NetForce (1999) (TV)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

Robert Lieberman

Writers (WGA):

Tom Clancy (story) &
Steve Pieczenik (story) ...

Release Date:

1 February 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

The One Who Controls The Internet Controls The World.

Plot:

Set in the year 2005, a division of the FBI, called "NetForce" has been initiated to investigate Internet crime...

Plot Keywords:

Two Part TV Movie | Lasersight

Awards:

Nominated for Primetime Emmy. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Scott Bakula	...	Alex Michaels
Joanna Going	...	Toni Fiorelli
Xander Berkeley	...	Bo Tyler
Brian Dennehy	...	Lowell Davidson
Kris Kristofferson	...	Steve Day
CCH Pounder	...	Sandra Knight
Judge Reinhold	...	Will Stiles
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa	...	Leong Cheng
Chelsea Field	...	Megan Michaels
Sterling Macer Jr.	...	Col. John Howard
Paul Hewitt	...	Jay Gridley
Frank Vincent
Sam Anderson	...	Fox
Alexa Vega	...	Susan 'Susie' Michaels
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jennifer Rebecca Bailey	...	Virtual Prostitute
Gemma Barry	...	Carla
Edward M. Beckford Jr.	...	Cpt. Dan Brown
Suzanne Carney	...	Theresa
Gil Cates Jr.	...	Larry
Todd Cattell	...	Marty
Rodney Choice	...	Guard #2
Holly Karrol Clark	...	Futuristic Brothel Girl (as Holly Karrol)
Odile Corso	...	The Selkie (as Odile Broulard)
Tony Cosby	...	Monroe Washington
Joey Dente	...	2nd Heavy
Tony Devon	...	White House Guard Jansen
Lynn Filusch	...	Mary Jo Tripp
Richard Fullerton	...	Jerry Plumber
Rhoda Gemignani	...	Momma
Kevin Grantz	...	Guard #1
Carl Jackson	...	Cabbie
David S. Jung	...	Supporting (as David Jung)
Adam Kassen	...	Carl Besser
Brent Keast	...	Doctor
Scott King	...	Mob Soldier
Harry Kollatz Jr.	...	Lionel Lebeaux
Lance Lewman	...	Operator, Prison
James Luca McBride	...	1st Heavy (as James McBride)
Hugh Nees	...	Nicholas Springer
Ingo Neuhaus	...	Gunny
Anjul Nigam	...	Uday Shankar
Jonathan Orcutt	...	Dan Smenkowski
Victor Raider-Wexler	...	Moe Panzer
Dale Raoul	...	Judge Peters
Edwin A. Santos	...	Court Reporter #1
Wayne Edward Sherwood	...	Fat Lout
Meredith Strange-Boston	...	Nurse
Rick Warner	...	Mark Johanson
Sam Wells	...	Dr. Ulee
Beth Wishnie	...	Second Operator

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence

Runtime:

France:154 min | USA:200 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:15 | Netherlands:12 | Finland:K-12 | Iceland:12 | Greece:K-13 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Colonial Heights, Virginia, USA

Company:

Cates/Doty Productions

Quotes:

Jay Gridley: Good morning Vietnam!

Movie Connections:

References Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)

The Facts.

Made for television movies can never escape the feeling they we're made for television even if they go to the trouble of sticking it in a glossy video box trying their best to mold it as a stand alone product it usually doesn't work. Once your start watching it'll be there -- the taste, the sight and the scent. Ah it's a made for television movie. Now Tom Clancy's Netforce was originally a two part television movie... how little did I know. In fact it's all still somewhat a wash to me. Let me break it down for you.

Flash forward to 2005 when the internet has become so powerful and potentially dangerous that the US government sets up a division within the FBI entitled "Netforce" to preside and protect over it from the evil people of the world who look to exploit it for their corrupt plans. Personally I seriously disbelieve the internet holds the future of the world in it's hands, but that doesn't matter because even if it did, the people at Netforce couldn't protect it if they had to.

Upon meeting the major characters we realize they're roles we've all seen before. Like the tough male main character who's strong and dresses well. The rest of the cast fit typical molds as you can guess. I especially liked how a certain character's ex-wife is a news reporter who at one point becomes a key piece in the story. Everyone is so linked together. Realistic? No. Then again none of the characters have any real in-depth characterization. They're just names and faces.

Making things worse... outside of the main players there's just way too many needless minor secondary characters being thrown around. They add very little if nothing to the story except padding and viewer confusion. It gets hard remembering twenty characters throughout a two and a 1/2 hour movie. Which further shows the weak structure of the story's narrative when the movie spends too much time on them. I want to give the movie credit for trying an attempt at making us care about those insignificant minor characters too, but it even fails at that. We know they'll get whacked sooner or later.

Sticking with the cast... I expected more from such an acting ensemble. Scott Bakula gets to look smart in suit -- the key word being "look". This project could have benefited from someone with more clout than Bakula. He's sufficient, but that's about it. Meanwhile Kris Kristofferson gets the cliché elder role and good 'ol Brian Dennehy has been given the plum role as the President's Chief Of Staff. That means him popping up occasionally spewing 'How his ass is on the line' or 'the President's p***ed at him'. OK... so good actors sometimes appear in bad movies and even good actors can't save a bad script. That's a fact. What really bothers me is this product had Tom Clancy's name written all over it yet it isn't anywhere near the quality of his past outings like "Patriot Games" or "Clear and Present Danger". It's a real disservice. Some of the blame has to fall straight into the writer's lap too. I say this because I find it hard to see this as an adaptation project that started well. It was bad from the get-go. The story stinks. It's like amateur hour. Especially considering how much they squeeze into too little of a time frame. Would more time have had helped? I'm hesitant to say. Even with over two hours they still came back with this slop. Frankly 160 minutes is a long time. It's length is precisely what leads to it's failing because there isn't enough depth to sustain a person's interest or the holding of disbelief for such an amount of time. With no real depth behind the characters and a long, boring and downright confusing story, it all becomes just scenes connected together because people that we're in the last scene are in the next.

It can't even take itself seriously. Like Judge Reinhold playing the 'evil multi-billion dollar software tycoon looking to control the world' role or how unrealistic and corny it is to have FBI agents point loaded weapons in the faces of innocent cabdrivers. It's things like these that help to make Netforce such a bore. There's absolutely no atmosphere here. Honestly for a film dealing so heavily with computers and the internet, they sure went skimpy enough on the technical aspects too. I guess they didn't want to lose their biggest viewing demographic... computer inept coach potatoes and patriotic Tom Clancy fans.

For the movie it's trying to be there is very little (if any) paranoia, suspense or "edge of your seat excitement" as so called critics would say. I don't know what you'd classify this movie. Definitely not action, nowheres near a thriller, so where does that leave us? Drama, maybe? I don't know. Drama's tend to draw upon a variety of emotions from viewers. This one draws nothing but boredom and in the land of movies that's not exactly new territory.

Last thing too. A golden rule of movies. If they don't find a body 95% of the time that's a clear signal the person ain't dead. That's a fact.