Jeremy Northam plays a corporate spy caught between two rival firms in a cyberpunk future where he's not always quite sure who he's working for, who's on his side, or even of his own identity. Lucy Liu plays a femme fatale of sorts who helps (or is she manipulating?) Northam. It's a clever twisting plot, though the film suffers some from it's limited budget and suffers more so from under developed characters, which made me less interested in what happens to them. These strengths and weaknesses were also true of writer/director Vincenzo Natali's previous film "Cube" (he also later directed the underrated "Splice"). Overall, the Byzantine plot is so clever and so much smarter than most science fiction films, it makes this film well worth checking out by sci-fi fans despite it's deficiencies.

Watched an absolutely wonderful twisty turny psych-thriller movie on Netflix called "CYPHER" even though it is 13 years old had never heard of it before and it is amazingly good. To me, it is everything the Matrix movies tried to be but weren't. To me, Cypher relies far less on CGI and more on human interaction and I am someone who looks to a movie or TV show for the acting and human interactions far more than the special effects and computer generated interfaces.If you are looking for violence and bloodshed or non stop action, you won't find it here. It starts out with us seeing a corporate schlep, named Martin Sullivan (played by Jeremy Northam), wanting to be a corporate "spy". The corporation ships him from city to city to "transmit" their competition's convention speeches, under a "new name".Buffalo is the first city and where we meet a mysterious woman named Rita Foster, (played so-so by Lucy Liu). It is here that we find things may not be what they seem.This movie was directed by Vincenzo Natali, who took us on a great journey in the original and great horror psych thriller flick "The Cube". He keeps you guessing and even while the clues lead in one direction the underlying flow is pointing towards something else. Halfway through the movie, you may guess and think you know the answer but be aware you will NOT because the clues NEVER stop until the very ending.Overall a terrific movie, the writing and direction the movie takes are amazing, the acting and chemistry could have been better especially by Lucy Liu, she does fall flat and at times stiff and others just aloof (not much character development), it could just be the way her character was written, directed or just her acting. But be assured that is just a petty critique that in no way truly harms the movie. It's a definitive 9/10 for me and a movie I could watch a few more times and probably see more to it than I did the first time.

I really liked this movie despite NOT liking Sci-Fi or Lucy Liu. This is a very interesting film, with lots of tricks involved, but Love overcoming all. Spoilers Ahead: It is where Jeremy Northam plays two very different roles: Uber Spy Sebastian Rooks, and average person, Morgan Sullivan. Rooks has himself brainwashed into believing that he is Sullivan, so he could infiltrate and steal computer software from two companies named Digicore and its rival Sunways Systems. These two companies with that software, basically can brainwash people into believing anything. His real goal was to get the power for himself, and sell it to the highest bidder. One actress that I cannot stand is Lucy Liu (except in this movie), she plays a Femme Fatale named Rita Grant, who you have no idea is out to help or hurt him (of course, you find out she is his only ally)). I like he way you see Northam go from weak businessman to much stronger person (even his face changes), as the Rooks Character starts to take over. To me, the most interesting part of the movie, was the final several minutes, where Rooks set things up to kill the Heads of Security at both Companies, and even created a program where he (as Sullivan), is supposed to "Kill Rita Grant With Extreme Prejudice." The way the movie ends is that although the Sullivan Identity shoots her, he cannot kill her, and although Rooks still some of the characteristics of his previous life (drinking fine whiskey and smoking (which is what Sullivan did not do)), it is the Sullivan Identity (the one who loves Rita), that takes over. In fact, on a sailboat, both Rita and Rooks/Sullivan see the disk that gave that order that "Sullivan" could not carry out, because the "Power Of Love" was Greater. 9/10 stars

This was definitely well written, the story and plot were very good. However, I just felt as though there was something missing from it, besides the obvious like the low budget and less then adequate acting, the atmosphere wasn't there. There was so much more room for this to be a thriller and the 'paranoia' could have been made deeper so we were led astray as to who was who. On the upside, the ideas in it were believable and the use of technology wasn't too futuristic to be nonsense. All in all this is watch-able, make up your own minds, but for me I was a little disappointed in the acting because the storyline was there but that's down to the budget or the wrong actors as there has been plenty of lower-budget films with great acting... I wish I could say more but I can't criticize it further without giving spoilers!