![[box cover]](../../reviewimgs/a/antitrust.jpg)
Antitrust
Techno-babble in movies rubs everyone the wrong way — for those who know something about advanced technologies, such films often sound like the scenarist looked in a manual and picked words at random; for those who aren't as savvy, it just sounds like gobbledygook. So pass the alluvial dampers and hydrospanners, because we've got a winner on our hands — Antitrust takes HTML coding and open-source software to the limit. Milo Hoffman (Ryan Phillippe) is a computer programmer with seven-minute abs. He's hired by a software mogul Gary Winston (Tim Robbins) to work on a worldwide network, but Milo smells something fishy when other programmers start mysteriously dying. What's more, one of those programmers was a friend, and when that friend's work shows up in the hands of Winston, Milo figures it's time to settle the score. The only problem is knowing who to trust — the cute girl in the office (Rachel Leigh Cook)? The cop (Richard Roundtree)? His own girlfriend (Claire Forlani)? Though a great film probably could be made about the dot-com revolution, Antitrust is nothing more than a standard Hollywood thriller that offers its viewers nothing interesting about real computer programmers, instead following the thriller formula so exactly that the elements that should make it exciting and fresh (the Internet, technology) are exactly what derails it (how exciting is it to watch people type and stare at computer screens?) Since "open source" is talked about but never really explained, the whole plot will seem nonsensical to the uninitiated. And since so many dot-coms have restructured or gone bankrupt, certain audience members are bound to watch the film tongue firmly in cheek. MGM's Antitrust: Special Edition offers an anamorphic transfer (2.35:1) and audio in DD 5.1. Commentary with director Peter Howitt and editor Zach Staenberg, 22-minute featurette, seven deleted scenes with commentary, music video, trailer. Keep-case.
—DSH
