Director: Joe Chappelle
Cast: Skeet Ulrich, Russell Wong, Tom Berenger, Chris McDonald and Jeremy Sisto
Distributor: Roadshow / Miramax/ Dimension
Classification: M 15+ (Medium Level Course Language, Low Level Sex scene, Sexual References)
Running Time: 92 Minutes

Takedown is the true story of the world’s most infamous hacker, Kevin Mitnick, based on the book by Tsutomu Shimomura and John Markoff. Mitnick was responsible for hacking the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), teleco Pacific Bell, as well as the Pentagon computers, and is apparently the only hacker to ever get onto the FBI’s most wanted list. Essentially the film is a chase movie, with Mitnick, played by Ulrich, running and hiding from the FBI, using his talents as a hacker to stay one step ahead.

The film begins in a sleazy stripclub, with a hacker offering Mitnick and his friend important information. It turns out this was in fact a FBI set up, but Mitnick ends up actually stealing the FBI files, and gets away with it. Mitnick becomes unstuck when he hacks Shimomura’s computer system. Shimomura, played by Russel Wong, is an egotistical systems admin whose cocky attitude attracts Mitnicks attention. The rest of the movie has Markoff running away from the FBI and Shimomura.

The main problem with the movie is the acting is just so inconsistent you don’t believe in or feel very much for any of the characters. Shimomura is portrayed in such a way that you get the feeling that even though he wrote the book, he doesn’t really like himself. He’s played as an egotistical prat, and there’s a feeling that he deserves to be targeted just because he’s such a complete tosser.

Mitnick is not represented in a much better light either. He’s obsessive and whiney, and similarly not very likable. At times you do feel for him, as his crime was simply hacking – he never sought to use it for monetary gain, although he could have quite easily used his talents for no good. Yet, at the same time there is no sense that he is doing good by exposing flaws in security systems, because he is so unlikeable.

Similarily, the movie sets up relationships that serve as plot devices and they seem rather vacant. There’s a love scene between Shimomura and his girlfriend which seems as if it was shot just to show a bit of T&A; not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s not even a great love scene and comes in at a really inappropriate time, and is not important to the plot at all.

Often you are left wondering where exactly the film wants to go – are they saying Mitnick was misrepresented, that Shimomura deserved it and that the charges that landed him in jail were hyped up; or is Mitnick a total tool who should be locked up for fraud? In a documentary maybe you could have the position of the filmmaker vary, but in a full feature movie it seems as if they changed the story half way through, and leave you with a vacant and unfulfilling movie that is neither here nor there. Even for fans of hacking and computer espionage, this movie have very little to offer. A documentary of Mitnick’s exploits would suit much better, and this B-grade movie is better left on the shelf.