A college prank where one got caught and sent to prison and the other didn't forms the basis for Sneakers, a stylish, but ultimately unsatisfying thriller. Sad because it's a waste of a really talented cast.
Gary Hershberger and Jo Marr area a couple of college age computer geeks from the seventies who if they had stayed on the straight and narrow might have wound up being Bill Gates and Bill Jobs. Marr got caught and Hershberger was not by dint of going out for pizza during a break-in. Marr got some serious jail time, but Hershberger became a fugitive.
Fast forward to the nineties and Hershberger has now grown up to be Robert Redford and heading a security firm under an alias. Redford employs the diverse talents of David Strathairn, Sidney Poitier, Dan Ackroyd, River Phoenix and on occasion Mary McDonnell. They break into unbreakable places and tell you what you're doing wrong.
Redford and his crew get hired or possibly a better word is drafted into working for a couple of slippery agents played by Timothy Busfield and Eddie Jones. Object is to steal a code box with a formula designed by super mathematical genius Donal Logue. In it Logue's designed a gizmo that can break ANY code.
Before long Redford and his crew are in conflict with his former college prankster now all grownup and played by Ben Kingsley. Who wouldn't want the Ultimate Codebreaker? Even I'd like to have that.
Sneakers is done with a lot of flash and style, but in the end it's all rather silly. A real waste of a good cast. You've got to catch at the very end where on a news broadcast it's said that Republican National Committee has gone broke overnight and Greenpeace is overflowing with money for its good work.
Now maybe that's Robert Redford's secret fantasy, but this isn't Never-Never Land.
Gary Hershberger and Jo Marr area a couple of college age computer geeks from the seventies who if they had stayed on the straight and narrow might have wound up being Bill Gates and Bill Jobs. Marr got caught and Hershberger was not by dint of going out for pizza during a break-in. Marr got some serious jail time, but Hershberger became a fugitive.
Fast forward to the nineties and Hershberger has now grown up to be Robert Redford and heading a security firm under an alias. Redford employs the diverse talents of David Strathairn, Sidney Poitier, Dan Ackroyd, River Phoenix and on occasion Mary McDonnell. They break into unbreakable places and tell you what you're doing wrong.
Redford and his crew get hired or possibly a better word is drafted into working for a couple of slippery agents played by Timothy Busfield and Eddie Jones. Object is to steal a code box with a formula designed by super mathematical genius Donal Logue. In it Logue's designed a gizmo that can break ANY code.
Before long Redford and his crew are in conflict with his former college prankster now all grownup and played by Ben Kingsley. Who wouldn't want the Ultimate Codebreaker? Even I'd like to have that.
Sneakers is done with a lot of flash and style, but in the end it's all rather silly. A real waste of a good cast. You've got to catch at the very end where on a news broadcast it's said that Republican National Committee has gone broke overnight and Greenpeace is overflowing with money for its good work.
Now maybe that's Robert Redford's secret fantasy, but this isn't Never-Never Land.