FC: Operation Swordfish review: A half-baked geek flick

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,44373,00.html
   
   This Swordfish Is Half-Baked
   By Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)
   2:00 a.m. June 8, 2001 PDT
   
   WASHINGTON -- Operation: Swordfish could have been this summer's
   must-see geek thriller.
   
   The Warner Brothers film includes the right elements: clandestine
   federal agencies, an unbreakable government network, and the world's
   best hacker, on parole for breaking into and disabling the FBI's
   Carnivore spyware, who's recruited by a suave megalomaniac who
   just might be a terrorist as well.
   
   But Enemy of the State or Sneakers this isn't. Flawed though they
   were, at least those films made attempts to avoid the most glaring
   technical errors.
   
   Not so the forgettable performance by ostensible uber-hacker Stanley
   Jobson, played by Hugh Jackman, who looks far more comfortable loafing
   in an oil field shack in the film's first few minutes than in front of
   a keyboard.
   
   The script, written by Skip Woods, doesn't help. From Woods' offhand
   references -- Wired magazine is cited, one hacker is a Finn named
   Torvalds, Linux's KDE interface makes a cameo -- you can tell that
   he's passingly familiar with tech lore.
   
   But any geek worth his copy of The Elements of Programming Style will
   spend much of the movie fidgeting in his seat, wincing at the
   technical mistakes, and cursing Woods under his breath. Note to
   Hollywood: Code for worms is not typically created using AutoCAD, and
   even expert programmers cannot visualize 512-bit encryption keys and
   factor them just by thinking really, really hard.

   [...]



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