Skip to main content

Maybe a Matthew Broderick Throwback Series?

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. 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

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...

Merry Sithmas

Hello, friends! By now, you're probably winding down from a day of chaos. I hope you've all been able to unwrap some BG approved gifts, watch your Christmas movies of choice (Lethal Weapon, Elf), and bawl your face of at the Doctor Who special. We hope that all of you had a lovely holiday, whatever you celebrate. We send our warmest greetings to all of you and hope that everyone is having a happy and healthy holiday season. Thank you for being a part of our extended geek family! Please come back tomorrow for a fun "new" Throwback. ~Songbird and Graphics Girl

It's a Bird, It's a Plane!

Nope, this week's Throwback is Superman!  The score by John Williams is is absolutely wonderful. The way he creates music to evoke certain emotions is sheer brilliance. Just hearing the theme makes you want to go do something heroic and prance around in underwear and a cape. In the beginning we see Jor-El, Superman's father, (Marlon Brando) trying to convince the council that Krypton is in danger, but they refuse to listen. Of course, Jor-El was correct and he and his wife sent their son Kal-El away before the planet was destroyed. What brave parents to send their child away. Kal-El grows and learns as he travels to Earth. He lands in Kansas and an older couple finds him crawling out of a crater and decides to raise him. I love the way this naked child just put his arms up and is like, "What's up, folks?!  I'm here...and I'm NEKKID!!" (Random sidenote: Does anyone else think that the pod they put Kal-El in looked remarkably like the Racnoss ship from...