A review by Brooks Rich
Man do I love this movie. I should have covered this one for Forgotten Film Friday in the blog's first year. Sneakers is a endlessly entertaining film with one of the most insane casts every assembled. The cast include such legends as Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Sidney Poitier, David Strathairn, River Phoenix, and Ben Kingsley. The film plays like a techno thriller but has a tinge of old political espionage films of the '70s, ironically like Three Days of the Condor, which stars Redford. We don't get movies like this anymore and there's a sort of tragedy to that.
Redford plays Martin, who leads a team of misfits who are hired by companies to break into their buildings to find faults in security. They are hired by two men from the NSA to steal a "black box" from a quirky mathematician. Well of course things don't go well and there's more than meets the eye. I am not saying anymore because I don't want to spoil a single beat of this film.
This film is just a hair above two hours but that time just flies by. It's such a fun watch. Redford is one of Hollywood's last true stars and in this he is at the top of his game. Redford always brings a likability to any role and Sneakers is no different. Martin is a great protagonist and Redford is clearly having fun with him. The whole cast seems to be having fun and I believe that these people are friends and co-workers. A film about a team pulling off a heist doesn't work if we don't like their interactions with each other.
The director of this film is Phil Alden Robinson, a fascinating director. He is best known for Field of Dreams, even though I think Sneakers is his best movie. After he directed Sneakers, he didn't make another film until 2002 with the decent but forgettable The Sum of All Fears. That's the Jack Ryan film with Ben Affleck. Robinson's only other films are In the Mood in 1987 and The Angriest Man in Brooklyn, starring the immortal Robin Williams, in 2014. For someone who doesn't work steadily, Robinson has a fantastic lost gem of the '90s in Sneakers.
For a film that is mostly forgotten, it has achieved a sort of cult status. People in the know smile and nod knowingly to the words, "setec astronomy", a main plot point in the film. The film was an early example of viral marketing, with pins and other swag being passed around comic conventions. I adore this film and hope more people seek it out.
Man do I love this movie. I should have covered this one for Forgotten Film Friday in the blog's first year. Sneakers is a endlessly entertaining film with one of the most insane casts every assembled. The cast include such legends as Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Sidney Poitier, David Strathairn, River Phoenix, and Ben Kingsley. The film plays like a techno thriller but has a tinge of old political espionage films of the '70s, ironically like Three Days of the Condor, which stars Redford. We don't get movies like this anymore and there's a sort of tragedy to that.
Redford plays Martin, who leads a team of misfits who are hired by companies to break into their buildings to find faults in security. They are hired by two men from the NSA to steal a "black box" from a quirky mathematician. Well of course things don't go well and there's more than meets the eye. I am not saying anymore because I don't want to spoil a single beat of this film.
This film is just a hair above two hours but that time just flies by. It's such a fun watch. Redford is one of Hollywood's last true stars and in this he is at the top of his game. Redford always brings a likability to any role and Sneakers is no different. Martin is a great protagonist and Redford is clearly having fun with him. The whole cast seems to be having fun and I believe that these people are friends and co-workers. A film about a team pulling off a heist doesn't work if we don't like their interactions with each other.
The director of this film is Phil Alden Robinson, a fascinating director. He is best known for Field of Dreams, even though I think Sneakers is his best movie. After he directed Sneakers, he didn't make another film until 2002 with the decent but forgettable The Sum of All Fears. That's the Jack Ryan film with Ben Affleck. Robinson's only other films are In the Mood in 1987 and The Angriest Man in Brooklyn, starring the immortal Robin Williams, in 2014. For someone who doesn't work steadily, Robinson has a fantastic lost gem of the '90s in Sneakers.
For a film that is mostly forgotten, it has achieved a sort of cult status. People in the know smile and nod knowingly to the words, "setec astronomy", a main plot point in the film. The film was an early example of viral marketing, with pins and other swag being passed around comic conventions. I adore this film and hope more people seek it out.
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