Hackers

Set in New York, Hackers centres around the strange lives of a group of cyberpunks from High School. The new student in town, Dade (Miller - fresh from his success as the Sick Boy in Trainspotting) is trying to hide his incredible past as the child-prodigy hacker who crashed 1,507 computers on Wall Street with a single virus... what a guy!

If only Dade could adjust his icy cool, laid-back attitude (he logs on under the tag "Zero Cool") he might be able to realise his dream of a romantic entanglement with High School babe-of-the-year Kate (Angelina Jolie), who surfs the net in an impressive, go-faster-striped laptop. In any case, they have to work together when one of their hacker-gang is framed for international terrorism by the evil hacker The Plague (Fisher Stevens, in a role a far cry from his stupid Indian stereotype in Short Circuit).

Laced with a soundtrack crammed with thumping, tranced-out dance tracks by the likes of Massive Attack, The Prodigy and The Orb, Hackers is more than an up-to-date gimmick movie. Directed stylishly by Softley, who was recently voted as the most promising newcomer by the London Film Critic's circle, the film is both an impressive piece of eye-candy and a thought-provoking take on the rapidly advancing technology which surrounds our lives. It was somewhat lost when it was released alongside Things to do in Denver and From Dusk Til Dawn, and yet Hackers is a fast-moving and enjoyable piece of cyber-punk. Let's hope it finds its audience here...

Conrad Jarret