Antitrust
Joe's Preview Review:
Coming off probably the best performance of his career in Christopher McQuarrie's The Way of The Gun, Phillipe seems headed in a positive direction with Antitrust. Going head to head with a maniac Bill Gates look-a-like computer tycoon in this aptly titled paranoia movie. Should be a bit of entertainment. The only Entertainment I found in Phillipe before hand was watching him die in Cruel Intentions. I'm sorry but it's true. He just better not make a sequel to that sapfest Playing by Heart or to some deeper in the Hollywood world Dancing About Architechture.
Joe's Film Review:
Cashing
in on the paranoia is the reason for making for the ludicrous Antitrust.
Bond Studios AKA MGM tries to ride the tails of a hot news story, which is no
longer hot. They took a script that should have been a movie of the week and
turned it into a feature full length because of the cast. They figure we have
some up and coming hot faces plus a one proven actor in Tim Robbins, fill it
with clichés like this review, and over dramatize reality.
Slow minded, dumb-as-a-stick Ryan Phillipe plays superprogrammer Milo who
bilionaire computer tycoon Gary Winston (Tim Robbins) is trying to recruit. He
considers Milo the future; with him at the helm the future looks bleak to me. I
personally wouldn't trust Phillipe to watch my Pet Rock for the weekend not to
mention create the future in computers. Instead of sticking to his honest roots,
Milo decides to go for the money at the big company. This offends his
programming buddy Teddy, who believes that Gary and his company NURV suppress
all creativity and force inferior products onto the market. *cough* *cough*
Windows ME *cough* *cough*, inside joke for the computer people.
If Ryan Phillipe is starring there's gotta be a beautiful love interest
that's dumber than him. They found that in the dumbfoundingly bad actress Claire
Forlani. Rachel Leigh Cook plays a fellow computer geek that gets close to Milo.
That's covers the romance part of the story. The suspense ensues. Phillipe sees
some things he doesn't like and starts to investigate things he maybe shouldn't
be.
If it was up to me Englishman Peter Howitt would never work again if not
just for the fact of being the writer and director of Sliding Doors
but also for being the one to make this movie. If every director refused to make
films with these kinds of scripts, the world would be a better place. Your
question here: how could he have known? The answer: if you're a good director
you can tell. At least he doesn't get the credit for writing the script. I don't
see anyone who would want it. The dubious achievement of that belongs to Howard
Franklin, director of the so-called Bill Murray/ elephant comedy, Larger
Than Life. What can you expect from these two, really.
Performances in the film across the board match the quality of the
script, dreadful. Phillipe and Forlani trade shots trying to see who could put
in the worse performance. Rachel Leigh Cook was like a doll, she's seen but not
heard. Cook was obviously given a pile of money to make an appearance as a
mysterious character in this film. Tim Robbins isn't really scary as the
maniacal Bill Gates type software tycoon. He's much more horrifying in the film
that probably got him this role, the terrifying and intense Arlington Road.
Antitrust can't touch Arlington Road.
It's the middle of the night as I write this, the haunting memories of
boredom from watching this wasteful piece of crap still remain days later. It's
an awful movie I hope to forget soon. It should be easy forget because there's
nothing memorable about it. Definitely not recommended.
Starring: Ryan Phillipe, Tim Robbins,
Claire Forlani, Rachel Leigh Cook
Written by: Howard Franklin (The Man Who Knew Too Little)
Directed by Peter Howitt (Sliding Doors)
Rating: 1 out of 4 stars
Reviewed by: Joe Soria
Running Time: 120 minutes
Rated PG-13 for language and mild violence