Review of Antitrust

Introduction

Antitrust is a tech thriller with computers, technology and a world domination theme. The focus here is the idea of anti-competitive and monopolistic practises which occur within the computer industry; secretly pushing technology into every home. It`s no secret that Tim Robbins looks and seems to act like Bill Gates or any other `visionary`, with our hero played by Ryan Phillippe.

Milo (Ryan Phillippe) is the bright young programmer who falls for the charisma of Gary (Tim Robbins) and is the eager idealist college grad who wants to be a part of the global communications vision set down by N.U.R.V. Opposed to his idea is his best friend Teddy who firmly believes in open source software and its collaborative efforts and in turn starts his own company.

When Teddy is killed, this sends alarm bells to Milo and he unwittingly gets involved in trying to find out what`s going on at N.U.R.V. Nothing is what it seems and there`s no one to trust. Every turn and move is monitored, with devious instructions coming from the boss himself. It`s only a matter of time before Milo`s number is up too, unless he can do something about it. Billions of dollars are at stake, and it`s incredible the lengths some will go to to protect this. A good example of power, corruption and lies.

Video

The 2.35:1 anamorphic video transfer is very clear and detailed and I couldn`t spot any signs of compression at all. The downside with this pin sharp image is that I can see the lines that make up the NTSC image and at first this put me off a little. But then I just got so absorbed in what was happening that I forgot about my gripe with the transfer. There are a few scenes which seem a little bright but there are only a few. Otherwise, the blacks are solid and the colours are pin sharp with good contrast.

Audio

Good audio throughout. The DD5.1 mix is well suited to the onscreen action and balances well between all speakers when the time calls for it. Good clear dialogue from the front and no problems at all with the sound.

Features

This has full screen fully animated menus which look nice so a real effort has been made to theme this with the film itself and it`s not a bad attempt. The 22 minute making of featurette is okay and then there are six deleted scenes and an alternate opening and ending sequence. It would be good to play the scenes together rather than having to select each individual one.

These deleted scenes are interesting and fill in a few of the references in the final cut of the film which would otherwise go unexplained. Plus you can see why these were deleted, the film would have been longer with lulls in the pacing. They come with and without Director Commentary. The trailer is the usual trailer and the music video by Everclear (nice bit of rock) is good.

The commentary track too is quite good and provides some interesting insight into the films` production with director Howitt and Editor Zach Staenberg. The one faux pas that I noticed in menu selection was the dialogue, "Up Loading", when we selected our options. Surely this should be "Down Loading"? Enough of the geek speak, let`s get on with the rest of the review. Lastly there are only French and Spanish subtitles.

Conclusion

The whole basis of the film is steeped in the idea of what huge corporations are not only capable of doing, but are doing with market position and dominance. From the start of the film it doesn`t take long to get into the thrust of what`s happening and so a nice even pace begins. Howard Franklin`s script remains contemporary and fresh and weaved and bobbed pretty well throughout. Couple this with good film direction and it adds up to a nice package.

The one thing I can`t stand about Hollywood movies which feature a technical side is the lack of proper research in representing this `other world` to an audience which isn`t au fait with the technology. The balance here though seems about right and is deftly handled which was one of the things that impressed me. The technical patois along with the computer graphics too was pretty much as one might expect, i.e. it wasn`t over the top. It all sounds quite authentic and plausible.

There were a couple of minor flaws in the story, but despite this, I quite enjoyed it. The film certainly has good pacing and together with good cast performances, I think this movie is something a lot of people can enjoy. There`s good subtle use of CGI too, much of which I found out about in the Making Of and commentary track.

All in all, I think Antitrust is certainly one of the better tech thillers to have come out of Hollywood. Other notable tech favourites of mine include Tron, WarGames and Sneakers. By the way, there`s not a single sign of a Windows workstation in sight which I thought was pretty well done too! Either region 1, 2 or 4 gives you a good version of the film. Antitrust is enjoyable with good DVD extras and makes this a firm recommendation.