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A Reel Life film section

Issue: Winter 2002


The Net movie review

Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) is a reclusive computer programmer who has just been sent a very dangerous virus to repair. She goes on holidays only to discover that her identity has been substituted for another and she is on the run from the authorities and the people behind the virus.

Haven't we all thought at one time that the people with the most to gain from viruses are those who profit from their removal? The Net is the classic innocent person on the run thriller, in this case a programmer with marginal people skills, no effective family, and whose special skills are needed to bring down the baddies.

Sandra Bullock plays the antisocial Angela with her trademark vulnerability and we want her to find a way out of her troubles, and if she saves the day all the better.

Movie poster, The Net; Festivale film review

Movie poster, The Net
Her driver's license. Her credit cards. Her bank accounts. Her identity. DELETED.

The Net is science fiction for the mainstream audience. It uses the potentialities of the (then) new technologies to extrapolate a danger, which is in the best tradition of science fiction, however it relies much less on special effects and whiz bangery than it does on our concern for the character.

Interesting and little bit scary. Worth a look.

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by Ali Kayn
Australian release 21 September 1995
For credits and official site details, see below
Search Festivale for more work by the film-makers below.

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Just the facts:

Title: The Net (1995)
Written by: John D. Brancato (written by) & Michael Ferris (written by)
Directed by: Irwin Winkler
running time: 114 mins
rating: M


The Players: Sandra Bullock, Jeremy Northam, Dennis Miller


Official website:
IMDb entry


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