DVD Movie Rating for: Antitrust

3 out of 5

Movie Plot of: Antitrust

After graduating from Stanford, two idealistic computer whiz kids who are best friends are offered jobs at NURV, a giant Portland company with a driven boss, Gary Winston, on the verge of a world-linking satellite communication system. With support from his girlfriend Alice, Milo takes the job; Teddy says no and continues work on a media compression program he wants to make available free. Winston takes a person interest in Milo, whose genius can help NURV meet its launch date, and Milo responds with brilliance and long hours. When Teddy meets with tragedy and Winston's offhand remark makes Milo suspicious, he decides to investigate Winston and NURV. But, whom can he trust?

DVD Production Details of: Antitrust

Starring: Ryan Phillippe, Tim Robbins

Director: Peter Howitt

Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby

Studio: Mgm/Ua Studios

DVD Release Date: December 26, 2001
DVD Features:
Commentary by director Peter Howitt and editor Zach Staenberg

Antitrust: Cracking the Code An exclusive documentary

Deleted scenes with director's commentary

Music video "When It All Goes Wrong" by Everclear

Widescreen anamorphic format

Cast of the movie: Antitrust

• Ryan Phillippe .... Milo Hoffman
• Rachael Leigh Cook .... Lisa Calighan
• Claire Forlani .... Alice Poulson
• Tim Robbins .... Gary Winston
• Douglas McFerran .... Bob Shrot
• Richard Roundtree .... Lyle Barton
• Tygh Runyan .... Larry Banks
• Yee Jee Tso .... Teddy Chin
• Nate Dushku .... Brian Bissel
• Ned Bellamy .... Phil Grimes
• Tyler Labine .... Redmond
• Scott Bellis .... Randy
• David Lovgren .... Danny
• Zahf Paroo .... Desi (as Zahf Hajee)
• Jonathon Young .... Stinky

Photo Gallery of the movie: Antitrust

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size, high resolution photographs

Reviews of the movie: Antitrust

The term suspension of disbelief was invented for the idea that Ryan Phillippe could be a computer genius. As Milo, a slacker brainiac recruited by smilingly ominous software giant Gary Winston (Tim Robbins) to help build a global communications system, Phillippe still looks like a million bucks. He is also still doing the clenched, pouty grown-up voice that he always uses to show that he means business in this acting stuff (he's nothing if not earnest), and a pair of designer glasses completes the transformation. He's well matched in Antitrust by Claire Forlani, who, in turn, spends time pursing her lips and squinting her dewy eyes as Milo's troubled girlfriend, an artist who proves to be a liability when Milo discovers that Winston is killing off clever competitors like a dot-com führer. Robbins, looking like David Letterman, seems willing to either take his role dead seriously or goof around a bit, but director Peter Howitt doesn't know how to play any of it (the actor was better used as a grinning madman in another flawed paranoid thriller, the underseen Arlington Road). Without any underlying menace or enough satirical bite to keep it interesting, the whole thing slips by passively in a mindless matinee kind of way until the over-the-top finale. Production designer Catherine Hardwicke has had some big, glossy fun creating Winston's campus and ornate private kingdom, and there's the cheapest of kicks in seeing Robbins's Bill Gates taken down publicly, but the film is definitely junior league

Call me gullible, but I thought this was a pretty cool movie
Just to get things straight, I'm on the Internet quite often. However, I don't consider myself a computer geek. I don't know crap about all its internal mechanisms and firewalls and all that stuff. Nor do I honestly care about that kind of stuff. So excuse me if there are tons of plot holes and factual errors that may have flew over my head.

I found the movie to be very exciting. I wasn't anxious about seeing "Antitrust." I wanted to rent "The Forsaken," but it was on reserve. I was very impressed. The film has a moderately slow start, but it wasn't long until I really started to get into the plot. And when I engaged myself, I couldn't hit the "Pause" button. I just couldn't wait to find out what would happen next. I liked the nifty plot twist. That came totally unexpected, though the IMDB inspectors reported it as a goof/plot hole. So maybe it didn't make complete sense. We're permitted to suspend some disbelief. Besides, I've seen much more ridiculous plot twists.

Tim Robbins steals the show as a sadistic clone of Bill Gates. Heck, he even looks a lot like him (in this movie, at least). Just like in "Arlington Road," he graces the role of the villain and as the film goes on, his mere appearance strikes terror in the eyes of the viewer. For eye candy, we have Claire Forlani and Rachael Leigh Cook. Though Rachael doesn't play a love interest, she has never looked hotter! I wanted to kiss the screen every time she smiled. I'm sure the chicks will dig Ryan Philippe, who's quite good in his role--even though I don't see too many computer geeks that handsome. Still, he wasn't completely miscast. Richard Roundtree also makes a few brief appearances. He doesn't play a memorable role, but he's one of those guys who you just want to applaud for every time he shows up on screen.

Unless you're really into computers and will be nit-picking about every possible inaccuracy, you'll probably find this slick cyber thriller very enjoyable and very exciting. It's a fast-paced trip with, yes, a good deal of scenes involving Ryan typing really fast on the keyboard before security catches up to him (OK, maybe that was a little far-fetched). But it's a crowd-pleaser that actually pleases, with very few lags. Trust me.