Ignore the listed title, this is actually Hackers 2, the supposed sequel to the Johnny Lee Miller film. It's actually nothing of the sort. It's not a sequel which is one of the reasons the Hackers 2 eventually slipped from the title and it became known as Takedown.

It's a good film from the science & technology aspects. If you enjoyed Hackers or Sneakers you'll most likely find some interest in this.

It's more technical and there's a lot of plot to follow.

Personally I enjoyed it but it could have stood alone without the link to the original Hackers movie. The cast are mainly unknowns (to me at least) the hacks are very good to watch, and the plot does follow a decent enough logic.

Worth it if your into computers.

From thequickflickcritic.blogspot.com/

"Adapted from a true story" flashes upon the screen as we are ushered into "Track Down" and our introduction to super cyber security system hacker and convicted felon Kevin Mitnick (Skeet Ulrich in a fine and frenzied performance). And what a messed up megalomaniacal miscreant we will come to know. "Truly".

"Track Down" takes us along on a swiftly paced cat and mouse game Mitnick launches versus the feds and fellow hackers during the 1990's. And by all evidence furnished by Director Joe Chappelle (TV's "The Wire", "CSI: Miami"),entirely and simply because he could.

The extreme lengths that Mitnick goes to perch himself atop a kind of self-fashioned "hierarchy of hackers" absolutely astounds. It is practically unfathomable to imagine what this "gangstuh geek" may have accomplished had he been of clear mind and even HALF a heart.

Mitnick is vividly depicted here as unconditionally brilliant. And while certainly proving to be explosively bright, this is a miserably sad fellow who is emotionally busted to bits. Mitnick reveals to us in pieces a wretched upbringing which has continued to torture him into an angry and malicious adulthood.

Here is just one striking example of how SERIOUSLY screwy this dude is. Mitnick has a character played by the paralyzingly gorgeous Amanda Peet all to himself on a couch in her apartment following an evening date. And SHE is even making the FIRST MOVE. It is at this pivotal point in the proceedings that Mitnick actually asks this vision in voluptuousness, even as she is wholesale submitting her most ample charms to him, if she knows how to SCAN? It's enough to make a guy wanna reach into the scene and whack the weirdo over the head with an iPad!

Looking at computer screens crawling with programming code and dry eraser boards scrawling with indecipherable mathematical equations is not inherently entertaining. However, human beings desperately wrestling with such daunting data and the havoc it can wreak CAN prove to be compelling. And so is the case with "Track Down".

Still, in the end, the reality is that what we are left with is the sordid story of a brazen and bitter man who proved to be nothing more than a viciously vindictive terrorist thug.

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Takedown is the story of Kevin Mitnick and Tsutomu Shimamura's effort to bring him down.

Whatever the accuracies of the story (and considering the egos involved, I guess we'll never know),this is a pretty riveting tale of an underground hacker playing and defeating the system. Which is all you could ever ask for in a movie. :-)

Johnny Depp lookalike Skeet Ulrich, Russell Wong, Donal Logue, Cara Buono, Amanda Peet and Angela Featherstone make this low budget movie worth while.

Whether or not the real Kevin Mitnick is a nice fellow or what he did was totally legal doesn't detract much from this ripping yarn. The production values are ok (but what would you expect from a guy who spends most of his time sitting behind a monitor in a small room?),however, the concept makes it more than worth while. Especially the "social engineering" segments are cool. Not to be missed if you're at all interested in movies about sub-cultures and the guerilla mentality.