FemaleFirst.co.uk: DVD: Wargames [DVD] [1983]

Wargames [DVD] [1983]
enlarge	Director: John Badham Actors: Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, John Wood, Dabney Coleman, Barry Corbin Studio: MGM Entertainment Category: DVD List Price: ~~£12.99~~ Buy New: £1.77 as of 22/11/2009 06:53 GMT details You Save: £11.22 (86%) New (24) Used (16) from £1.45 Seller: fastdvd2006 Rating: 16 reviews Sales Rank: 8052 Format: Anamorphic, Dubbed, Full Screen, PAL, Widescreen Languages: English (Original Language), German (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), German (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Italian (Subtitled), Portuguese (Subtitled), Swedish (Subtitled), Danish (Subtitled), Dutch (Subtitled) Rating: Parental Guidance Region: 2 Discs: 1 Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Number Of Discs: 1 Running Time: 108 Minutes Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2 Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6 EAN: 5050070001839 ASIN: B00004TT7C Theatrical Release Date: June 3, 1983 Release Date: July 24, 2000 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days


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Editorial Reviews: Amazon.co.uk Review Cute but silly, this 1983 cautionary fantasy stars Matthew Broderick as a teenage computer genius who hacks into the Pentagon's defence system and sets World War III into motion. All the fun is in the film's set-up, as Broderick befriends Ally Sheedy and starts the international crisis by pretending while online to be the Soviet Union. After that, it's not hard to predict what's going to happen: government agents swoop in, but the story ends up in the "hands" of machines talking to one another. Thus we're stuck with flashing lights, etc. John Badham (ISaturday Night Fever/I) directs in strict potboiler mode. Children still like this movie, though. --ITom Keogh, Amazon.com/I

Customer Reviews: Showing reviews 1-5 of 16 1 2 3 4 Next » Wicked February 5, 2004 7 out of 8 found this review helpful This is one of those films that many of us grew up with in our youth - you know what i mean, it falls into the same category as The Goonies, BMX Bandits and the Indiana Jones and Star Wars trilogies. This was the first film that brought Matthew Broderick to the fore in a relatively simple role. A young computer nerd accidently hacks into the mainframe defence computer in charge of the Defending the USA - nearly beginning World War three. The story may be simple but in many ways like all great films that is what makes it effective. I unreservedly love this film and the scene where Matthew Brodericks dad uses bread to spread butter onto his corn on the cob is a priceless moment in cinema - if you would like a nice Sunday afternoon film then this is the film for you! Hope you enjoy. Buy it. July 22, 2000 3 out of 4 found this review helpful A good film, although the technology in it now is laughable. I enjoyed it and i will be buying it shortly. A must buy for computer lovers. One of the best thrillers (of any era)- a modern classic April 25, 2006 Darren Harrison (Washington D.C.) 3 out of 4 found this review helpful The early 1980s was a time of high paranoia as East and West faced off against each other in an increasingly complex game of nuclear brinksmanship and Hollywood definitely took notice with a series of movies that seemed to fortell just how dangerous such machinations could be. Another genre popular in the early 1980s was films centered around the booming possibilities of computers, from Tron to The Last Stafighter, so it perhaps should not surprise anyone that these two genre's would be combined. br /But what was surprising was that the final product, the 1983 movie WARGAMES starring a pre-Ferris Bueller Matthew Broderick, would be so entertaining and skillful in its execution. In fact the movie is perhaps the most consistently watchable and best thriller from the era, transcending its natural audience of teenage boys to encompass a more general appeal with its fast pace, technological wonders, interesting characterizations and tight plotting that remains to this day one of my favorite movies. br /Although the computers and technology looks somewhat primitive by today's standards it was cutting edge for its day (a fact which leaves Broderick having to explain the process of computer networking to Ally Sheedy's character and the "computer geeks" explaining program back-doors). In fact in these days when home computers were in their infancy the plot seems incredibly tech savvy. br /The movie starts with the arrival of two men at one of the sites tasked with launching nuclear missiles. Suddenly a message comes through ordering them to launch and believing the order to be genuine (its actually a training exercise) they prepare to follow out the command. The near-apocalyptic judgment and the hesitancy of the men in the silos lead the military to remove men from the sites and replace them with computers - a decision they will soon regret. br /Switch to Broderick's character, a very smart high school student who is attempting to access a series of new computer games by connecting his computer to his telephone line and having it dial every number in the computer companies area code. Waiting for it to find another computer signal (anyone who ever had to sit through a dial-up connection will recognize the screeching sound of one computer talking to another) Broderick's character comes across what he believes to be the right number. And proceeds to play a game with the rather chilling title "Global Thermonuclear War." br /Unbeknownst to him his "game" is a tactical scenario for the computer in charge of the United States' nuclear weapons silo's and his choice to play the part of the Soviet Union has set alarms ringing at NORAD. br /What follows is a quite exhilirating against time to stop global Armageddon. There are no car chases, no shoot-em-ups - just good solid suspense and tension. br /The DVD features a rather interesting scene specific commentary that is also quite enlightening. Who knew for example that in this pre-CGI age that all the giant computer screens at NORAD had to have the imagery projected onto them. br /All in all, a solid movie that really delivers - you need to check this out. Sure it looks a little dated now, but I would definitely put this in the category of a "modern classic." One of the most memorable films of the 80s February 4, 2008 Daniel Jolley (Shelby, North Carolina USA) 2 out of 3 found this review helpful 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. br / br /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. br / br /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." br / br /Man, I love the 80s - and Wargames is one of the true classics from that greatest of decades. The absurdity of war December 29, 2008 Jacques COULARDEAU (OLLIERGUES France) 1 out of 2 found this review helpful Remember Ronald Reagan, the actor-president, the acting president, the president-actor, we will never know. Was he serious about his empire of evil or was he joking one of these good words produced by black humor, or at least very dark grey humor? No one will even know, because Reagan himself did probably not know. The film is a direct reflection on that period from that period. If we entrust our own security to machines what would happen? Machines have no sense of life and death and for them everything is nothing but an exercise, a game, a playground dare or challenge or discussion because they have no ethical sense at all. The film, or rather this question is at the basis of the Terminator series too. Machines, if we let them develop too much, will take over and destroy or try to destroy the human species that would stand in their way. We also remember it is the fundamental element of the Dune series and that the survival of the human species was due to the Butlerian revolution that banned all intelligent machines and made it a crime to develop such machines. What is the originality of this film then that goes back to the command-line computers that no one knows how to use any more. That was the good old time before the invention of the GUI (Graphical User's Interface). That was a beautiful time when computers were an elite tool and when the Internet was still nothing but an intranet of the military establishment. That was then a field of mystery that we were just discovering and it took little imagination to understand that it could only be child play to penetrate such a system because it was only based on declarative identities and passwords and human beings are very simple-minded as for passwords since they want THE password they will never forget, as if it were possible. So it is simple to think of birth dates, death dates of close relatives, names of one's children, etc. That's exactly what a 17 year old teenager does: he penetrates the computer that governs the whole defense of the USA in case of a thermo-nuclear war and finds out that the computer considers it is a game, a game he is willing to play but he plays it for real and he can absolutely fool all commanding levels of the security system because they trust the machines and do not even ask their own eyes to check what is happening. The worst point about this film is that security rules make the commanding chain decide at one point to lock the system so that no change can be introduced that could change the management of the situation, or the orders given to the military by anyone in the chain of command. But the film remains entertaining and yet very moralistic indeed. So the game cannot be stopped but the military commander can be persuaded that it is a game played by the machine, but, and then it becomes rather sickening, the machine can by-pass that human chain of command and give the orders itself. At this moment there is no way to escape the apocalypse, except by playing another game the machine accepts as the key to make it think, if it can think, in the right direction. So why not try tic-tac-toe, a game that cannot be won at all. And that leads the dear machine of ours to the conclusion that, after examining all scenarios, a thermo nuclear war cannot be won except by not engaging in one. And we can only wonder why human beings are dumb enough to start wars all the time if there is no winner in present day war. McCain who knew how to win a war lost the election that should have been his major battle. Bush who was not prepared for a war, got into one desperately and stubbornly, and even into two for good measure. If he had been prepared he definitely would not even have hesitated with Iran or North Korea and maybe two or three more. Is a machine more intelligent than the human species? Probably. At least this film is trying to tell us so. br / br /Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines br / Showing reviews 1-5 of 16 1 2 3 4 Next »

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