Solid film with an excellent cast
I must have watched this 4 or 5 times when I was young. Even then, the tech was a little outdated but the film an absolute joy.
Almost 30 years old, the tech is (to put it politely) antiquated. To a modern audience who never knew bulletin boards and dial up modems, use net, text only screens, command line.... This shouldn't work as a good film.... Yet it does.
It still succeeds to entertain and thrill because it has two great attributes - a brilliant script and a brilliant cast. There's barely an ounce of fat on this thing.
If you've never seen it, watch it. It's impossible not to like.
8.25/10
'Sneakers' is very good, definitely one I'd recommend.
An excellent cast help merge the drama and the comedy, which are mostly mixed well throughout. The ending is a little disappointing, in terms of how somewhat predictable it is and the fact it's the only part where the aforementioned is off; it's more funny than serious, which is the opposite of what the film produces up until the finale. Just a minor complaint, mind.
Robert Redford impresses in the lead role of Martin, while Sidney Poitier (Donald), David Strathairn (Whistler) and Dan Aykroyd (Mother) all support astutely. Their whole chemistry together is pretty spot on. Other strong parts here include the music (James Horner) and cinematography (John Lindley).
An entertaining flick, no doubt.
Purely nostalgic watch. Suffers from a ton of 90s tropes that for the most part you just have to accept at face value given it was early 90s. Yes it's quite dated but it's also fun and well done as long as you don't try and take it too seriously.
The ending though... ugh. Everytime.
How prescient this movie was for 1992 still blows me away.
Martin: I keep thinking about something Greg told me. He said that our codes were based on an entirely different system than Russian codes, so this box really wouldn't work on them. The only thing it would really be good for is spying on Americans.
Mother: Sure, with a box like that, they could read the FBI's mail.
Whistler: Or the CIA's, or the White House's.
Crease: No wonder they don't want to share with the other children.
Nine years before 9/11 would embolden the American government to break loose of the shackles they felt held them back from discovering the plot, and 21 years before Snowden blew the whistle on PRISM, XKeyscore, Tempora, and other worldwide global surveillance efforts to spy on citizens.
The scene before, with Marty and Cosmo on the roof of PlayTronics was already prescient for 1992, what with Cosmo's understanding of how important data was about to become on a global level, but Marty and the team recognizing why the NSA really wanted the box, and paid for Janek to develop it, was scarily accurate for an early 90s heist thriller with a comic slant about aging phone phreakers and hackers.
Abbott responding to Whistler's request for peace on earth and goodwill toward men with "We are the United States government. We don't do that sort of thing" is still as hilariously and sadly accurate in 2024 as it was in 1992.
A group of experts dedicated to computer missions.
“I want peace on earth and goodwill toward men.”
“We are the United States government. We don’t do that sort of thing.”
30 years on, and that still gets the biggest laugh from me the whole movie.
VVA said to watch this
An average espionage flick. Absolutely nothing special...
Shout by Tai FuBlockedParent2014-06-05T09:22:41Z
It's all about the information, not about guns and money. The story is more relevent then ever.