Movies and The Internet--THE NET
Next up in my series is 1995's THE NET, starring Sandra Bullock. The movie starts with an awesome crane shot into our protagonist Angela Bennett's house, as she plays Duke Nukem and chats with her employer. He asks her to dinner, but she "has a prior engagement", which we then find out is ordering pizza.
Oh, look--it's pizza.net! Which, 11 years later, is "the world's largest pizza search engine." Who knew? At least I can say I've ordered pizza on the internet before, so let's give credit to the foresight shown by THE NET's creators.
After some slices we find Ms. Bennett chatting with her cyberfriends, and the movie feels compelled to make things more aurally interesting, so all of the chats are spoken in computer voices.
How great is "the net is ultimate condom"? Very great.
Angela obviously needs to take a break from this stressful life, so she goes on vacation, but first she needs to make her airline seat reservation:
Despite the basic graphic, this is another instance of THE NET actually delivering on a technological promise.
When Angela shows up at the airport the next day, things have gone a bit haywire due to, yep, a computer malfunction.
Would they really say "Hijacked"?!
Eventually she makes it to her destination, where she meets this alluring gentleman, who makes the moves on her with his smooth words "We're sitting on the most perfect beach in the world and all we're thinking about is where can I hook up my modem."
Brilliant sexual metaphor man!
Okay, I've grown bored of describing the plot, so here are the rest of the movie's highlights:
Don't mess with dudes who know computers, they could give you virtual VD.
When your budget is tight, call on Dennis Miller for the love interest.
Then kill him off because no-one is buying it.
Look at how cute that laptop is. Awwww.
Just don't press that button.
Now you did it.
I enjoyed THE NET more than I thought I would, mostly as a historical artifact. The movie really preys on the early internet privacy fears, and is probably the reason people still won't order things off the internet, but will instead call up some catalog and provide a live human with their credit card number. I can't wait for THE NET 2.0.
i love the net.
thanks for the play by play.
are you doing hackers next?
nobody can hack a gibson.
Yes, HACKERS is next, which is going to be interesting--an even older movie about computers. But I hear there are at least boobs, which is something THE NET did not provide.
A boobless hacker movie is no hacker movie! Sorry The Net. No offense.
well, there was that beach scene where sandra wore what appeared to be black tarpaulin, sort of like a beach burqa. so there was a hint of boob, if not the real deal.
I don't think I ever saw THE NET all the way through. Man, Net 2.0 would be a sweet movie. All about MySpace and Platial and stuff. :)
i actually like the net. it doesn't try to be too smart. it works as a semi-fun flick. i mean i wouldn't own it or anything, but if it's on tv i'd watch it.
pre-comment on hackers: i really don't know how much i would like it if it didn't have jonny lee miller.
When they show the overview of angela benetts house as you said in the beginning of the net,and then later when she gets back from cozumel,where is the acutal house?