The Net

1995

SF elements

Review

Angela Bennett [Sandra Bullock] is a brilliant computer nerd. She hardly ever goes out, preferring to spend all her time logged on, curing customer's viruses, in chat rooms, or ordering pizza. Then the discovery of a strange symbol on the screen, activated with a magic key press, plunges her into a terrifying world of conspiracy, murder, stolen identities, and massive cyber crime.

What raises this above the merely ordinary thriller, for me at least, is the relative plausibility of the computers. Yeah, okay, there's some bogosity, but remarkably little . On the whole the programs look realistic, the screen displays look real (none of the usual foot-high flashing fonts, just ordinary Mac windows for the most part), and Bullock does look as if she has seen a keyboard and mouse before sitting down on the set (even if she is improbably well tanned, considering her character's supposed indoor life-style).

Combining this plausibility with an non-stop action plot that at least manages to confound the odd cliché (such as the result of the car chase with the police), leads to an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours.

Rating: 3