Old English (1/14/01)
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Antitrust. [Peter Howitt, 2001. Written by Howard Franklin.]
Stanford computer whizkid Ryan Phillippe, on the verge of revolutionizing communications software in company with his best friend — uh, Woz — is seduced from the path of startup righteousness by Evil Emperor Tim Robbins, who recruits him into a picturesque corporate campus/fortress in the Pacific Northwest to put the finishing touches to a global network that probably won’t end all life on Earth, but will certainly end all competition. The curious enthusiasm felt by his girlfriend Claire Forlani for this career decision — indeed, the curious fact that he has a girlfriend at all — should by itself have been cause for suspicion, but presently our hero discovers that Robbins is not simply ripping off the ideas of his competitors and then driving them out of business, but killing lone-wolf-genius programmers and tearing their bloodstained code from their cold dead fingers. Energized by a righteous paranoia, Phillippe adopts the methods of the secret agent [don’t worry, he still gets to spend a lot of time staring at a computer screen typing furiously], turns the scheme against its maker, destroys Microsoft and imprisons Gates [no, sorry, that just slipped out], and reaffirms his commitment to the Open Source movement. Thus a lament for lost geek innocence, an impassioned plea for the renunciation of the profit motive, and a reminder that Women Are Evil. I’m sure Mr. Phillippe, Messrs. Howitt and Franklin, and the executives at MGM embrace all these principles.
____________Doze doll does wiz biz (1/10/01)
