WarGames

Thriller which although made in the 1980s and featuring lots of rubbish looking giant computers - still provides suspense by the bucketload.

An early example of the "cyber-thriller" a sub-genre which has pretty much petered out now, good job because you can never really top the story of "computer nerd hacks into government super-computers and almost starts World War III"

Matthew Brod erick is great here and its a shame that with this and Ferris Bueller under his belt he went on to end up in such drosss as Godzilla. Hopefully the forthcoming producers film will put his movie career back on track.

Obviously this film now looks horrendously dated what with it's huge box style PCs which now look like they've escaped from an old Dr Who set.

What holds this film together is the genuine tension as David Lightman (Broderick) slowly begins to realise that his "harmless" game-playing could possibly result in the death of millions.

It opens with a great suspense filled scene as two government operatives are faced with the task of releasing rockets under the knowledge that the US is under attack. Of course it's just a drill but this peek behind the curtain of the military adds weight to the event that follow.

As David and Jennifer (Sheedy) start to realise that there's no going back from the computer program they've set in motion, they try to hunt down the creator, Dr. Stephen Falken.

John Wood plays the Falken character brilliantly adding just the right amount of eccentric genius with a shady past to his mysterious character. The program itself becomes another character in the movie, called Joshua and spookily named after the creator's dead child, its monotone voice taunts our heroes as they face impending doom.

In an interesting side-note it appears that the mass prefix diallers used in the movie are now called WarDiallers in homage to the film. It's influence on bedroom hackers everywhere has spread far and wide.

WarGames then is a little cheesy and has some fairly horrible music, but it still retains the power of suspense. For 80's nostalgia reasons and a thanks to a truly satisfying ending (surely the moment when a lesser movie would have slipped up) this deserves a viewing.