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1 article from 2008

29 July 2008 9:03 PM, PDT | From avclub.com | See recent The AV Club news

In the opening scene of the 1983 blockbuster WarGames, two missile commanders (played by Michael Madsen and John Spencer!) receive an order to launch a nuclear attack, and one almost kills the other in a dispute over how to proceed. Those kind of "what if" scenarios were rampant in the Cold War era, and if WarGames were exclusively about nuclear paranoia, it would be an amusing nostalgia piece, quaintly reminding us of what we used to worry about. But WarGames is also about issues that still resonate, like Internet security, authoritarian arrogance, and coming of age. Director John Badham (taking over for Martin Brest, who was canned shortly after shooting began) brings a light touch to Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes' tense, well-structured script, by keeping the action focused on what matters most to the audience. Matthew Broderick plays a high-school computer geek—the prototypical model—who accidentally hacks into.

Noel Murray

1 article from 2008