The writings on the wall.<br /><br />Hackers is a high minded film about the intricacy of Hacker subculture in the mid-90s. It's about people living on the fringe of society, who express themselves through a connection to the electronic world.<br /><br />The storyline is simple, a young man is found guilty on his 11th birthday of using a virus to infect multiple network systems and causing them to crash. Subsequently, he is put on a probation that restricts him from owing or operating a computer & touch tone telephone. Fast forward to his 18th birthday, and after a broken family, a move to New York with his mother, and a change of schools; he falls into a group of people who live as "Hackers". After one of them inadvertently copies incriminating data from a Mineral Company computer, the company's head of computer security hatches a plan to track them down. With a couple of plot twists, and a Good/Evil story, its an easy watch. Angelina Jolie even briefly gets her nipples onto film for the first time.<br /><br />The downside comes in the fact that the characters are very one dimensional. It's hard to engage with them, as they all seem to be trying so hard to be interesting and edgy. The computer jargon thrown into the dialogue is appropriate for the time frame of the movie, but it really has not aged well. Its a mess of bad cliché and cheesy one-liners that creates a nasty cringe factor.<br /><br />Using New York as a backdrop, the film is shot nicely, giving a gritty urban feel, and allowing it to seem larger in scope than the sum of its parts. However, with wooden acting & delivery, the characters seem to fade into the background, not taking advantage of the settings they find themselves in.<br /><br />The low rating is more for the poor acting, lackluster dialogue and cut'n'paste storyline. This, though, does not mean its a bad film. Hackers has a great soundtrack, with quirky tracks that work perfectly for the material. It also seems to work on a visceral level, providing entertainment and laughs that it wasn't really intending.<br /><br />The best bet is to turn your brain off, grab some popcorn, and (if you have a passing knowledge of computers) have some belly laughs at the utter cheese of it all.