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| Takedown |
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  (9/10)
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Runtime: appr |
| Public Rating: 7.84 (19 votes) |
Director: Joe Chappelle |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Thriller |
Year: 2000 |
| Writer(s): Tsutomu Shimomura (book), John Markoff |
| Reviewed by: Arturo García Lasca |
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This film is based on a true story. Kevin Mitnick is considered by many the greatest hacker on earth, he started commiting crimes before he reached 18 years old and got several sentences for computer related crimes even before the 1990's. At some point around that time, Kevin was too deep into this stuff, he always wanted to know everything, the latest stuff. The FBI wanted to catch him, so they started chasing him, but he wasn't just going to let them get him.
Kevin was a fugitive (that sounds dramatic, doesn't it?) for about 2 years (I think from about 93-95 or around, not sure, sorry) until he was finally caught by computer expert Tsutomu Shimomura. Kevin is a very smart guy who infiltrates wherever he wants by using his computer skills and also some acting skills, which is needed to talk some people like security people and lie to them to get the information needed.
The working title for this film is "Hackers 2", that's crap. This is not a sequel to the 1995 film "Hackers", this is a true story with no fantasy stuff as seen in other films. People who have met Mitnick before have said that the film makes Tsutomu look better than he actually is, as if he was a very good guy and he caught Mitnick because of all of his skills and stuff. Well, if he wrote the book then that wouldn't be a surprise (No offense Mr. Tsutomu, don't want you reading this and hacking me! :). Mitnick went to prisson for about 5 years I understand, and was released on January first 2000. But it wont be until January of 2003 when he'll be truly free, because for now he has to stay away from telephones and computers, or something that goes like that.
The film is pretty cool, Mitnick himself thanked (or said he would thank) Skeet Ulrich for playing him in a cool way. Tsutomu was played by Russell Wong, and some cops were Christopher McDonald and Tom Berenguer. I could also recognize Ethan Suplee and Amanda Peet in there, and I found out that a guy in there was actually the singer Master P. The performances were all pretty believable. It isn't really a script, since it's a book based on a real life event, but the story is very thrilling and nice to watch. For us computer fans it makes us like Mitnick and think he's the good guy. Though it's about hacking and stuff, you don't see a computer all of the time, there are plenty of dialogues and other stuff like Mitnick personally infiltrating into places by saying he's someone else. It was very entertaining, and after watching it I started reading a lot of stuff about Mitnick, his current status and stuff that happened before he was arrested. A good site is www.takedown.com, and you could of course go to www.freekevin.com for some more information. People who don't like computers (I pity them!) might not enjoy this film, but for everyone else it must be quite good, specially knowing most of that stuff really happened, even if in a bit different way. Oh, and one more thing, Mitnick's pictire in the FBI's 'Wanted' ads was horrible! *laughs*
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