Blackhat

There were only four people in the large theater at a multiplex in Bellevue, Washington. This means that the critics and ticket-buying public have declared this movie to be a total bust.

Director Michael Mann ("Public Enemies"), working from a script by Morgan Davis Foehl (in his first time out as a writer) delivered a perfectly acceptable, though emotionally distant, hacker film. My companion and I, both fans of the star, were quite happy with it, thank you very much and enjoyed the constant super-close ups of the appealing stars. We did NOT appreciate the jiggly hand-held camera work nor the unnecessarily long sequences of imaginary data swiftly moving through imaginary systems.

Let's talk about the cast:

• Chris Hemsworth ("Thor") is Nick, a felon furloughed on the condition that he help discover the Blackhat (evil computer expert) who caused a nuclear power plant meltdown in China. He's on screen most of the time.
• Leehom Wang ("Forever Young") is Dawai, the Chinese law enforcement official charged with finding and prosecuting the criminal. He went to MIT with Nick and he recognizes the code used by the vandal as one they wrote while roommates in college. He gets Nick out of jail. This actor is just as handsome and appealing as Hemsworth!
• Viola Davis ("How to Get Away With Murder") is Carol, charged with the responsibility to protect the United States' diplomatic ties with China. She knows her way around interdepartmental rivalries at the Federal level and doesn't hesitate to apply pressure.
• Wei Tang ("The Golden Era") Lein is Daway's sister, a computer expert in her own right. He needs her expertise, and in very short order Nick needs her, too
• Holt McCallany ("Blue Bloods") Mark surprised me. His character has the responsibility to monitor the felon and make sure his ankle bracelet stays put; he didn't become the antagonistic FBI monitor we have come to expect, but instead was able to see the larger picture and react accordingly.
• Richie Coster ("By the Gun") Elias proved once again, that a drama has no depth unless you have an evil villain. He is an evil villain!

This has more than its share of running gun battles and typing on computer consoles (I can't even remember MY password; how do they get into these strange ones so fast?). The UNIX codes were all over the screen, my late son David would have enjoyed THAT! Some of the dialogue was hard to decipher but I had a closed-caption device, so it didn't bother me.

This is R-rated for violence (no nudity or sweaty bodies) and due to unfortunate timing and so-so reviews, has just barely escaped a Direct-to-Video fate. I'm not optimistic...

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Take a look at the preview:
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1590799897
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