DVDFile

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / 2007 / 100 Minutes / Unrated
Street Date: July 29, 2008

It’s 1983, two years after IBM introduced the personal computer that initiated the digital revolution that put you in front of the screen on which you’re reading this review. Armed with a 300 BAUD acoustic coupler and crude equipment, Matthew Broderick’s David Lightman nearly starts a global nuclear war by hacking into a Defense Department supercomputer W.O.P.R. that has autonomous access to our strategic missiles. He and Ally Sheedy’s Jennifer Mack must track down the system designer, Dr. Stephen Falken (John Wood), to stop a countdown that will eradicate all life on the planet. The film tapped into our cold war fears of annihilation and governmental hubris.

Twenty-four years later, technology has made remarkable strides. We have high speed access to an Internet with countless numbers of computers, some more vulnerable than others. The defense department apparently learned little from its mistakes of nearly quarter of a century earlier. W.O.P.R. has been superseded by Ripley, a far more powerful machine that can instantly tap into sensors, satellites, and databases on a global basis and autonomously control our unmanned weapons systems. And its algorithms are hypersensitive.

One of its programs is a website that encourages players to gamble cold hard cash by playing a variety of games. One of the games allows the player to assume the role of a terrorist, armed with various weapons, including biologics. The premise is that anyone who excels at that particular game becomes suspect as a potential terrorist, and will trigger further investigation and eventual arrest.

Into that flytrap falls a Philadelphia high school student, Will Farmer (Matt Lanter). He’s a brilliant underachiever who’s desperate to win the $550 he needs for a Chess field trip to Montreal as he pursues the brainy and attractive Annie D’Mateo (Amanda Walsh). Through a series of remarkable coincidences (Will’s skill at the game; a mother who works for a pharmaceutical company and brings home discarded samples; and, a neighbor with a crook of a brother in the Mideast who is laundering money through the neighbor’s bank account), Ripley incorrectly deduces a terrorist biohazard threat.

The Feds trail Will travel to Montreal, hoping to discover other members of his cell while his mom and best friend are taken into custody. And as the erroneous evidence mounts, Ripley perceives an escalating threat that’s becoming more and more critical. It’s solution? Nuclear sterilization of Philadelphia. Will and Annie must elude capture and stop a countdown that will eradicate all life in the city. The film taps into our post cold war fears of annihilation and governmental hubris.

Alas, while the film has good intentions, screenwriter Randall Badat and director Stuart Gillard kept pulling me out of my willing suspension of disbelief with one technical gaff after another: a webcam that kept working after its computer was shut down; thermal insulation inside a truck to prevent satellite infrared tracking even though the engine is a much hotter heat source; a tiny funnel inappropriate for filling a gas tank; shutting down Ripley becomes the means to proving innocence; a nuclear armed unmanned Predator over Afghanistan; surviving a high yield explosion by hiding behind a car; highly unrealistic transit times between Afghanistan and Montreal, and between Montreal and Philadelphia; getting a supercomputer to provide a display prompt by changing its temperature; and, a strategy of stressing Ripley’s CPU to shut down the sterilization, just to name a few. I must add that the logic and means of the resolution are utterly absurd. But the basic premise is the most outlandish: the conceit that a genuine terrorist will reveal himself by playing as a terrorist in a web-based video game.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film’s 1.85:1 aspect ratio is presented in a pretty good anamorphic transfer. As DVD visual presentations go, this one is quite respectable. Color rendition, black levels, shadow detail, small object detail, and finely grained textures are a cut above many recent DVD releases. I noticed no mosquito noise or macroblocking. On the downside, noticeable halos are found on edges of high contrast throughout. This is a reasonable but unremarkable transfer. The second side offers a full screen transfer that I did not sample.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The disc defaults to stereo; that’s something I haven’t seen in many years. Don’t forget to switch to the better Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Surround use is nicely implemented with lots of discrete sounds; on at least two occasions, I involuntarily turned my head toward a source of sound to my right or left. Enable EX dematrixing for better surround imaging. The discrete effects and rare pans will be more enveloping. The bottom end has great extension, particularly during explosions. Sound effects have a fine dynamic range and considerable bite. The forgettable score by John Van Tongeren sounds nice enough, but is designed mostly to provoke audience reactions. The dialog remains distortion-free throughout.

The alternate languages are in French Surround 2.0 and Spanish stereo. The optional subtitles are in Spanish and English, for which Closed Captions are also provided.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

The disc opens with a trailers for Stargate: The Ark of Truth (1:02, non-anamorphic widescreen), Stargate Continuum (0:47, full screen), and Behind Enemy Lines III: Columbia (0:49, full screen).

The commentary by director Stewart Gillard and Matt Lanter is dominated by the director. We hear about some of the production details, like sets, location shooting, special effects, stunts, casting, and storyline challenges. But there are uncomfortable lapses of silence and too frequent admiration for the work. Not a brilliant example of the commentary form.

The Making of Wargames: The Dead Code featurette (14:46, 1.78:1, anamorphic video) is for the most part, EPK level material. Cast members and filmmakers comment on the production. We learn a bit about the plotline (perhaps too much, if you hadn’t already seen the film) and the nature of the characters. The best parts reveal details about the special effects. The rest is fluff.

There are twenty-five continuity, behind the scenes, and publicity photos in the Production Stills Gallery. It wastes screen real estate with an unavoidable loss of detail.

The Trailers menu page offers: The Onion King (1:47, non-anamorphic widescreen); a new Jason Statham vehicle called In The Name Of The King (1:29, non-anamorphic widescreen); and, none of the disc’s opening previews.

The 100-minute film is organized into twenty-four chapters.

Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?

None are included on this disc.

Final Thoughts

This is essentially technobabble wrapped in absurd and overwrought drama. Those not easily distracted by technical gaffs might enjoy the energy and the filmmakers’ attempt at establishing high stakes tension. The release offers a reasonable presentation both visually and aurally, and a slightly anemic set of supplements.