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| War Games (25th Anniversary Edition) | 
 enlarge | Actors: Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, Barry Corbin
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $7.88
You Save: $7.10 (47%)
Buy New/Used from $7.88
Avg. Customer Rating:  (142 reviews)
Sales Rank: 4444
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 113 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: MGMDM109876D
UPC: 027616098764
EAN: 0027616098764
ASIN: B0015NORDW
Release Date: July 29, 2008
Theatrical Release Date: 1983
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Description
Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller's Day Off) and Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club) star in this compelling drama filled with action, suspense and high-tech adventures! Featuring superb performances by Dabney Coleman and Barry Corbin, WarGames is "brilliant...funny...and provocative" (New York)a fast-paced cyber-thriller. Computer hacker David Lightman (Broderick) can bypass the most advanced security systems, break the most intricate secret codes and mastereven the most difficult computer games. But when he unwittingly taps into the Defense Department's war computer, he initiates a confrontation of global proportionsWorld War III! Together with his girlfriend (Sheedy) and a wizardly computer genius (Tony AwardA(r) winner John Wood), David must race against time to outwit his opponent...and prevent a nuclear Armageddon.
Amazon.com
Cute but silly, this 1983 cautionary fantasy stars Matthew Broderick as a teenage computer genius who hacks into the Pentagon's defense system and sets World War III into motion. All the fun is in the film's set-up, as Broderick befriends Ally Sheedy and starts the international crisis by pretending while online to be the Soviet Union. After that, it's not hard to predict what's going to happen: government agents swoop in, but the story ends up in the "hands" of machines talking to one another. Thus we're stuck with flashing lights, etc. John Badham (Saturday Night Fever) directs in strict potboiler mode. Kids still like this movie, though. The DVD release has a widescreen presentation, theatrical trailer, Dolby sound, director commentary, optional English, French and Spanish subtitles. --Tom Keogh
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| Customer Reviews: Read 137 more reviews...
 War Games January 8, 2009
Good movie.
My wife and I have enjoyed this movie very much.
Jim
The only prevention to war is peace December 29, 2008
Remember Ronald Reagan, the actor-president, the acting president, the president-actor, we will never know. Was he serious about his empire of evil or was he joking one of these good words produced by black humor, or at least very dark grey humor? No one will even know, because Reagan himself did probably not know. The film is a direct reflection on that period from that period. If we entrust our own security to machines what would happen? Machines have no sense of life and death and for them everything is nothing but an exercise, a game, a playground dare or challenge or discussion because they have no ethical sense at all. The film, or rather this question is at the basis of the Terminator series too. Machines, if we let them develop too much, will take over and destroy or try to destroy the human species that would stand in their way. We also remember it is the fundamental element of the Dune series and that the survival of the human species was due to the Butlerian revolution that banned all intelligent machines and made it a crime to develop such machines. What is the originality of this film then that goes back to the command-line computers that no one knows how to use any more. That was the good old time before the invention of the GUI (Graphical User's Interface). That was a beautiful time when computers were an elite tool and when the Internet was still nothing but an intranet of the military establishment. That was then a field of mystery that we were just discovering and it took little imagination to understand that it could only be child play to penetrate such a system because it was only based on declarative identities and passwords and human beings are very simple-minded as for passwords since they want THE password they will never forget, as if it were possible. So it is simple to think of birth dates, death dates of close relatives, names of one's children, etc. That's exactly what a 17 year old teenager does: he penetrates the computer that governs the whole defense of the USA in case of a thermo-nuclear war and finds out that the computer considers it is a game, a game he is willing to play but he plays it for real and he can absolutely fool all commanding levels of the security system because they trust the machines and do not even ask their own eyes to check what is happening. The worst point about this film is that security rules make the commanding chain decide at one point to lock the system so that no change can be introduced that could change the management of the situation, or the orders given to the military by anyone in the chain of command. But the film remains entertaining and yet very moralistic indeed. So the game cannot be stopped but the military commander can be persuaded that it is a game played by the machine, but, and then it becomes rather sickening, the machine can by-pass that human chain of command and give the orders itself. At this moment there is no way to escape the apocalypse, except by playing another game the machine accepts as the key to make it think, if it can think, in the right direction. So why not try tic-tac-toe, a game that cannot be won at all. And that leads the dear machine of ours to the conclusion that, after examining all scenarios, a thermo nuclear war cannot be won except by not engaging in one. And we can only wonder why human beings are dumb enough to start wars all the time if there is no winner in present day war. McCain who knew how to win a war lost the election that should have been his major battle. Bush who was not prepared for a war, got into one desperately and stubbornly, and even into two for good measure. If he had been prepared he definitely would not even have hesitated with Iran or North Korea and maybe two or three more. Is a machine more intelligent than the human species? Probably. At least this film is trying to tell us so.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
 "Global Thermal Nuclear War", 1980s Classic - Recommended December 11, 2008
Our local movie theater had a one day showing of "War Games" to coincide with the release of WarGames: The Dead Code. We jumped at the chance to show this to our kids (12 & 16) on the "big screen". It was a real treat to see it again but it also brought back the realization that to us, growing up in the `70s and `80s, that nuclear war was a very real possibility and the movie did manage to capture some of that fear.
The most memorable elements for me were the early "hacker" aspects (both technical and social engineering). Both of my kids are computer savvy and quickly poked holes in the many technical flaws, but the underlying story and message still did get through.
All in all, this is a well made movie, with good acting, and solid plot. While the technology is dated, it is still very good and is worth watching.
Recommended!
wargames November 30, 2008
fantastic, great condition and price. quick delivery and great movie.
recommend them to anyone purchasing a product. i will certaintly be looking for them in future purchases.
It could have happened November 19, 2008
War Games with Matthew Broderick. Interesting to see what computers & floppys looked like when this picture was filmed. The real Brainiac, if properly programmed, might just as easily started the countdown.
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