WarGames [VHS]
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VHS Movie Reviews of WarGames [VHS]
Movie Review: The original W.O.P.P.E.R.
Summary: 5 Stars
This animal is a whopper in more ways than one. All you have to do is suspend any type of belief in reality and it is a lot of fun trying to outguess the next move. Even after you have seen it a million times you will find your self kibitzing "look look look it is still running." And what is Joshua doing at the back door?
A teenager, David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) that is too tech savvy for his own good is searching for the new game on the net. He stumbles into the NORAD mainframe evidently it was DARPA/net. For those with a short lifespan DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) was the precursor to the internet. We all know what happens when you do this. Yep, now David with the help if his teenage sweetie, Jennifer (Ally Sheedy) must worm his way into NORAD and stop the game or we are toast.
Short Circuit DVD ~ Ally Sheedy
Movie Review: Fun & Games to the Max
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a very fun film which also has a serious point about how much havoc "hackers" can create. Matthew Broderick has always been a favorite, and he's at the top of his form here. Funny and thought provoking at the same time. This is one of those you have to see several times over.Movie Review: The original W.O.P.P.E.R.
Summary: 5 Stars
This animal is a whopper in more ways than one. All you have to do is suspend any type of belief in reality and it is a lot of fun trying to outguess the next move. Even after you have seen it a million times you will find your self kibitzing "look look look it is still running." And what is Joshua doing at the back door?
A teenager, David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) that is too tech savvy for his own good is searching for the new game on the net. He stumbles into the NORAD mainframe evidently it was DARPA/net. For those with a short lifespan DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) was the precursor to the internet. We all know what happens when you do this. Yep, now David with the help if his teenage sweetie, Jennifer (Ally Sheedy) must worm his way into NORAD and stop the game or we are toast.
Games People Play
Dr. Strangelove Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Movie Review: One of the most memorable films of the 80s
Summary: 5 Stars
Looking back on my formative years, several theatrical releases stand out above all others, films such as the Star Wars trilogy (of course), E.T., Grease, and - yes - Wargames. Back in 1983, this film was incredible. Home computers were still mysterious contraptions I knew little about (I doubt I even had my Commodore 64 yet), and here was a guy hacking into other computers to change his grades, play cool new games, and who knew what else. And if that weren't enough, his computer actually talked. Looking back now, I have to wonder how many hackers became hackers because of Wargames. I know the film produced plenty of kids just like me who suddenly wanted a computer more than anything else in the world. Younger generations might not appreciate Wargames as much as I do - many will never have seen an old school computer room, computer tapes, an external modem that actually holds the phone receiver, gigantic floppy disks, or even an old-timey command prompt, nor will they know what it was like to grow up in the shadow of a possible full-scale nuclear was between America and the Evil Empire - but I have to believe they will enjoy this film nonetheless. It had been many years since I last watched Wargames, and I'm actually a little surprised at how well the film holds up all these years later.
In the event of a first strike nuclear attack by the Soviet Union, response time is of the essence if you want to live up to your end of the mutually assured destruction bargain, so it makes sense to let a computer handle as much of the response action as possible - especially when that computer is the W.O.P.R. (War Operation Plan Response). After all, the W.O.P.R. spends all of its time calculating different nuclear war scenarios, and - more importantly - it does not fall subject to the fallibility of human beings, the kind of unpredictability that sees 22% of nuclear launch commanders failing to release their birds during the most realistic of tests. Unfortunately, the W.O.P.R. has a secret backdoor that no one knows about - until, that is, a geeky teenager manages to get in through that backdoor. While trying to hack into a software company's computers to sneak a peek at their upcoming games, David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) manages to gain entry into a much more interesting game server. He and would-be girlfriend Jennifer Mack (Ally Sheedy) get a kick out of targeting American cities for destruction in a game of Global Thermonuclear War, having no idea that the folks at NORAD are staining their shorts over reports of incoming missiles from the Soviet Union - not until the three-minute scare makes the news the next day. When the W.O.P.R. actually calls back, David realizes that the game he started is still running - and that it is much more than just a game.
There's plenty of excitement and suspense as the wargame races toward an end-game scenario which could well result in the very real deaths of hundreds of millions of people. It's going to take more than a kid to convince the brass at NORAD that the incoming missiles they see on all of their screens are actually illusory, especially when that kid is suspected of treasonous espionage. Broderick, Ally Sheedy, and Dabney Coleman turn in excellent performances, but my props have to go to Barry Corbin, whose character, the eminently quotable General Jack Beringer, gets all the best lines, such as "I'd piss on a spark plug if I thought it'd do any good!" and "after very careful consideration, sir, I've come to the conclusion that your new defense system sucks."
Man, I love the 80s - and Wargames is one of the true classics from that greatest of decades.
Movie Review: Futility
Summary: 5 Stars
During a test of readiness, 22% of the ICBM officers failed to launch their missiles. Dr. John McMittrick, former assistent to Stephen Faulkin convinces the President's military advisor to install automated systems to launch the missiles. The silos would be controlled by the "War Operation Plan Resource", WOPR.
WOPR is a special machined developed by Professor Stephen Faulkin. The WOPR has an artifical hippocampus and cortex letting it symbolize expressions of emotion and when talking with David Lightman, it asks, "How do you feel?" for which Lightman replies, "I feel fine. How do you feel?" and the WOPR nicknamed named Joshua answers, "Excellent, how about a nice game of chess?" Faulkin purpose in creating Josuha was to prove through game theory the fulity of nuclear war. Faulkin tells Lightman that he taught Josuha poker and games of chance to demostrate "bluffs", but that he taught him tic-tac-toe to teach the futility of certain games. Faulkin said Joshua failed to grasp the concept of "no win". Josuha central purpose was to win the game. Josuha child like consciousness prevented the machine from distinquishing between game and real. Joshua tells lightman that his central purpose is to win the game.
David is trying hack in and play new games by protovision, a game company. David associates with game developers. David accidentally uncovers a communication line left by the telephone company by a california satelite. David gets a prompt that says login and eventually types "help games" and gets a list of games. David seeks gamer consulting advice and Melvin tells David to start researching "Faulkins-Maze" after Jim discloses that their may be a "backdoor" in the system. David's girl friend Jennifer, whom he electronically grade alter makes a comment about Faulkins, son that was killed in a car accident with mother. David says, "It can't be that easy" and types Josuha's name. Once in the David requests to play "Global Theronuclear War" twice and selects Russia as his character. NORAD responds by raising the decon level to 3 expecting 300 incoming ICBMs, but David's mother interupts the games and the simulation stops; General Beringer wants to know what happened; and the FBI traces the call to Seattle Washington and arrests David. Joshua is thinking; he gathers information for all military systems throughout the world and evaluations weakeness and strengthens and potential actions and probabilities of success; Josuha calls David at this home and David discovers Joshua is still trying to win the game; Josuha tells David, he will win the game once he gets to Decon 1; the machine has problem solved a solution to the game and created a series of predictable senarios to create a raising of Decon levels until the machine reaches DEFCON 1 which it will then decode the launch codes.
David and Jennifer reach Faulkin but he has a fatalistic view of the world telling them that "man will become extinct like the dinosaurs". David ask Faulkin, "what is the last thing that you cared about" and Jennifer says, "I'm seventeen and I don't want to die". The two leave Faulkin and go in search of a boat, upon, not finding a boat, Jennifer says to David, "Lets swim". David says "no", "it two or three miles to shore" - Jennifer insist on swimming and David says, "I can't swim." "I always thought that I'd have time to learn how to swim. I really intended on learning." Faulkin arrives by Helicopter and the group rush to Norad, as Josuha manipulates General Beringer to Defon 1, by a first strike ICBM visual of 2,300 warheads. The Russian deny any nuclear weapon activity.
Faulkin asks the General, "This is a computer hallucination. Does this make sense? Do you think the Russia would launch this many missile by land and submarine without provocation? Let the scenario run out." General Beringer does not trust machines, he had previous said to McKittrick, "Do you want to trust our national security to a pile of chips? Do you want launch decisions done by a silcon diode?" General Beringer does respond; the system is on launch lockout; the simulation is proven a farse. Joshua continues playing the game. The General says, "just unplug the thing"; McKittrick tells the General that if they disconnect the WOPR, it will be interpretted as the destruction of NORAD and launch will be automatic. The group moves from celebration to crisis.
Machine learning: David accesses games and selects Tic-Tac-Toe and has Josha play against himself; Joshua has decode all ten launch codes; somewhere in his artificial cortex, he becomes aware of the futility of the game; Joshua runs every possible first strike scenario and realizes there is no survival possibility in any. Joshua says "the only winning move..is not to play." General Berringer yells out, "Take us to DefCon 5."
The machine capable of self preservation and seemingly wise. A machine capable of understanding complex systems and deriving wisdom from the concepts it conceives - fasinating.