I didn't expect much from AntiTrust, but I was surprised. The story was fast-paced and exciting, it never really slowed-down. When the movie was over I felt satisfied, it had a lot of what I look for in a movie. It requires you to think about what is happening, even if sometimes it gets un-realistic with plot twists. Good things aside, AntiTrust had its share of problems. There was some techy-talk that went on too long, whenever something bad was discovered by Milo(Ryan however you spell his last name) the camera would zoom in and then shake around, and it got a little un-realistic in the finale. All-in-all AntiTrust was good, but I just found-out it opened it 12th place. It deserves better.

When Herbert C. Hoover became Secretary of Commerce in the Twenties radio was just getting established and he was instrumental in founding the Federal Communications Commission which is under the Department of Commerce auspices to regulate the new form of communication. Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson also saw the new medium as a way to reach folks for Jesus. Although eventually she complied with the new FCC regulations when they tried to limit her to an assigned frequency at first she told Hoover to keep those 'minions of Satan' away from her as she was doing the Lord's work.

Now how the FCC or anyone else was going to control Tim Robbins as Gary Winston or anyone else when SYNAPSE got going was going to be a real chore. SYNAPSE is a program that will allow one to break into all television broadcasts all over the world. Trouble is that Robbins didn't invent it, in fact he had the guy murdered who did. That's not sitting well with Ryan Phillippe a brilliant computer programmer in his own right who works for Robbins, but is a good friend of the murdered man.

As in the political film Bob Roberts, Robbins creates a really frightening character who will do anything to stay on top. I'm sure Bill Gates's attorneys checked the libel and slander laws very carefully after seeing Antitrust.

But as frightening as Robbins is, more frightening is SYNAPSE itself especially if the technology is in the hands of one man. Think what it might mean if something like that was possessed by Al-Jazeera or Pat Robertson?

Antitrust is a thought provoking film and if it teaches you nothing else, be kind to the computer geeks you meet. For better or worse they are destined to rule the world.

Gary Winston (Tim Robbins) is the mercurial CEO of tech giant NURV. He is introducing new program called Synapse promising to revolutionize the communication world. Milo Hoffman (Ryan Phillippe) is working on his own program with friend Teddy Chin. Winston invites them to see him. Teddy refuses to go and argues for open source against Winston. Lyle Barton (Richard Roundtree) from Department of Justice tries to hire Milo and asks him to keep a lookout at NURV. Winston hires Milo to fix a big problem with the pending launch. Milo brings his girlfriend Alice Poulson (Claire Forlani) along to Portland. Redmond Schmeichel (Tyler Labine) and Lisa Calighan (Rachael Leigh Cook) are some of his new fellow programmers. New advancements magically appear from Winston without explanations. Somebody kills Teddy Chin and trashes his work.

The obvious comparison to Winston is Bill Gates. It's hitting so close that it's rather distracting. Ryan Phillippe is a weak lead actor. The plot lacks believability. The movie lacks tension. I would put that down to director Peter Howitt. I can't really pinpoint the exact problem or maybe problems. There are a few too many twists and turns. The turn on Alice is wrong but what's worst is that the twists keep coming. It's always more difficult to be cinematic with computer programming and this doesn't succeed. There are a few little problems that add up to a not-so-stellar thriller.