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Net: Special Edition, The
Columbia/Tri-Star // PG-13 // April 2, 2002
List Price: $24.95 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Net was an early DVD release for Columbia/Tristar Home Video, and apparently that disc sold well enough to warrant revisiting. A special edition boasting a new widescreen transfer and a healthy assortment of supplemental material is slated for release on April 2nd.
America's sweetheart herself (giggles) Sandra Bullock stars as Angela Bennett, a software analyst that is such an agoraphobe that she telecommutes to work and orders her meals over the Internet. A co-worker Fedexes Angela a disk containing a problematic EPK for a band name Mozart's Ghost. In it, he explains to her over the phone, is a pi symbol in the corner of the screen. That symbol, when clicked on while holding down a couple of keys, opens a backdoor to the networks of influential companies and organizations. Angela is somewhat disinterested in all of this, as she's preparing to take her first vacation in six years. Cozumel doesn't turn out to be much of a paradise though, after her purse is snatched and a prospective love interest tries to knock her off in the middle of the ocean. A couple of quirky computer hiccups delay her return to the 'States, and when Angela finally does return home, she learns that all of her belongings have been removed and that her house is up for sale. The vast conspiracy hunting her and the Mozart's Ghost disk down has stripped away every trace of her existence, replacing it with the spotty criminal record of someone named Ruth Marx. Angela, with no one to turn to, is forced to fight for her life in every sense of the word.
The Net is a decidedly average thriller, and only Sandra Bullock sets this movie apart from the thousands of others with a similar premise. Though suspension of disbelief is required to believe that a shut-in hacker could have a figure like that, Bullock is very likeable and carries the film well. If not for her presence, The Net wouldn't have been nearly as successful, and that's considering that this is a movie I'm not particularly fond of to begin with. The basic premise of a woman with no identity fighting against such a large conspiracy is moderately interesting, as is the idea that an organization would break into computers and then sell those companies their 'gatekeeper' software to lull them into a false sense of security. It's a shame that after the first hour, The Net devolves into a paint-by-numbers thriller that consists of scarcely anything other than Angela running from people with guns. The Net, despite having many millions of dollars at its disposal, left me unable to shake the feeling that I'm watching something produced for basic cable. All of the clichés are there, including a fairgrounds chase, escaping a nasty situation by dressing up in a uniform seized in a way that is left wholly unexplained, and an overreliance on television news for helpful exposition.
Unless I'm sleeping or watching DVDs, I'm in front of a computer. Admittedly, The Net was conceived in 1993 and film in the dawn of 1995, a time when 'the Internet' was something most people had heard about in the media but hadn't used directly. As a result, its technical inaccuracies may not have been as glaring then as they are now. The Net takes place in the typical movie world where every character typed takes up an eighth of the screen, and it's inconceivable that multiple windows could be open at any given time on a single computer. Yes, viruses can function on vastly different operating systems, and their effects are shown by dissolving screens one by one in a thoroughly photogenic fashion. Running a traceroute on an IP address is a graphically intensive process, with red lines drawn through each hops (including subnets in the high 300s) and culminating in the display of a picture of the user on the other end. When Angela runs telnet at what is ostensibly the command line, a new web browser session is spawned. At one point, she's typing in a password that appears first in plain text before morphing into an array of dots. This may be forgivable for those who don't know any better, and maybe I'm being unnecessarily hard on the movie in this respect, but...whatever.
The Net strives to join the ranks of large-scale '70s thrillers, but that brass ring remains sorely out of reach. As a Sunday afternoon diversion, The Net may satisfy, but this isn't the sort of multifaceted film where repeat viewings reveal clues that previously went unseen.
Video: The Net was previously released on an anamorphic widescreen DVD from Columbia/Tristar in 1998. I'm uncertain if there are any discernable differences between that release and this new special edition, which has 'new widescreen transfer' emblazoned on the cover in big, bold letters. This disc is also presented at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is enhanced for widescreen televisions. The presentation falls squarely into the "good, but not great" bin, though there are no massive flaws or anything along those lines that should have prospective viewers steering clear. Contrast and clarity are both reasonably strong, and the fairly vibrant colors appear to be accurately represented. Only a handful of flecks were visible, and only a few of those were particularly noticeable. The biggest drawback is the presence of light film grain, which buzzes about in quite a number of scenes. Though this presentation of The Net isn't likely to unseat anyone's reference quality DVD of choice, I'd imagine that most will be satisfied by the overall quality.
Audio: Without a direct point of comparison, I'm unsure how the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio on this release stacks up to that of the 1998 DVD. The mix is very front heavy, and even in the movie's more action-oriented scenes, the use of surrounds is somewhat subtle. Rears remain fairly quiet throughout, very rarely drawing attention to themselves. Dialogue sounds natural and never appeared to be buried under other elements of the mix, remaining consistently discernable throughout. Similarly respectable is bass response, and though the low-end growl from the subwoofer isn't present for much of the duration, the LFE packs a considerable punch when given the opportunity. This isn't as aggressive or bombastic a mix as I would expect from this sort of movie, but it's more than adequate.
The Net can also be viewed in French, Spanish, and Porteguese, with the usual slew of subtitles and English closed captioning.
Supplements: Just how 'special' this special edition re-release of The Net will be depend largely on viewers' interest in commentary tracks, as the pair of commentaries are the most notable extras.
The writers' commentary includes Michael Ferris and John D. Brancato (who'd worked together on The Game and the upcoming Terminator III, among others), who delve into the differences between drafts, the screenplay versus what appears on screen, and the portions written by others afterwards. Ferris and Brancato are laid back and seem to be enjoying themselves, but there are very lengthy gaps of dead silence as they fall into the trap of watching the movie instead of talking about it. Among the highlights are notes about the origins of the screenplay as a flick about résumé tampering, how a main character was originally killed off in the first act, how earlier drafts better explained the contrivance of no one being able to vouch for Angela's identity, how the villain was intended to remain faceless, as well as the film's Hitchcockian inspirations.
The commentary with producer Rob Cowan and director Irwin Winkler (also frequent collaborators, including such movie as Life As A House and At First Sight) isn't nearly as interesting. Though they are much more talkative than the writers, this track is excruciatingly dull, with much of it merely reiterating what's happening in the movie. Generally in my reviews, I try to rattle off a few of the more interesting bits of information that are tossed out, but little stands out in my mind. There are comments on Sandra Bullock's proficiency with computers, the difficulty in finding someone to create the graphics in this early stage of the World Wide Web, and their courting of Bill Gates to play computer mogul Jeff Gregg.
There are also two featurettes, each running around twenty minutes. One is an HBO special of the 'First Look' variety, serving more as a promotional piece than anything that'll offer much of interest to those who have already plunked down the cash for the movie. The appropriately titled 'The Net: From Script To Screen', a more recent production, examines the process of bringing together the concepts and cast that make up the movie. It seems a little redundant after listening to both commentaries, and my eyes had sort of glazed over by this point in the disc.
Rounding out the supplements on the DVD are cast/crew bios and a trailer gallery. A decent set of liner notes is included in the insert.
Conclusion: Though its many inaccuracies will leave pretty much anyone with the slightest technological savvy wincing (a group that would, I'd imagine, include most people who seek out DVD reviews online), The Net is a decent, if rather unremarkable, thriller. A quick peek at reviews for the earlier release seems to be largely positive. The additional extras don't warrant a repurchase for those who own the original release. Though the loss leaders may price this DVD at a very attractive level on April 2nd, The Net is not a title that would seem to offer significant replay value and is probably best suited to a rental.
America's sweetheart herself (giggles) Sandra Bullock stars as Angela Bennett, a software analyst that is such an agoraphobe that she telecommutes to work and orders her meals over the Internet. A co-worker Fedexes Angela a disk containing a problematic EPK for a band name Mozart's Ghost. In it, he explains to her over the phone, is a pi symbol in the corner of the screen. That symbol, when clicked on while holding down a couple of keys, opens a backdoor to the networks of influential companies and organizations. Angela is somewhat disinterested in all of this, as she's preparing to take her first vacation in six years. Cozumel doesn't turn out to be much of a paradise though, after her purse is snatched and a prospective love interest tries to knock her off in the middle of the ocean. A couple of quirky computer hiccups delay her return to the 'States, and when Angela finally does return home, she learns that all of her belongings have been removed and that her house is up for sale. The vast conspiracy hunting her and the Mozart's Ghost disk down has stripped away every trace of her existence, replacing it with the spotty criminal record of someone named Ruth Marx. Angela, with no one to turn to, is forced to fight for her life in every sense of the word.
The Net is a decidedly average thriller, and only Sandra Bullock sets this movie apart from the thousands of others with a similar premise. Though suspension of disbelief is required to believe that a shut-in hacker could have a figure like that, Bullock is very likeable and carries the film well. If not for her presence, The Net wouldn't have been nearly as successful, and that's considering that this is a movie I'm not particularly fond of to begin with. The basic premise of a woman with no identity fighting against such a large conspiracy is moderately interesting, as is the idea that an organization would break into computers and then sell those companies their 'gatekeeper' software to lull them into a false sense of security. It's a shame that after the first hour, The Net devolves into a paint-by-numbers thriller that consists of scarcely anything other than Angela running from people with guns. The Net, despite having many millions of dollars at its disposal, left me unable to shake the feeling that I'm watching something produced for basic cable. All of the clichés are there, including a fairgrounds chase, escaping a nasty situation by dressing up in a uniform seized in a way that is left wholly unexplained, and an overreliance on television news for helpful exposition.
Unless I'm sleeping or watching DVDs, I'm in front of a computer. Admittedly, The Net was conceived in 1993 and film in the dawn of 1995, a time when 'the Internet' was something most people had heard about in the media but hadn't used directly. As a result, its technical inaccuracies may not have been as glaring then as they are now. The Net takes place in the typical movie world where every character typed takes up an eighth of the screen, and it's inconceivable that multiple windows could be open at any given time on a single computer. Yes, viruses can function on vastly different operating systems, and their effects are shown by dissolving screens one by one in a thoroughly photogenic fashion. Running a traceroute on an IP address is a graphically intensive process, with red lines drawn through each hops (including subnets in the high 300s) and culminating in the display of a picture of the user on the other end. When Angela runs telnet at what is ostensibly the command line, a new web browser session is spawned. At one point, she's typing in a password that appears first in plain text before morphing into an array of dots. This may be forgivable for those who don't know any better, and maybe I'm being unnecessarily hard on the movie in this respect, but...whatever.
The Net strives to join the ranks of large-scale '70s thrillers, but that brass ring remains sorely out of reach. As a Sunday afternoon diversion, The Net may satisfy, but this isn't the sort of multifaceted film where repeat viewings reveal clues that previously went unseen.
Video: The Net was previously released on an anamorphic widescreen DVD from Columbia/Tristar in 1998. I'm uncertain if there are any discernable differences between that release and this new special edition, which has 'new widescreen transfer' emblazoned on the cover in big, bold letters. This disc is also presented at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is enhanced for widescreen televisions. The presentation falls squarely into the "good, but not great" bin, though there are no massive flaws or anything along those lines that should have prospective viewers steering clear. Contrast and clarity are both reasonably strong, and the fairly vibrant colors appear to be accurately represented. Only a handful of flecks were visible, and only a few of those were particularly noticeable. The biggest drawback is the presence of light film grain, which buzzes about in quite a number of scenes. Though this presentation of The Net isn't likely to unseat anyone's reference quality DVD of choice, I'd imagine that most will be satisfied by the overall quality.
Audio: Without a direct point of comparison, I'm unsure how the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio on this release stacks up to that of the 1998 DVD. The mix is very front heavy, and even in the movie's more action-oriented scenes, the use of surrounds is somewhat subtle. Rears remain fairly quiet throughout, very rarely drawing attention to themselves. Dialogue sounds natural and never appeared to be buried under other elements of the mix, remaining consistently discernable throughout. Similarly respectable is bass response, and though the low-end growl from the subwoofer isn't present for much of the duration, the LFE packs a considerable punch when given the opportunity. This isn't as aggressive or bombastic a mix as I would expect from this sort of movie, but it's more than adequate.
The Net can also be viewed in French, Spanish, and Porteguese, with the usual slew of subtitles and English closed captioning.
Supplements: Just how 'special' this special edition re-release of The Net will be depend largely on viewers' interest in commentary tracks, as the pair of commentaries are the most notable extras.
The writers' commentary includes Michael Ferris and John D. Brancato (who'd worked together on The Game and the upcoming Terminator III, among others), who delve into the differences between drafts, the screenplay versus what appears on screen, and the portions written by others afterwards. Ferris and Brancato are laid back and seem to be enjoying themselves, but there are very lengthy gaps of dead silence as they fall into the trap of watching the movie instead of talking about it. Among the highlights are notes about the origins of the screenplay as a flick about résumé tampering, how a main character was originally killed off in the first act, how earlier drafts better explained the contrivance of no one being able to vouch for Angela's identity, how the villain was intended to remain faceless, as well as the film's Hitchcockian inspirations.
The commentary with producer Rob Cowan and director Irwin Winkler (also frequent collaborators, including such movie as Life As A House and At First Sight) isn't nearly as interesting. Though they are much more talkative than the writers, this track is excruciatingly dull, with much of it merely reiterating what's happening in the movie. Generally in my reviews, I try to rattle off a few of the more interesting bits of information that are tossed out, but little stands out in my mind. There are comments on Sandra Bullock's proficiency with computers, the difficulty in finding someone to create the graphics in this early stage of the World Wide Web, and their courting of Bill Gates to play computer mogul Jeff Gregg.
There are also two featurettes, each running around twenty minutes. One is an HBO special of the 'First Look' variety, serving more as a promotional piece than anything that'll offer much of interest to those who have already plunked down the cash for the movie. The appropriately titled 'The Net: From Script To Screen', a more recent production, examines the process of bringing together the concepts and cast that make up the movie. It seems a little redundant after listening to both commentaries, and my eyes had sort of glazed over by this point in the disc.
Rounding out the supplements on the DVD are cast/crew bios and a trailer gallery. A decent set of liner notes is included in the insert.
Conclusion: Though its many inaccuracies will leave pretty much anyone with the slightest technological savvy wincing (a group that would, I'd imagine, include most people who seek out DVD reviews online), The Net is a decent, if rather unremarkable, thriller. A quick peek at reviews for the earlier release seems to be largely positive. The additional extras don't warrant a repurchase for those who own the original release. Though the loss leaders may price this DVD at a very attractive level on April 2nd, The Net is not a title that would seem to offer significant replay value and is probably best suited to a rental.
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