Theme: Hacking

Non-Stop (2014) – Liam Neeson

This movie begins with Liam Neeson‘s character acting rather stressed and dazed in an airport, ignoring random people who speak to him, and looking at everyone suspiciously, especially a man dressed like a traditional muslim. Within 5 minutes you can probably guess where this movie is going, and why it’s been commissioned – to make everyone look at everyone suspiciously in public places, especially airports and train stations etc – and especially muslims. And the speech by the actual hijacker in the last 15 minutes is really pushing this narrative hard, so much that if you’ve ever seen this movie before, you might be tempted to switch off at that point in order to skip that nonsense while knowing you’re not missing anything special in the ending. Anyway, there’s nothing new about Neeson pansying to this kind of agenda, so let’s get back to seeing how the movie goes down.

In the 11th hour, ahem, the 11th minute, things finally start to get the slightest bit interesting, as Neeson’s character texts a message to someone saying “we are go” when the plane’s about to go. This tells us he’s probably doing some kind of job on that plane, but we still don’t know quite what it is.

In the 15th minute we see he is indeed an air marshall, or at least, he has the gun and badge of one while on the plane. Then one minute later, someone starts texting him, to mess with him, and the movie really kicks in, as the anonymous texter threatens to kill someone every 20 minutes until 150 million dollars is paid into his account.

The movie proceeds into a session of scrutinising all the passengers, trying to figure out who is the killer. In the real world, of course, bank accounts get frozen very easily, so this whole “wire me the ransom money” concept that’s so common in movies like this, is utter nonsense.

This one a very gritty, suspenseful action mystery movie with an extremely simple yet still confusing plot until the last 15 minuts. I have to rate it Below Average, and even that’s complimentary considering the BS it’s pushing. First time viewers may rate it more highly, but when you remember the vague outline of the story, there’s not much left to rewatch it for, until several years later by which time you’ve mostly forgotten how it goes and can kind of enjoy it again until it get ridiculous near the end in which case you might want to switch off early.

Canary Black (2024) – Kate Beckinsale

This movie begins with the lead character wearing a white wig, not dissimilar to Atomic Blonde. She then goes on a bit of a killing spree, to obtain something from someone’s safe. There’s a lot of John Wick style shooting, stabbing and general hand-to-hand combat. But it’s lacking personality – all that grunting doesn’t make it any more charismatic – it’s really quite shallow in the opening scenes. The monotonous yet fast paced opening ends just about soon enough before I feet the need to fast forward, which makes for a respectable start.

After the opening action scene, we get a bit of domestic drama & romance which really shows the lead character Avery Graves (played by Kate Beckinsale) and her boyfriend David Brooks (played by Rupert Friend, from the Agent 47 sequel) as both having a serious lack of credible acting ability and a serious lack of action hero quality on top of that. Their acting is really emotionless, not even skin-deep, but in an irritable way, not in an ice-cold slick action movie star way. It’s like they’re both sleep deprived, numb zombies concentrating on something else and going through the motions while half asleep. The acting could hardly be any worse even from an indie B-movie, and come to think of it, the cinematography is pretty weak too, but it took a bit longer for me to clock on to this. Kate and Rupert both seem better suited to some kind of argumentative soap opera drama series. They’re both droning out their lines with terrible timing and zero sentiment early on – it’s really quite strange how random it is. Maybe AI made it up? It’s got a similar level of lifelessness as AI generated pictures. Maybe the audio is poorly synchronised with the lip sinking. Maybe the accents are a terrible choice. The outfits too. But the facial expressions and body language are that of sleepy grumpy teenagers while pretending to be hotshot secret agents having interesting and romantic chats. I blame the casting first & foremost, and by 10 minutes in I’m confident this movie is going to be rated Below Average at best. Aside from their individual flaws, the chemistry between the two of them couldn’t be any weaker if it tried.

The backing sound of this movie early on is a lot of white noise and screeching – it really makes me want to turn it off by the 13 minute mark. There’s very little going for this movie at all, in the beginning, and it’s really quite irritating, but it lasts over 100 minutes (including time for rolling credits). So far it’s on course for a rating even weaker than Below Average, but if the plot and action pick up in a good way, and the terrible background sound sorts itself out, then Below Average could surprisingly still be on the cards.

Fortunately, the movie does get a lot more real & interesting when the lead character’s boyfriend gets kidnapped and the kidnapper calls with his ransom demand in the 15th minute. Impressively, this energy is sustained for most of the movie, making it deserve of respectable rating of just Below Average. If it had a more advanced plot, and better actors, and more dynamic action, and higher budget cinematography, it would be easier to rewatch, but as it stands, it’s not so rewatchable until you’ve totally forgotten how it goes, and this is a big factor in why its rating remains Below Average as opposed to Bang Average – a score it only just falls short of.

Other key cast members, who are also slightly familiar faces from other movies, include Ray Stevenson who does a decent job as Avery’s boss Jarvis Hedlund (Ray passed away in May 2023 due to heart problems); Ben Miles as Nathan Evans who has a superior position to Jarvis, and Jaz Hutchins as Agent Maxfield who works directly for Nathan and has no problem outcasting & interrogating Avery and even her boss Jarvis as if he holds a more senior role or is at least on the same level. Apparently they’re all meant to be CIA agents, and I think Nathan is meant to be the director of the CIA, but it seems like Nathan & Maxfield are working for a superior agency to Jarvis & Avery, and at one point Nathan answers the phone seemingly calling someone else ‘Director’ so who knows. Their exact roles and agencies are not clearly defined in this movie, but their roles in relation to each other are clear enough.

High Rollers (2025) – John Travolta

This is a bit of a fun action movie, starring a 70-year-old John Travolta, with slight vibes of Mission Impossible. Although it gets off to a slow start, and gets a bit nasty in places, and is generally quite a simple movie, and has a long monotonous action scene towards the end; once it gets going it sustains an upbeat vibe and remains mildly captivating pretty much until the end scenes, which is rare for a movie so plain & simple as this one – especially one with a bit of a B-movie vibe about it. It’s actually quite an achievement and earns this movie a rating of slightly Below Average which makes it not much weaker than a lot of classics, which is quite an achievement considering some parts have a slight whiff of B-movie acting & cinematography, which is especially obvious towards the end, but does not make the movie a complete write-off – even the ending is slightly captivating, and the very ending is alright. It’s even tempting to rank this movie Bang Average on a par with many classics, but we have to consider its rewatchability which considering the minimal plot, simple script and intermittently weak acting & cinematography would make it quite hard to rewatch until it’s been pretty much totally forgotten again.

Travolta’s age is telling here – not so much in his face, but in the way he moves like a stiff & fragile stumbling old man.

Purely based on appearance, one of the supporting cast members called Caras, played by a guy who calls himself Swen Temmel, is almost certainly a real life son of John Travolta. Add to this how he looks nothing like his official father, but looks so much like Travolta he’s even been pictured doing impressions of him and the resemblance is striking.

The main woman on the protagonists’ team is a hacker called Link, played by Natali Yura, who is like a pound shop (or dollar store) Scarlett Johannson. Not as smart, classy or attractive but a similar flavour nevertheless.

Demián Castro does a solid job in playing Zade Black – the “target” and brother of the main antagonist. And the main antagonist – a man called Salazar, who has coerced the team of protagonists into helping him – is played quite adequately by Danny Pardo, although he doesn’t make as strong an impression and doesn’t get so much screen time as Castro.

All in all, I’d say this is a Netflix-grade movie, that’s blessed with a single elderly A-List star, and seems to have heavily supplemented its team of old-school industry dogsbodies with green new blood, such that it sits somewhere between Respectably Average and Hard To Watch.

Universal Soldier: The Return (1999) – Van Damme, Goldberg and Michael Jai White

Universal Soldier: The Return (1999)

This movie offers a novel twist on the already creative concept established in the original, while also featuring strong new co-stars in Bill Goldberg and Michael Jai White. This is actually the fourth movie in the Universal Soldier franchise, but the second & third did not feature Jean-Claude Van Damme or anyone else of note (the main protagonist in both was Matt Battaglia) so you’ll be forgiven for watching the first movie then jumping straight to this one – the fourth.

We don’t see enough of wrestling superstar Goldberg in this kind fast action movie – he makes a very convincing tough guy. Plus, this is easily one of Michael Jai White’s better performances – the robotic superiority-complex role matches his real life demeanour.

Overall I rate this a Decent movie – it’s a bit less of a revelation than the original but still quite creative with a fresh new concept, and features multiple action superstars, but on the downside the plot is a bit one dimensional – the script could have easily been developed more to make it an even better movie. There are multiple females in this movie, including a reporter and a fellow UNISOL, but none of them are particularly worth mentioning – they all deliver bland performances.

Fun fact: this was actually Van Damme’s last widely-released-in-cinemas English-language movie until 2 and a half decades later, when he released Darkness Of Man in 2024 (excluding movies where he wasn’t the main star, such as The Expendables 2 in 2012). Maybe he wasn’t totally playing ball with Hollywood’s sickest shenanigans, but they eventually rewarded him for keeping quiet during the deceptions of the 2020 era? Or maybe his movies had only a small niche audience? The fact that Inferno (1999) had only a limited cinematic released is odd, and the fact that The Order (2001) went direct to video is outrageous.

Further Sequels

If you enjoyed the original Universal Soldier movie from 1992, as well as this one – Universal Soldier: The Return – from 1999, which is the second one starring Van Damme; then you’ll be pleased to know there are a couple more decent Universal Soldier movies to enjoy after this one.

Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009) rekindles the rivalry between Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren, then they both come back again for Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012) with the addition of Scott Adkins as the main protagonist in the final movie. Both of these movies from 2009 & 2012 also make a significant role for Andrei Arlovski, the former UFC heavyweight champion who still holds the record for the most wins in UFC heavyweight history to this day.

Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) – Steven Seagal

Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) has a very similar story to the original Under Siege (1992) where Seagal’s character, an ex SEAL working as a chef, found himself on a military battleship that got hijacked by pirates led by a crazy ex-CIA man, except this time it’s a public train he’s on that gets hijacked by a different crazy ex-CIA man.

While some people prefer this sequel, most people agree the original was slightly better in pretty much every way, myself included – I rate this sequel as OK, just one level below the original which I rated as Decent. I feel like the original had a bit more of an atmosphere – a bit more stage setting – a bit more general production value. Still, they’re near enough alike that it’s well worth watching this sequel soon after watching the original. They follow on quite nicely from each other, since the first had a bit more of a backstory and the second gets stuck in sooner with less building or questioning.

This time, Steven Seagal‘s character Casey Ryback is on board the hijacked train with his only remaining relative, his niece (Sarah Ryback, played adequately by Katherine Heigl) – the daughter of his recently deceased brother who was also a decorated military hotshot but not quite as decorated as himself.

The main baddies in this movie are also played adequately by Eric Bogosian (the brains) and Everett McGill (the top braun). Everett McGill in this movie looks remarkably like the Tekken 3 character Brian Fury who I would be willing to bet was based on him since that game was released into arcades just under 18 months after the release of this movie. Everett also has a bit of a Clint Eastwood vibe about him, while Eric Bogosian seems to have shared hairdresser with Elliott Gould.

The Net (1995) – Sandra Bullock

The Net is another hacking-themed movie from the 90s (alongside the likes of Hackers and The Steal, which incidentally were both also released in 1995). It takes us back to the days of Windows 3.11, 3.5 inch floppy discs, boxy CRT computer screens, stiff-clicking corded mouses and big noisy clunky-keyed keyboards.

Sandra Bullock stars in this movie as a computer expert and innocent hacker called Angela Bennett, who stumbles across something relating to economic sabotage and murder, which some powerful people who have eyes in everything digital are hunting her for. They change her identity and make her life hell as she generally evades them and eventually exposes them, killing some of them and getting her life back.

Sandra was a big star in the 90s, having starred in Speed and Speed II alongside Keanu Reeves. She’s always a convincing actress.

The main antagonist in The Net is Jack Devlin, played quite well by Jeremy Northam, and his sidekick Ruth Marx is played well by Gazelle Ruth.

Dennis Miller also does a decent job as Dr Alan Champion – Angela’s old therapist-turned-lover now estranged, who seems to be the only person she can turn to who knows her in the real (offline) world and may potentially be able to help her (until they kill him also).

This movie commits the common Hollywood faux pas of nerding out about other movies for way too long, as if the non Hollywood audience is into that – in this case it was a cringeworthy 5 or 10 minute session of Sandra and Jeremy both worshipping Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961) while they’re meant to be on a date.

Strangely, this movie also ends with the Whiter Shade Of Pale by Annie Lennox – the same song that the movie Hackers ends with, which came out in the same year.

Overall, The Net is an OK movie if you haven’t seen it in many years. There’s a lot of mild action and an intense atmosphere, a bit like an old fashioned cop drama. It’s more than Watchable, but is not quite fascinating enough to be ranked anywhere higher than just OK in my opinion. Still, being OK is a respectable achievement here – if it weren’t kind of captivating in both theme and function like it is, I wouldn’t have ranked it OK here. Do check it out if you’ve not seen it before – you might enjoy it on a day when you’re busy with other things.

The Steal (1995) – Helen Slater

The Steal is another hacking movie from 1995 alongside The Net and Hackers. The Steal stars Helen Slater (best known as the star of the Supergirl movie from 1984) and in this movie she is a bank robber by way of hacking.

There’s a healthy dose of old fashioned British humour in this movie, with one of the supporting cast members (Peter Bowles) carrying an accent identical to John Cleese (from Fawlty Towers). Other supporting cast members include British TV personalities Stephen Fry and Jack Dee, as well as Heathcote Williams, and a co-main role played by Alfred Molina. All these guys do a decent job in making this a credible and banterful hacking-oriented bank heist movie with a funny kidnapping and a tracking down of the kidnappers.

While it’s hard to criticise this movie, it is a bit slow paced compared to most action movies reviewed on this site – there’s not much of an adrenaline rush to be had here. But it doesn’t become particularly boring for any significant period of time – it sustains attention quite well if you haven’t seen it in a long time and are generally a fan of this mix of genres. So I rate it an OK movie.

Bloodshot (2020) – Vin Diesel

Bloodshot (2020)

Bloodshot is a novel concept – creative and action packed – great for anyone who’s never seen it before. It is a bit one dimensional still though. The introduction of the hacker is a nice plot development but aside from that it’s all very simple.

Vin Diesel is his usual self – a fairly entertaining action hero, but a bit dryer and slower than my favourite action movie stars, although he oozes energy from underneath the surface. This role doesn’t perfectly suit him, but he does pretty well in it nevertheless.

Supporting cast includes Eiza González, the lead female – she does quite well in her role as an attractive assassin being controlled by Guy Pearce’s character. Lamorne Morris does quite well as the coding whiz who hacks the controlling technology to set Vin’s and Eiza’s characters free.

Guy Pearce does alright as the main nemesis on the brains side – the guy who controls Vin Diesel’s character until he breaks free – but he is a bit too meek in demeanour for such a power hungry role – a naturally stronger character here could have made this is more convincing movie.

Sam Heughan does a good job as the main nemesis on the (tech assisted) muscles side – he has a very convincing attitude for the role.

Alex Hernandez also does alright as one of the main team members. Good attitude for the requirement of the role.

Toby Kebbell also does quite well, as the first victim of the mind-controlled main character played by Vin Diesel. He displays an impressive contrast of acting styles here, from a savage psycho killer with a screw-loose wacky side, to an innocent and vulnerable victim with strong understanding and quick reactions.

Talulah Riley plays Vin Diesel’s wife – her performance was fair enough, although it was a bit washed & wafery – a more attractive & powerful woman like Eiza González could have done a better job in this role and helped make the movie more convincing since the plot is so heavily based on Vin Diesel’s character being so attached to his wife and so moved and vengeance-seeking when she’s killed.

Overall it’s a busy action packed movie and quite creative in its core concept, but is a bit one dimensional in terms of extended plot detail. It’s especially interesting for those who haven’t seen it before or in many years. Due to the strong special effects, fairly rich action, generally decent cast, and quirky concept, but with a dodgy nanite theme in-keeping with so many movies released around 2020; I rate Bloodshot about equal to its rival Hobbs & Shaw, or Black Panther 1 and 2. Indeed it’s disappointing to see so much pushing of the idea that technology in our body is a beneficial and even cool thing, especially when it comes to nanobots messing around in our blood according to their own discretion or an outside controller. Bloodshot is an awesome movie the first time you see it, if you can forgive its dodgy theme features, but significant tedium sets in and significant flaws become much more apparent if you rewatch it too often.

Hackers (1995) – Jonny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie

Hackers movie poster

This was a classic in its day and is still a pretty good movie today. The core plot is simple but the script contains many cool features that are still fun to watch three decades later.

This movie follows the fictional story of a young hacker called Dade Murphy – alias Zero Cool aka Crash Override – played by Jonny Lee Miller. He moves with his mother to New York, and meets other hackers there including Kate Libby – alias Acid Burn – played by Angelina Jolie. They have fun, compete with each other, and uncover a malicious plot by the head of security for a large corporation – initially the hackers are blamed, but eventually they vindicate themselves and are recognised as heroes.

There are no physical martial arts in this movie, but there are plenty of tactical concepts demonstrated. There’s plenty of computer hacking going on, plus social engineering, building infiltration, police evasion, etc. Of course it’s not totally legit, it’s just a dramatised depiction for the big screen, but some of the ideas & tactics portrayed here hold true.

Shortly after 50 mins in, is when it turns from a barely OK movie into a pretty good movie, as Dade gets closer to Kate and they agree to a friendly competition.

Fun Fact 1: When this movie was released, MGM made a website to help promote it, and that website allegedly got hacked and defaced. MGM decided to leave the defaced version up throughout the time this movie was shown in cinemas. During the hack, some words were changed in an attempt to light-heartedly mock the movie – nothing terribly offensive or shocking was said or shown. So was it really hacked or was this just a promotional stunt? The media says it was a legit hack, but I suspect it wasn’t.

Fun Fact 2: Jonny Lee Miller (who plays Dade Murphy) and Angelina Jolie (who plays Kate Libby) got married the year after this movie was released. This confirms their on-screen chemistry was real, although their marriage only lasted 18 months. Angelina went on to marry Billy Bob Thornton in the year 2000 – that’s 1 year after the movie they worked on together (called Pushing Tin) was released. Their marriage lasted 3 years. Incidentally, Thornton has married a total of 6 different women in his lifetime! Then Angelina went on to marry Brad Pitt from 2014 till 2019, but was dating him since they co-starred in Mr & Mrs Smith in 2005, which was when he divorced Jennifer Aniston. So Angelina has a strong track record of dating if not marrying her co-stars, and Jonny Lee Miller was her first marriage. She was aged 20 and he was turning 23 when Hackers premiered on 15 September 1995 in America.

Hackers (1995) starring Angelina Jolie and Jonny Lee Miller