- Phil Alden Robinson's Sneakers is a welcome reminder that the paranoid conspiracy thrillers of the 1970's were appreciated just as fully 20 years ago as they are today. In this instance, the paranoia stems from whether these new-fangled computer networks could somehow be hacked in a way that would negatively affect the real world. As quaint as that plot device seems now, it's more than enough of an excuse to get this cast together for a generally enjoyable film. Oh, and what a cast it is. Sidney Poitier, Robert Redford, and Ben Kingsley headline an ensemble that also includes David Strathairn, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix, Mary McDonnell, Stephen Tobolowsky, and James Earl Jones. The film's not short on talent, putting it mildly.
- The basic setup is that Marty Bishop (Redford) and his crew (Poitier, Strathairn, Aykroyd, Phoenix) make a living by legally breaking into companies and stealing from them. Legally, you ask? The catch is that businesses hire them to do this in order to identify weaknesses in their security systems. One day, a pair of clients (Eddie Jones and Timothy Busfield) strolls in to Marty's warehouse office knowing much more than they should about him and his people. FBI? CIA?? No, they claim to be NSA and further assert that they're the good guys, all without cracking a smile. All they need is for Marty to recover a dangerous device from a visionary math professor (Donal Logue). No problem, except that the professor turns up dead just after Marty and company discover that the device can crack any code they throw at it. As Marty dryly notes, "There isn't a government on this planet that wouldn't kill us all for that thing."
- It's at this point that I should mention a few details concerning Marty's cryptic past. For instance, did you know that Marty and his friend Cosmo used to be computer hackers in college? One night, the cops showed up and arrested Cosmo while Marty was lucky enough to be out on a pizza run. Cosmo allegedly died in jail, but do you really think the movie would open with that scene unless it would someday come back to haunt Marty? Furthermore, Marty must have had an interesting history with his now-estranged love interest Liz (McDonnell), who finds herself assisting Marty against her better judgement. Although Marty's team eventually risks their lives breaking in to a high-security office building, I'd still say Liz draws the short end of the stick by having to hang out with a hilariously clueless researcher (Tobolowsky).
- Great casting aside, Sneakers' most impressive accomplishment may be the balance it strikes between humor and drama. The film contains few belly laughs, but Redford, Aykroyd, and Tobolowsky each sneak in some great lines that may have you chuckling several scenes later. James Earl Jones' surprising cameo at the film's end also makes for a great comic coda. Frankly, it's difficult to imagine a modern conspiracy caper film achieving such a lightness of tone. Sure, Die Hard still holds the record for successfully mixing action, heists, and comedy, but Sneakers veers in a surprisingly mature direction by refusing to resolve its plot with explosions and violence. Add in some unexpectedly strong cinematography and San Francisco location filming, and you get a movie that entertains and impresses decades into the computer age.
- Gary Hershberger plays a young Robert Redford.
