Review: I.T. (2016)

[Mark R. Leeper]

I.T.
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

CAPSULE: Pierce Brosnan plays Mike Regan, a very-wealthy
entrepreneur who is about to start a new enterprise that
will make him super-wealthy. But no sooner is his new
corporation started then his efforts are hit by an
Internet hacker with seemingly unlimited cyber-powers.
Regan finds he must fight to save his business and his
family. John Moore directs a screenplay by Dan Kay and
William Wisher, Jr. What Regan's nemesis can do is
chilling enough, but it all seems fairly credible. The
film gets points for being as scary as it is plausible.
But it loses points because if you take out the software
speculations, what is left is a rather pedestrian stalker
film. I.T. pits a man played by a former James Bond
actor against a hacker. And Bond does not come off so
well as he does in the films. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4)
or 6/10

We are seeing a lot of films about people with super-powers. They
are all fictional. But there really are people with super-powers.
Their powers take the form of tech savvy. Technical expertise is a
superpower that really does exist. And what technical hackers
really can do is fairly frightening. We do not see them often in
films just because Internet hacking is not visually very exciting.
There may not be someone looking at you or your private personal
data at this instant. But there are a lot of people who could if
and when they want to. As one of the characters of I.T. observes,
privacy is over.

I.T., pronounced "eye-tea," is short for "Information Technology."
It can also refer to a person who does I.T. works with information
technology and if such a person chooses to be a hacker he/she can
find a frightening range of Internet information including personal
data. The I.T. in I.T. seems to have unlimited powers. Is all
that he does in this film possible? I do not know. Anything I
could tell you about what an I.T. can do would be hearsay and I
should not state it as fact. Is what we see in this film
plausible? It certainly seems that way to me.

I.T. is a fairly common stalker film combined with some frightening
and--yes--plausible suggestions as to what a data hacker might well
be able to do if so inclined. Pierce Brosnan plays Mike Regan,
very rich now and soon to be much richer. His new enterprise is to
create for private airplanes what Uber is to cars. His new app
will make him very, very, rich. He knows business and he knows
running companies. For his cyber connections he has a top-flight
staff to solve any technical problems he runs into. And that is
just what happens. As he is officially announcing his new company,
he has a computer failure. Up pops on of his ITs, Ed Porter
(played by James Frecheville). In seconds Ed is able to diagnose
and fix the computer problem. Mike is very impressed and invites
Ed to his high-tech home to meet his family and, incidentally, to
fix up his house's cyber-networking. Ed is happy to oblige and
fixes up the electronics all over the Regan house. At this point,
dear reader, if you cannot figure out what is coming, I hope you
enjoy the film.

Pierce Brosnan is actually an interesting choice to play Mike.
Having played Remington Steele and James Bond we see him as someone
effective at getting what he wants and he is successful at
eliminating his enemies. He is the best ... uh ... of the Old
School. Here he is matched against someone who is the best from
the new school. Ed is not very good in a physical fight. He
nonetheless has the technical power to take away his victim's
entire life in just a few hours. Which is the more powerful? It
is fairly clear that Mike is over-matched. When they are in the
same room Mike has a physical edge. But with a modest room of
equipment it is rather clear that Ed is a much more powerful force.
Ed can crash automobiles and drop planes from the sky without ever
leaving his desk chair. At least from what we see in this film it
looks like the future belongs to the hackers.

I.T. is worth seeing not for the strength of the basic story, but
for an idea of the sort of damage a technical hacker would actually
be able to do. I rate I.T. a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10.

Film Credits:
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2679552/plotsummary>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/it_2016>


Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 2016 Mark R. Leeper