'Sneakers' is not, whatever its name suggests, a movie about a pair of trainers, but a generic thriller that manages to combine an odd combination of vices: it's slick, but also slow. Eschewing the possibilities offered by the relationship between hero (played by Robert Redford) and his estranged friend (a shamefully under-used Ben Kingsley), the film takes refuge instead in empty pseudo-science and impossibly contrived operations. The result sits halfway between 'Oceans's Eleven' and 'War Games', but without the riotous entertainment of the former, or the importance of human psychology (and not just mythical technology) in the plot of the latter. A strange scene at the end is played for pure comedy, and provides a final indication that the film-makers didn't really know what they were doing here. It's not unwatchable, by any means, but certainly a waste of its A-list cast.
Review of Sneakers
