Reviewed by: Tim Emmerich
CONTRIBUTOR
Moral Rating: | Average |
Moviemaking Quality: |
|
Primary Audience: | 15 to Adult |
Genre: | Crime Action Drama |
Length: | 1 hr. 54 min. |
Year of Release: | 1995 |
USA Release: |
July 28, 1995 |
Featuring |
Sandra Bullock … Angela Bennett Jeremy Northam … Jack Devlin Dennis Miller … Dr. Alan Champion Diane Baker … Mrs. Bennett Wendy Gazelle … Imposter Ken Howard … Bergstrom Ray McKinnon … Dale See all » |
Director |
Irwin Winkler |
Producer |
Rob Cowan Irwin Winkler Winkler Films Columbia Pictures |
Distributor |
Columbia Pictures, a division of Sony Pictures |
“Escape is impossible when you’re caught in… The Net”
In general, “The Net” is an enjoyable action film that is true to today’s technology …albeit stretched to movie proportions. Sandra Bullock plays a convincing computer-savy freelancer who spends too much time in front of the computer. The audience gets drawn into the story and wants to help her out of her predictament.
What predictament? Well, Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) is a freelance computer software engineer who is employed to find viruses or “bugs” in software code. She spends so much time at computer terminals that her friendships are all “virtual” (the modern version of pen pals, all via the Internet).
Because she doesn’t have a lot of “real-life” friends, criminals whom she has learned too much about decide that her identity can be easily erased as part of a bigger scheme. So then, can her life. The film follows Angela on a quest to regain her identity, clear her name (the bad guys have edited her police records), and solve the mystery involving the software program glitches. This movie leaves you guessing who Angela can trust and who she cannot.
A good lesson to be gleaned here is that everything should be in moderation. If you are like Angela and have no friends except the ones through the computer (or whatever is taking up all your time), then get away, meet some new people, share the story of Jesus in person, etc.
“The Net” is suspenseful and a bit violent at times. The speech isn’t perfect, but thankfully no nudity, just some very revealing beach attire, including bikinis. All in all, the entertainment value exceeds the negative content (amazing for Hollywood).