Watch NetForce For Free

Simply A Masterpiece

Highly Overrated But Still Good

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

I have never seen such an atrocious pathetic attempt at a crime thriller. The complete ignorance to the truth of the way computers and the internet work was only one of the poor elements of this film, but it managed to disappoint in every other aspect as well. The story was contrived and uninteresting. The characters were plastic and unconvincing. The manufactured suspense was nothing more than frustrating and annoying. Had there been any research done on the factual basis of this story, there may have been some interesting thread, but as any intelligent person who has even the slightest understanding of how technology or the internet works, this movie is an obvious farce. Even with only the expectation of an average fictional "techno-phobic" type story, I was disappointed by the lack of any real original content. Of all my experience of Tom Clancy's work, this is the worst and most disappointing example I have ever encountered. Even on the larger scale, this movie is one of the worst, hopeless, disgraceful, and offensive efforts I have ever had the misfortune to witness and endure. The worst 2 dollars I have ever spent.

In the year 2005, not to far in the future, computer will be dominant in society. Those who can handle them will control the world. However, power like this can slip into the wrong hands. That's where Netforce comes in.The FBI has established a team known as Netforce, a division that specializes in internet crime. Heading up the team is Commander Steve Day (Kris Kristoferson), followed by Deputy Commander Alexander "Alex" Michaels (Scott Bakula). When Day dies under unusual circumstances, Alex is given the Commander post, and appoints Toni Fiorella (Joanna Going) as his Deputy Commander, or Dep. Comm. Also on board is Jay Gridley (Paul Hewitt) a virtual reality whiz kid and his team, and Colonel John Howard, who heads up the military branch of Netforce. The team is on the case of a Bill Gates-esque computer genius named Will Stiles (Judge Reinhold). IT's up to Alex and his team of computer geniuses to stop his crimes.The film, though it looks like a television movie (I know it is, you just can't shake that feeling) is really well-done. The action scenes are pretty fast-paced, and the plot is easy to follow. To me, it wasn't too predictable, and was able to withstand the test of time (2 hrs and 40 min). Scott Bakula, one of my favorite performers, never has ceased to amaze me in his work (ok, fine--I didn't like "Lord of Illusions"). I found him particularly appealable, much different from how the novel describes Alex Michaels (lady-wooer). Bakula embodies that typical average-guy look that I love, and those biceps and pecs in the tigh t-shirts drove me wild. Joanna Going, as Toni, was also great, and comes from a typical Italian family (I'm Italian, so the dinner scene interested me). I've never seen her in films before, but I'm sure I just haven't looked. I actually didn't really know who Scott Bakula was until I stumbled on "Quantum Leap" last September. Chelsea Field was wonderful as Alex's ex-wife Megan Michaels (in the novel, Megan is a pompus b**ch, in the film, she is actually very civil to Alex). You can see they get along ok, a departure from the books. Jay Gridley is EXACTLY what I expected, not too nerdy looking, but certainly smart (the part in the VR Brothel was hysterical). What really suprised me was Judege Reinhold, as Will Stiles. How much weight did he gain to play this part?? Jeez, he looks like an evil Bill Gates here after letting himself go.My favorite line from this film was when Alex met his new driver and told him he was perfectly capable of driving himself, at least till that day. When the driver kept saying sir to him, Alex asked him if he could make a suggestion, the driver said "Sir yes sir" and alex said "Lighten up." You don't get much more comic timing than that. Bakula actually had some really funny lines, but you gotta break the tension somewhere. My favorite scenes were the action scenes, particularly Alex's fight with the paid femme fatale.This is a great film with a great plot, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I wish I saw more positive comments on this movie, because it was outstanding. Acting was good on all parts and the storyline was fun. I'm reading "Netforce: Nightmoves" (3rd in series) now, so seeing this film was a real treat.Who said computer technology can't make a good movie?

At 2h40mins, this movie runs waaaay too long. The pace is kept at a moderate level most of the way with above-average-for-a-tv-movie sounds and visuals, intended to keep the average person watching. But I'm not Mr Average and I was zoning in and out throughout the movie. I was motivated to rent this movie because I just read Jeffery Deaver's 'The Blue Nowhere,' which is an excellent thriller abt hacking. This movie seems more like a slow-moving FBI show. How can Scott Bakula, the leader of 'Netforce,' look as clueless as he does when his system is hacked? And for Internet cops, there sure is a lot of physical chasing and shooting. Sure there's a lot of techno-babble thrown in, but it's all gratuitous. The coolest vision of futuristic technology - VR pubs and brothels - doesn't even involve any special effects. Hacking i s demonstrated as a flood of rotating green numbers. On the brighter side, the acting's pretty good and not exaggerated. Don't rent this, catch it on TV on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Made for television movies can never escape the feeling they we're made for television. The taste, the sight and the scent. It's always there. Tom Clancy's Netforce itself was originally a two part television movie (how little did I know). In fact it's all still somewhat a wash. Let me break it down for you.Flash forward to 2005. The internet has become so powerful and potentially dangerous that the US government sets up a division within the FBI entitled "Netforce" to preside over it from the evil people of the world who look to exploit it for their corrupt plans. Personally I seriously disbelieve the internet holds the future of the world in it's grasp, but that doesn't matter because the people at Netforce couldn't protect it if they had to anyway.Upon meeting the major characters we realize they're roles we've all seen before. Like the tough male main character who's strong and dresses well. The rest of the cast fit typical molds. I especially liked how a certain character's ex-wife is a news reporter who at one point becomes a key piece in the story. Everyone is so linked together. Realistic? No. Then again none of the characters have any real in-depth characterization. They're just names and faces. There's also too many needless minor secondary characters being thrown around adding nothing but padding and viewer confusion. It gets hard remembering twenty characters throughout a two plus hour movie. I want to give the movie credit for trying to develop them, but it fails because we know they're insignificant. Frankly I expected more from such an ensemble cast too.Scott Bakula gets to look smart in suit -- the key word being "look". This project could have benefited from someone with more clout than Bakula. He's sufficient, but that's about it. Meanwhile Kris Kristofferson gets the cliché elder role and good 'ol Brian Dennehy has been given the plum task of the President's Chief Of Staff. That means him popping up spewing 'How his ass is on the line' or 'the President's p***ed at him'. Yes even good actors can't save bad scripts. That's a fact. Which bothers me even further because this product has Tom Clancy's name written all over it. Yet it isn't anywhere near the quality of his past outings. It's a real disservice. Some of the blame has to fall straight into the writer's lap too. I say this because I find it hard to see this as an adaptation project that started well. It was bad from the get-go. The story stinks. It's like amateur hour. Especially considering how much they squeeze into their time frame. Would more have helped? I'm hesitant to say. Even with over two hours they still came back with this slop. Frankly 160 minutes is a long time and there isn't enough depth to sustain a person's interest or the holding of disbelief for such a period.It can't even be taken seriously. Like Judge Reinhold playing the 'evil multi-billion dollar software tycoon looking to control the world' or how corny it is to have FBI agents point loaded weapons in the faces of innocent cabdrivers. It's things like these that help make Netforce such a bore. There's absolutely no atmosphere and honestly for a film dealing so heavily with computers and the internet, they sure went skimpy enough on the technical aspects too. I guess they didn't want to lose their biggest viewing demographic ... computer inept coach potatoes and patriotic Tom Clancy fans.For what it's trying to be, there's very little (if any) paranoia, suspense or "edge of your seat excitement" as so called critics would say. Netforce draws nothing but boredom and that's not exactly new territory. Last thing too. A golden rule of movies. If they don't find a body 95% of the time that's a clear signal the person ain't dead. That's the facts.