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The Movie: I never entirely fell for 1995's "The Net", a Sandra Bullock vehicle that saw the actress playing a computer expert who gets her identity stolen as a set of crooks attempt to ruin her life. The movie did farely well, although I always thought that maybe it was a bit ahead of its time. Although it presented its story well, I've always felt the movie came up a bit short in terms of style and momentum. Enter "The Net 2.0", a picture that gets the style update mostly right, but doesn't manage to pull off the story. The sequel doesn't carry over any elements from the first movie, offering its own update on the story. This time around, we follow Hope Cassidy (Nikki Deloach), a computer systems analyst who leaves her normal life and boyfriend in order to persue a new job in Istanbul. Not surprisingly, once she arrives in Istanbul, she finds that her identity has been changed, little by little, starting with passport problems at the airport, and then again when she's issued a new one at the embassy that lists her as one Kelly Roos. When she gets in trouble at her new job, the authorities believe she's a murder suspect. The movie starts off with Hope being chased and arrested, and then proceeds in flashbacks. There's a good core movie here, as setting essentially the same situation in a foreign country makes the main character feel even more isolated. I also enjoyed some of the film's chase sequences, which were shot with handheld HD cameras well. Additionally, the picture at least gets into the action quickly. However, the picture has some considerable issues that take away from its strengths. The first flaw would be Deloach, who turns in an unconvincing performance. While director Charles Winkler (son of original "Net" director Irwin) gives the film more style than the original, the movie takes things a few steps too far. The handheld sequences work well (and filming in HD actually manages to give the film a bit more urgency than it would have otherwise had, despite a few issues), but then we get freeze-frames, use of security camera footage as transitions and other tricks. Additionally, while the script has some good ideas where to take this update, the dialogue is clunky to the point of seeming like a thriller you'd find on cable on a Sunday night. Combined with so-so acting from Deloach and the supporting players, I often wondered how much stronger a picture this could have been had someone given some effort to putting the script through a few rewrites. One also might ponder while viewing if someone more convincing as a computer expert than Deloach (of Fox's "North Shore", which quickly disappeared.) Overall, while I liked a couple of aspects of this movie and saw potential for it to be better, some faults with main elements of the film kept it from being more than just merely "watchable". The DVD VIDEO: "The Net 2.0" is presented by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. Image quality is generally fine, although there are some issues. Sharpness and detail are mostly solid, although there's the occasional moment of softness present, and the HD filming causes some slight smearing during some of the more action-oriented sequences. Otherwise, the picture appeared generally clean and clear. Some minor artifacts were noticed and some slight edge enhancement was visible, but neither was much of an issue. Colors remained a bit on the subdued side, but generally looked accurate and natural, with no smearing or other concerns. SOUND: The film is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. Some of the more action-oriented scenes provide a respectable helping of background sounds and occasional sound effects. Otherwise, the film's audio is more forward-oriented, but nicely spread across the front soundstage. Audio quality is fine, with crisp dialogue and music. EXTRAS: A commentary with director Charles Winkler and writer/producer Rob Cowan, as well as trailers for other titles from the studio ("Rent", "Legend of Zorro", etc.) Final Thoughts: "Net 2.0" has some good ideas about where to take this update, but better casting choices and some screenplay rewrites could have kept this from ending up as just another of the many direct-to-video sequels coming out these days. The DVD offers good video quality, fine audio and a couple of supplements. 
Film Grade The Film C- DVD Grades Video 88/B Audio: 89/B+ Extras: 80/B- |