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Summary: "Antitrust" is sleek, cool, and
sexy high tech thriller about the high stakes and high pressure world of
commercial communications software development. A smooth talking and
savvy CEO of a leading high tech software firm recruits a naive, idealistic
hot shot software engineer to finish a critical part of a satellite
communications software. When key pieces of software miraculously
show up just-in-time, the young computer genius begins to suspect corporate
espionage. As he digs deeper, he finds that it is far worse, as deadly
as this brutal world of corporate profits.
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The Story
In the world of leading-edge high technology, getting your
product to market first can literally be a deadly serious
proposition. "Antitrust" is a story about a computer whiz kid who is
seduced by a high tech corporation to produce a critical piece of
communications software that would enable multimedia data distribution via satellite. When there are billions
of dollars at stake, the corporation will do
almost anything to secure the software algorithms that it needs to
successfully make a system operational. Even if this means stealing
algorithms from its competitors. This is corporate espionage at its
worst.
Ryan Phillippe stars as Milo Hoffman, a bright, new
graduate from Stanford University. Considered
a genius in his field, Milo plans to start an open-source
software development business with his best
friends. However, Milo is successfully recruited into the big
corporate world by Gary Winston (Tim
Robbins), a savvy CEO and founder of N.U.R.V. (which stands for Never Underestimate Radical Vision).
As part of Gary's pitch, he patronizes Milo:
"The future holds limitless possibilities, Milo.
You decide what the future holds for you.
Let me know. You know, when I look at you
I see something I haven't seen in 20 years... I see me."
(Oh yes, the ultimate compliment. 
) Gary needs Milo to complete a critical piece of the SYNAPSE
satellite communications software in order to be the first to introduce
satellite-based multimedia communications to the world. Along with his beautiful and supportive
girlfriend Alice Poulson (Claire Forlani), Milo relocates to the Pacific
Northwest to make his mark
in the corporate history at N.U.R.V.
To motivate his team of young software geniuses to
complete the SYNAPSE system in 42 days, the smooth talking CEO emphatically states:
"There are no constraints, no boundaries. Surprise me!
Challenge me!
Defy me! Defy yourselves. You have a choice.
You can be forgotten, or you can be remembered
as one of the noble few who made it..."
To Milo's surprise, Gary acts as Milo's counselor and
mentor, and spends an inordinate amount of time working along-side with Milo.
And whenever Milo is stumped, Gary seems to come up with a key piece of
working code just-in-time. Milo becomes suspicious and begins to
question his decision to work for N.U.R.V. And the more he investigates
these strange events, the more unsettled he becomes. He begins to questions all of his
relationships, even that with his girlfriend.
Funny, the fictional N.U.R.V. corporation portrayed in
this movie uncannily resembles a real-world MICROcomputer SOFTware (hint!
hint!) corporation. And to this effect, the movie is sleek and polished, with believable
computer screen animations and special effects. The acting
performances are smooth
and credible. A particularly nice element in the film is that most
of the computer graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are very realistic looking
and are actually driven by the actors or off-screen operators. I was
pretty impressed with the computer screen actions, even though I know that
the code is just HTML and therefore is bogus. One last thing: until
now, I never noticed the resemblance between
Tim Robbins and Bill Gates.
The Extras
"Antitrust" Special Edition DVD comes with the
following bonus
materials:
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Audio commentary by director Peter Howitt and film editor Zach Staenberg
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"Antitrust: cracking the code"
documentary: discusses various story elements such as the high
technology world, the computer screen as a character, and the issue of
open-source software development (22 minutes)
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Deleted scenes with optional director's commentary:
six deleted scenes entitled, "Lisa's Duplicity", "Milo
& Lisa", "Alice's Suspicion", "Lisa Gets
Caught", "Gary & Milo's Game", Alice's True
Feelings". These deleted scenes has the look of the finished
but, but has timing marks in the black bar areas.
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Alternate opening and ending sequence with optional director's
commentary: entitled "The Rise and Fall of N.U.R.V."
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Hit music video "When It All Goes Wrong Again" by Everclear
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Original theatrical trailer
Overall, it's a pretty good set of bonus
features. Not to mention the cool animated menus that resemble a
computer's graphical interface.
Video & Audio
The image quality of this anamorphic
widescreen DVD is excellent. The colors are accurate and
saturated, while shadow detail is very good. The video
transfer is top notch. The Dolby
Digital 5.1 soundtrack is well balanced and the surround channels are
used effectively. The dialog
is crystal clear.
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Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony
DVP-S7700 reference DVD player, Sony
KP-61V45 61" rear projection TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony ES
STR-V444ES A/V receiver, NHT 2.1 as left/right main speakers, NHT 1.1C center channel speaker, NHT
SuperZero as surround speakers, Monster Cable M-series S-Video cable MSV-500, Monster
Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable XP speaker
wires, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones. Our home theater equipment was calibrated
with the Video
Essentials DVD.
Be sure to check out our Top 10 DVDs of the year
2001 and our list of this year's Oscar winners on DVD.
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United We Stand
