Skip to main content

Maybe a Matthew Broderick Throwback Series?

By graphics_girl
Last Friday night while scanning Netflix for a throwback from my list to rewatch, I found a great 80s classic with Matthew Broderick. BEFORE his memorable role as Ferris Bueller, he starred as a computer genius named David in War Games.


War Games takes place in the 80s during the Cold War. After a failed launch exercise (featuring Mr. Blonde, Michael Madsen) the US government is convinced that they should give control of the nuclear program to a computer. That is, until it's hacked by a high school kid. When David (Broderick) successfully accesses this super-computer, he's trying to get into the computer of a software company to play their latest game before it's released. He unknowingly begins a showdown between the US and Russia that could lead to World War III if he doesn't help stop it. 

 I am not going to go into what happens....just in case you haven't seen it or it's been a while for you. (I'd like to know what you guys think....in the future do you want a lot of the details or just a quick overview? I'm torn.)

 I was bit surprised that I still liked this movie after all these years...and my boys really enjoyed it too! I honestly thought they'd be bored by the old tech. If you watch this, do yourself a favor and skip the opening AND closing credits. The music is really painful.

 My favorite things???

  • David playing Galaga at the beginning (I loved that game!) his dial up connection, 5 inch floppy disk and dot matrix printer...brother, remember our computer class at Kent when we were kids?! Oh, back in the day.
  • You need to hack a pay phone? Find a pop tab! Have neither? Hope you have a cellphone!
  • And, Ally Sheedy's leg warmers. Yes, I forgot to mention that Ally Sheedy is also in this movie.


 Memorable lines from the movie? 
My favorites were given to the computer. "Would you like to play a game?" And "Strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?" And finally, "Mr. McKittrick, after very careful consideration sir, I've come to the conclusion that your new defense system sucks."

 Overall, Friday was a pretty fun night.
-Graphics Girl

 Don't forget to let us know in the comments if you'd rather have more detail in these summaries or you want to avoid the spoilers in case it's been a while for you.

Comments

  1. @AGeekCalledBobNovember 21, 2013 at 9:33 AM

    Back then, Hacking involved logic, brute force password breakers and random number dialers. Now it's someone leaving their facebook page logged in. How did I get in this handbasket.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Avengers

By graphics_girl
This week's Throwback doesn't go back all that far. It takes us to the days when Avengers was filming in Cleveland. My sister was fortunate to spot Joss Whedon downtown one day, and shortly thereafter, we decided to head to Cleveland to see what we could see.   Most of the filming didn't start until evening, so we got there around 7 or 8pm. Everything was blocked off and there were so many people standing around trying to catch a glimpse of someone famous. Thankfully, most of those people weren't in it for the long haul. Graphics Girl and I ended up sitting there until everyone else had gone and all the drunkards came stumbling out of all the local bars. It was so much fun to see everything happening. We were watching the filming of everything happening outside of the opera house and biergarten. We were able to see a bit of Chris Evans (who was under heavy guard and had to wear a big cape until he was actually shooting), and LOTS of Tom Hiddleston and his body doub...
3 comments
Read more

Thundercats, HOOOOOOO!

By
I miss Thundercats. That was a quality Saturday morning cartoon. It ran from 1985-1989. Yes, that hit me at ages 1-5, but I enjoyed watching it then and reruns later on. My brother had some pretty sweet Lion-o and Snarf figurines. The occupants of Thundera evacuate before the planet and all but one of the escape ships were destroyed. The Thundercats were all that remained and they set a course for Third Earth where they crash. With the help of his "Sword of Omens", Lion-o gives the Thundercats a chance against Mumm-Ra and the evil mutants. This cartoon was so freaking cool that it has been referenced in all sorts of pop culture avenues. The Band Reliant K has a song called I'm Lion-o , which is such a fun song to jam to. If you were a fan of Homestar Runner and Strong Bad Emails, Thundercats is referenced in Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 5: 8 Bit Is Enough . The series was rebooted in 2011 and was a combination of anime and western ani...
Post a Comment
Read more

Heroes in a Half Shell

By graphics_girl
A couple weeks ago, before stuff started showing up on the internet about the new Michael Bay movie, I decided to watch the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie with my boys. So, here's the jist of the story. Four tiny turtles begin a huge transformation after coming in contact with a mysterious green ooze. A rat who was once the pet of a great ninja master "adopts" them and teaches them the way of the ninja. While the turtles are studying in the sewers, there is a crime wave blanketing the city above. Robberies are on the rise and TV reporter April O'Neil finds herself a one of the latest victims. Unexpectedly, the streetlamp goes out....and when it goes back on, she's sitting next to a tied up pile of her attackers! Leave it to a reporter to get to the bottom of the story! April finds that behind this crime ring is the Foot Clan, led by the evil Shredder and he's not happy that she's onto him and he sends his henchmen to take care of ...
Post a Comment
Read more