The Net, by John Brancato - 6 out of 10

The Net, by John Brancato
6 out of 10


If we imagine seeing this at the time of its release, in 1995, we could envisage enjoying it.

But in 2018?
No way!

What seemed fresh, perhaps daring back then makes one just smile and think...

Really? 
This how the Internet worked back then

They copied some files in minutes...on a diskette?
What the hell is a diskette anyway.

Yes, Sandra Bullock can be charming, albeit she has never been one of yours truly favorites.
Actually, films with her tend to be among the pile of to avoid, over here...

Except for Gravity and the sirupy, but good The Blind Side.
The latest Ocean's Eight was a near disaster...if you ask me.

Angela Bennett aka Sandra Bullock is the protagonist of this action movie.
She is a computer programmer that stumbles upon a massive criminal conspiracy.

A ruthless, despicable individual has created a company that purports to offer the software to combat viruses while actually hacking into systems itself.
They are the praetorians responsible for the blocking of the LAX, the Los Angeles airport and other major, catastrophic actually disturbances.

Furthermore, they convince the Secretary of Defense that he has AIDS and he kills himself...he had not been infected.
First they kill the man who first made the connection with Angela, on this serious matter.

Then another, a former lover, a psychologist who offers to help.
While she is vacationing in Mexico, she meets Jack Devlin, the villain of the story.

He tries and manages to seduce her, under false pretenses and knowing all that she likes, her favorite movie...Breakfast at Tiffany's ...in spite of the now abhorred performance of Mickey Rooney, one might ask...
While on a power boat, after having sex, she finds a gun in his coat and she asks him:

What is the gun for?
To shoot sharks
With a silencer?

A struggle ensues and she hits him with a bottle over the head.
Alas, she is also involved in an accident and wakes up three days later in a hospital.

When she is back at the hotel, she finds her identity has been stolen, she is no longer Angela Bennett.
She is now Ruth Marx, a woman with a criminal record that includes prostitution and other crimes.

Back at her house, she finds it is up for sale and again, it is not actually hers to put it on the market, for she is someone else.
When the police are called, they are actually trying to arrest her...

And this is going on and on...
One of the problems of this now dated film is its duration.

At one hour and fifty four minutes it is way too long.
Predictable and no longer relevant, if it ever was.

The Net is a film to avoid.