If you read a plot synopsis, nothing will seriously be ruined for you, but if you just pop in Sneakers and let every scene unfold without any prior knowledge, it'll be an extremely entertaining ride! Without giving too much away, because I'm an advocate of the second type of viewing, Robert Redford is the head of a secret group of hackers, including Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, David Strathairn, and River Phoenix. Everyone has skeletons in their closet, Robert Redford in particular, so when they're threatened to take on a particular case, they've got no choice but to accept.The entire team has great comic timing and chemistry together. Robert and Sidney make a few jokes about getting older, but they really don't look much older than their heydays. I'd never seen David Strathairn in a movie before, and he was so convincing in his role as a blind man, I thought Hollywood was starting the career of an actually blind actor. Sneakers is a fantastic movie with a perfect blend of humor, action, suspense, and romance. It's full of quotable lines and memorable scenes. If you don't start laughing the next time you hear someone say "password", you probably need to watch the movie again. Every time I watch it, I get inspired to chop off my locks because of Mary McDonnell's adorable haircut. It's one of the cutest do's ever!

In 1969 Marty Brice and his Friend Cosmo use their university computer to access various organisations bank accounts and give some of their money away; they thought they couldn't be traced but they were wrong; while Marty was out getting pizza Cosmo was arrested and sent to prison. In 1992 Marty is now known as Martin Bishop and he runs a security firm; they get hired by organisations to break in to test their systems. Everything is going fine until one day he is approached by two men claiming to be from the NSA; they want him to acquire a 'black box' from a mathematician whose speciality is cryptography. At first he declines saying he doesn't work for the government but when it becomes apparent that they know who he really is he has no choice as he is still wanted for his little prank all those years ago. They manage to get the box without too much difficulty; that is only the start of their problems though; they discover that is contains a chip that will enable them to bypass any encryption system; it is the sort of device that people and governments would kill for. Knowing this they are quite keen to pass it on to the NSA and forget all about it but once they hand it over it becomes apparent that the people who hired them weren't NSA and now they want to get rid of Martin. If he and his team want to live and not go to gaol they will have to find where the box is now and steal it for a second time... this time it will be much more dangerous though!This is a good light hearted thriller; the story has enough twists and turns without getting overly complex and there are sufficient tense moments as well as a decent number of laughs. The gadget itself is pure science fiction of course but that doesn't matter; it is just something they must get there hands on... twice. The twists aren't the most unexpected; I doubt many people will be surprised when it turns out the people who hired Martin weren't really from the NSA nor will it surprise many people to discover who is behind it all. There is a solid cast led by Robert Redford and featuring the likes of Sidney Poitier, River Phoenix, Dan Aykroyd and Ben Kingsley. Redford is good as Martin and Aykroyd provides most of the laughs as the conspiracy nut known as 'Mother'. This might not by the hardest hitting of thrillers but it is great if you want a good story to pass the time.

If you don't like the human aspects of the movie which is about people who break into systems, move on. I picked this film up on VCR tape with no idea what it was about from a good-will store for $0.75. I consider the price the rental fee and normally take most of the films back so they can resell them and make more money. I kept this one for a few more viewings since it caught the ambivalent spirit of that post cold-war era and have watched it several times. Whistler is patterned after a blind guy that was in on the phone phreaking phenomenon in the 1970s. His real name was Josef Carl Engressia Jr. He was known as Joybubbles. Rather than using the whistle in the Captain Crunch cereals (started by John Draper, alias Captain Crunch) or like some later people who used the blue box he was able to do it all with his own whistling and had perfect pitch. The end of the 60s is really stretching when the kind of breaking in they were doing would have put Cosmo in prison. It really didn't start until the late 70s and early 80s in a significant way. But the DES encryption which would be about the best they had in 1992 was getting long in tooth. DES was created in the 70s with everything finalized around 1977. 3DES and Blowfish encryption algorithms didn't occur until the end of the 90s. So dedicated hardware to break DES was in the realm of possibility. I have news for you people. The breaking of this encryption is not going to be done by Windows machines. It would have to be done with specialized hardware and may not be in the realm of possibility now or then. But your chances for breaking DES in 1995-97 with dedicated hardware would be excellent. But that just shows that there is a lot of bragging among these crackers to con you into believing they are a lot smarter and more able than they really are. Most of the rest of the technical stuff was also stretching it quite a bit. But it was humorous to see these "brilliant" people not knowing what was happening for a good portion of the movie. They bring it to a humorous close at the end. Is Tahiti in Europe? All I want is a phone number. The movie is worth watching a few times. But for somebody who knows that the recent crack (which does not mean broken) of AES-256 has actually made it and AES-192 symmetric encryption more vulnerable than AES-128 I have to tell you to take all of the technical aspects with a grain of salt. How is it possible that a smaller block size equates to more security? They are stretching it to what they claim they can do, not to what they are really able to do. But aren't most movies a lot of make believe?

This is a must film for fans who want to know if the world's secrets can be acquired through theft. The answer may surprise many including Officials who believe our Government is secure. This film is entitled " Sneakers " and is about a group of Cyber-specialists who advertise themselves as computer security experts. Their job is to test the encryption systems of various electronic based companies. In their youth, two college students (Jo Marr and Gary Hershberger) seeking to right the world's financial problems, break into a University system as a prank. Unfortunately they are detected and Marr is sent to prison. It is years later and Bishop (Robert Redford) is a legitimate security consultant who is kidnapped because he has stolen a 'Black Box' which can hack into the most secure and sensitive centers of the world. His team consists of other specialists like Donald Crease (Sidney Poitier) Erwin Emory (David Strathairn) 'Mother' (Dan Aykroyd) and River Phoenix as Carl. They have decided to take on the Government agents who are holding Bishop. The problem multiples when the C.I.A. takes an active interest as does Bishop's former friend who seeks his own bit of revenge. The movie is interesting and lively as the level of danger grows until everyone is in danger including the real U.S. government. Easily recommended as a wonderful, but serious film. ****