everyone has the right to a fair trial... go watch Freedom Downtime.

Takedown is the story of Kevin Mitnick and Tsutomu Shimamura's effort to bring him down.

Whatever the accuracies of the story (and considering the egos involved, I guess we'll never know), this is a pretty riveting tale of an underground hacker playing and defeating the system. Which is all you could ever ask for in a movie. :-)

Johnny Depp lookalike Skeet Ulrich, Russell Wong, Donal Logue, Cara Buono, Amanda Peet and Angela Featherstone make this low budget movie worth while.

Whether or not the real Kevin Mitnick is a nice fellow or what he did was totally legal doesn't detract much from this ripping yarn. The production values are ok (but what would you expect from a guy who spends most of his time sitting behind a monitor in a small room?), however, the concept makes it more than worth while. Especially the "social engineering" segments are cool. Not to be missed if you're at all interested in movies about sub-cultures and the guerilla mentality.

First of all, let's clear up some common misconceptions.

This film isn't "Hackers 2". You will find no CGI or parachute pants here. This film is about the capture of the notorious computer criminal Kevin Mitnick who used his technical skills and ability to influence people to gain access to things he really shouldn't have been able to access.

The thing that bothers me most about this film is the computer virus that Shimo wrote. I doubt that he did, and this makes Mmitnick seem worse by stealing it. The AI doesn't exist to put that virus around now, and it didn't 3 years ago.

The film in itself is a work of genius. This is the only realistic hacker film i have ever seen. Maybe because it was based on a true story and to put spinning DNA molecules on the computer screen instead of C++ would be a load of bollocks.

The acting is great; the pace of the movie is quick, especially in the part when the FBI almost captures Mitnick for the second time. The portrayal of the FBI in this film isn't very good, when they apprehended Mitnick, they didn't go in with 20 SWAT teams!

Kudos to Ulrich for his part as Kevin Mitnick, but as for Wong, I'm very surprised, where's the glasses and the geekyness? I know where, it got lost in the writing process, to make hackers look geeky and security experts look 'ard and sexy. In actual fact, security experts are just crackers in business suits. Kevin Mitnick did no damage, but they chase after him like he mass murdered a few police departments. I suppose they can't be totally realistic, and then the film would be an hour and a half of typing, with 30 minutes of chases and arrest.

I'm just glad there were no parachute pants ^_^

Not arguing technical details or realism, I feel what is presented in this movie is an all-too black and white picture of hackers, or "Crackers", as the hero refers to them. Great pains are taken to portray Kevin Mitnick as a temper-prone, reactionary, asocial neurotic, with nuances of sexual dysfunctionality thrown in as well. Whereas, the hero (Tsutomu Shimomura)comes off as being the shiniest star in the sky.

I would say this general portrayal is unfair, and nearly propagandistic in its intent. The movie really becomes a base for expounding the moral issues of hacking and 'freedom of information' in a society that survives on security. It is a clear warning, and it does NOT favor hacking or hackers.

I am appalled by that, because a more open picture of both sides might have been painted. "Hackers" brought the world to the standards of today, and daily test the security and limits of it... likewise, "programmers" continue to strive for safety, but also encrypt for greed, control, power, and politics. It is not all back and white.

Either a hacker OR a programmer are capable of accidentally, or intentionally creating havoc in a real world of banking, traffic lights, airports, and defense systems, although the chances seem less with programmers (unless you know about "The Singularity").

All I am saying is that this movie is VERY biased against hackers, it allows them NO redeemable social attributes, and it radically stereotypes them. It is intended to PERSUADE you. THAT, I regard as a THREAT to my own individual freedom of thought, and when you cross that line... alarms go off.

BEWARE of this if you haven't seen this movie yet.

Did "Big Brother" produce this film? ("Big Brother" is a reference to George Orwell's novel "1984") Regardless, the movie has good detail within a fast-moving and captivating plot.

Lastly, NO, I am NOT pro-hacker oriented. Mitnick is clearly a criminal with a long record of convictions dating all the way back to 1981... but, I don't like being told what, or how, to think about a whole class of people.

Historical accuracy: 3 Acting: 6 Camera work: 4 Editing: 5 Budget: 4 Story: 6 Theme: 5 Pure entertainment factor: 6 Video quality: 5 Special effects: NA Pacing: 6 Suspension of disbelief: 3 Non-cringe factor: 5 Lack of flashbacks: 10

It's not a good movie as such. It's engaging enough with decent acting and a plot that always advances, but it's messy and cheap movie making. Firstly, I have read Mitnick's book and watched the doc. The doc had some weird scenes and was dirt cheap, but overall a good watch and the audiobook was very fun.

This is not really what happened. This is a story from a point of view of a guy who claims he caught him. He didn't of course. And while watching the movie it will be quite clear that it's nearly fully fictional. The super hacker, who is here better than Mitnick, can do no wrong. He has a hot horny blonde girlfriend, mocks political figures openly, works with FBI, has his own company it seems. He's like a superhero of sorts and Mitnick is this weird criminal hacker. A loner who was forced to leave his girlfriend as FBI was after him. His girlfriend starts dating his best friend instead. In a dating scene he mocks the woman he asked out. He acts weird and creepily and overall the great danger he presents is because he steals this super powerful program from the guy who is now chasing him. Apparently it can hack into ANY system whatsoever. FBI, airports, hospitals. Anything. Obviously this movie is nearly pure fiction and a narcissistic product.

Actually, the best scenes are the ones where we experience realistic events like Mitnick tricking his way into companies, hacking a phone to make free calls, talking about the morals of hacking, hacking the people chasing him, being easily offended. But largely the movie tries to be over the top. The camera work is shoddy and rushed, the hacking scenes cringe. Overall the plot is confusing. The guy chasing him somehow always tracks him down yet we never clearly understand how. And many scenes are plastered in. There is clearly a script and plot here yet the movie is recut by someone besides the director because much of it makes no sense with scenes just appearing and explaining very little.

It's actually watchable and semi-enjoyable. It's not boring as such and I guess one could watch it. But it looks very cheap, the plot is nonsense, and the editing makes it a giant mess. I feel like there is a great story here that could be made. Just focus on the small hacking stuff and social engineering. Keep it realistic. This is why I think some people enjoyed it enough as you could imagine how it could have been good. It's not, but at least it's not dull. There are not many hacker movies out there and most are quite horrible. This at least is perplexingly not awful. Which is something I guess.