Tunneling underground into security computers

Rating: 9/10 (6 July 2007)

One by one they creep up and will soon reach some magic number, though 13 is already interesting but more on the side of witchcraft than magic. The idea is always the same: to make a break-in or a burglary that is by principle impossible. In this case the impossibility is some extremely sophisticated digitalized security system protecting a casino in Las Vegas. How can a bunch of burglars manage to enter the system and pervert it in order to get even with the boss of that casino who was not honest with a partner that he forced into bankruptcy and retirement, with a good heart attack along with it. The vengeance is absolutely savage and wild. And that is absolutely brilliant, though of course impossible. The plot is just tinkering about to get to the target and objective and that is all. No real logic, no real meaning, no real believability. The more far-fetched, the better. And more than far-fetched it is at times. And yet here and there, there is a punch-line or a remark that is tilting the scales towards some meaningfulness, like the strike in Mexico for a 3.5 dollar rise a week, but it is evanescent and quick, like a good big wink at the audience, if they are not too far gone away in their intellectual slumber. So the vengeance is of course consumed and reached totally. The bad casino boss is pushed down the stairs, loses five hundred millions and three or four sets of two hundred and fifty million dollar each diamond necklaces. All together he must have lost in about ten minutes something like 1.5 billion dollars. Funny but where is the moral of the story? The editing and the plot are a little bit slow and the film seems to be slightly sluggish at times. Apart from that it is pleasant entertainment.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne