Wargames [Blu-ray] [1983] [US Import]

A great Matthew Broderick film. Exciting, clever, and amusing it’s a great movie.

I remember the day my father took me to the cinema to see this movie. Several months before going to see it I was very fortunate to have been bought a Commodore 64 computer (ask your parents) by my parents as a birthday present. My young mind was full of possibilities after seeing that movie, I recall standing in the foyer of the cinema after the screening talking to other kids around the same age as myself at that time (15 y/o) and fantasizing about what we could do with our computers! This was I suppose the first ever movie to cover the issue of "hacking" whereby you gain access to another computer system illegally. This was long before the advent of the Internet as we know it today. It was a era when these issues were only dreams and fantasies of admirers of technology back then. One thing was for sure, I never looked at a computer in the same light again. The performances of the main characters David & Jennifer (Broderick & Sheedy) were quite believable back then. I suppose there was a lot of virgin technology that the characters had to get to grips with making the fluent dialogue sound quite realistic. Mathew Broderick was only 19 years of age when appearing in Wargames and just fitted the part of the computer nerd perfectly. If this is your kind of film you may also be interested in these titles: "Battle Beyond the Stars" and "The Last Star Fighter" both of which I have been able to buy on Amazon bringing the memories of my childhood on to my home cinema system today. Great movie for it's time. Yours Kevin Burke from Glasgow Scotland UK

Mainly this is one of my favourite films because of nostagia. It is a very well made film and has excellent acting, cast, direction etc, etc, but the obvious flaws lie in the technological gulf between the 80's and today (2012). For me the old computers and equipment are a hazy hark back to the carefree days post mobile phones, social networking and when there were only 4 tv channels. Today it stands as a filmic stepping stone as opposed to groundbreaking but I suppose that at the time the technology was state of the art. But then the film itself is extremely good. This was a well made action (ish) thriller blockbuster. Yes at times it seems a little too easy for Matthew Broderick's David to escape from high security govt installations but it was more of a romp than a true expose' of the times. But it was a precursor to such films as most of anything Shia Leboef has been in, as the geeky underdog wins the day. And Joshua as a character is also extremely well realised, even today. A sub-classic of sorts, and one I will always watch fondly. But it's probably only for those who grew up in the 80s.

At the time of the original showing, I'm sure some people thought that some of the things Mr Broderick got up to was nigh impossible, now they look like child's play.

This is a great film. A great family watch. What I loved most is how it blends excitement with a serious message about the dangers of technology and the importance of human control (n.b. Technology changes with time, but the human impact doesn't). Plus, the early computer hacking scenes are really cool to watch. If you love 80s movies, thrillers, or just want a good story that makes you think, WarGames is definitely worth watching. Highly recommend!

This was one of my favourite movies of the '80s, but which I had somehow neglected adding to my DVD collection until now. I expected to find it juvenile, and rather naive regarding technology, but in fact found that it still holds up surprisingly well as a thriller. I had no problem believing in any of the characters or their motivations. I enjoyed it so much that I watched it again with a friend the following evening, both of us enjoying a bit of movie nostalgia. Listening to the excellent commentary even answered one of my old minor objections to the movie: you see I was then (and still am) a computer programmer. I could see that most of his equipment was years obsolete even when the movie came out, but the commentary pointed out that this was deliberate, after all this was a schoolkid - no income, so all his kit was hand-me-downs that others were throwing away. My personal standard for a 5 star movie is, will I still want to be watching this in a few decades time? Since this movie has already met that test the score must be automatic! So 5 stars it is.

IF WAS A GOOD FILM ABOUT HACKING , , THE WHY THE WOULD IS GOING TO TODAY THIS FILM COULD COME RERAL WITH AI ROBORT TAKES OVER THIS WILLL HAPEN ONE DAY

Revisited this for the first time in many years (remember seeing it in the cinema when originally released), and it is still a well-paced 80s flick, with an oh-so-young Matthew Broderick and Aly Sheedy in over their heads when a very early type of hacking into what he thinks is a games company turns out to be a new defence system, which doesn't quite grasp the difference between simulated "war gaming" a nuclear conflict, and actually starting one. While very much of its 80s, Cold War, MAD era, it's also still huge fun and cracks along at a great pace with a charming young cast.

Teenager David Lightman hackt sich in ein Computernetzwerk des Pentagons, von dem er fälschlicherweise glaubt, dass es sich um eine Videospielfirma handelt. Dabei findet David eine Liste von Spielen im Netzwerk - unter anderem eines mit dem faszinierenden Namen Global Thermonuclear War. Aber als er anfängt, es zu spielen, aktiviert das Spiel den neuen Supercomputer des Pentagons - bekannt als WOPR (War Operation Plan Response), um einen tatsächlichenCountdown zu einem Krieg zu beginnen. NORADs General Beringer und Dr. McKittrick glauben, dass die Bedrohung real ist. Als David dies erkennt, muss er den zurückgezogenen Co-Designer des Computers, Stephen Falken, aufzuspüren, um sie alle von der Wahrheit zu überzeugen. Der 1983 veröffentlichte WarGames mit Mathew Broderick in der Hauptrolle ist auch so ein Film aus meiner Kindheit, den ich recht gerne schaue. Die Botschaft dahinter, wie weit wir einer künstlichen Intelligenz, vor allem wenn es um weltweite thermonukleare Kriegsführung geht, vertrauen sollten, ist heute aktueller denn je. „WarGames“ sollte ursprünglich viel düsterer angelegt werden, Regisseur John Badham „Saturday Night Fever“ entschied sich aber dagegen und wollte, dass Mathew Broderick und Ally Sheedy die Rollen etwas lockerer angehen. Die beiden spielen wirklich gut und werden dabei von einigen weiteren Schauspielern der damaligen Zeit unterstützt. Vor allem Barry Corbin („Yellowstone“) spielt seinen Technik-misstrauenden General Beringer wirklich unterhaltsam. „WarGames“ macht auch nach so langer Zeit immer noch eine Menge Laune und unterhält die gesamten 112 Minuten. Ich mag diese Mischung aus Thriller und Komödie, die hier einfach stimmig ist. Darüber hinaus bietet er auch eine großartige Schlussszene, in der das Produktionsdesign, der Schnitt, die Musik und die Kinematographie des Films nahtlos zu einem einzigartig spannenden Höhepunkt kombiniert werden. Zusammengefasst ist „WarGames“ immer noch ein Prudukt seiner Zeit, ein 80er Jahre Sci-Fi-High-Tech-Thriller vor dem kalten Krieg Thema, mit einem witzigen Mathew Broderick als gewieften „Hacker“. Nun zum 4K Dolby Vision Bild. Der Film wurde damals noch auf 35mm gedreht und das vorhandene Material wurde für die 4K UHD neu gescannt. Das resultierende Bild im 1,85:1 Vollbild Format bietet viele gestochen scharfe Details und eine feine Texturierung, obwohl einige Innenaufnahmen ein wenig softer daherkommen. Die Bitrate kann dabei auch schon mal über 100Mbits hinaus gehen. Filmkorn ist sehr fein aufgelöst, sieht aber jederzeit organisch aus. Die Farben sind kräftig und natürlich , mit einem leichten Hang ins warme. Die Highlights wie auch das gesamte Bild sind angenehm hell ohne zu überstrahlen und die tiefen Schwarzwerte verschlucken auch keine Details und machen das Bild so etwas plastischer. Ich würde das Bild der UHD nicht als 4K-Referenzqualität werten, aber sie ist sehr gut geworden und bietet sicherlich die beste Darstellung dieses Films seit je her - insgesamt eine große Verbesserung gegenüber der vorherigen Blu-ray. Der deutsche DTS-HD MA 5.1 Ton ist, im Gegensatz zum früheren 1.0 Ton der Blu Ray Erstauflage, erstaunlich räumlich und sauber. Dialoge kommen klar aus dem Center während Umgebungsgeräusche wie auch der Score von Arthur B. Rubinstein kommen auch schon mal aus den hinteren Lautsprechern. Dennoch spielt sich das meiste vorne ab. Für das Alter aber überraschend hochwertig und ebenfalls ein Upgrade zur alten Blu Ray. Vielen lieben Dank fürs Durchlesen! :)

I love WarGames so much, and Matthew Broderick does such a fantastic job in his role, that I get really nostalgic for those good old days before the Web. Broderick's character is a bored computer nerd in the early '80s with a sweet computer system and 300 baud modem which he uses to dial into places like his school system to change his grades. When he hears about a computer game coming out, he can't wait and sets his modem to "war dial" mode, auto dialing telephone numbers within a certain prefix so he can hack into the gaming company's computer to get this great new game. In the process, he finds that he succeeds and has broken into a high security system where he unknowingly finds himself in the Defense Department's main computer. He thinks he's in the game company's computer and is only looking for games, and he finds one amazing sounding one called "Global Thermonuclear War." He asks the computer to play it with him and he takes the side of the Russians, gleefully launching nuclear missile attacks at cities throughout America. Meanwhile, the staff at NORAD is freaking out, thinking the Russians have launched and they go on high alert, ready to launch American missiles in response. Broderick shuts down his computer before the "game" ends and the missiles disappear from NORAD's computers. They don't know what happens, so a huge manhunt takes place to find out what's going on and who the source of the hack is. I won't go any further, but to say that in my opinion, this is a great action movie and the plot moves along quite well. Even though some of the film isn't totally realistic, enough of it was cutting edge enough to make you believe as you sat in the movie theater, and let's not forget that the Cold War was still a reality, so it was a frightening movie. After seeing this movie, I started accessing BBS's around the country and using my modem to war dial prefixes myself, and enjoyed "shaking hands" with many other computers around the world. It was an awesome experience, and I think today's computer geeks will never know the true excitement generated by old school hacking and phreaking. It's just different today, and today's hackers are malicious, which was never the intent back then. This is a great film, very enjoyable, and if you're into computers, it's definitely one to watch. I never get tired of it. Highly recommended.

Es un clásico moderno. La ví en el cine y posteriormente en video la ví muchas veces más. Aún hoy en día la disfruté enormemente. No se siente pasada de moda. La calidad de audio y video es buena. Sobre todo si consideramos que la tecnología de los ochentas todavía estaba en pañales. Lo que más me gustó fue el documental sobre cómo la hicieron, que venía como material adicional. Tenía muy buena información y no abusaron de los clips de la película como ocurre con otros documentales. La duración fue exacta, y en general está muy bien hecho. Muchas veces viene información poco relevante y es muy aburrido. Pero en este caso estuvo estupendo.

Not quite in the sci-fi genre, this 80's movie has held up well and it was great to be able to watch it (for a very reasonable price) in cinema quality. Kids now seeing the phones (rotary dial, payphones) and the cars think it is really old. The sight of an 8" floppy disc and dial-up modems seems incredible and from a completely different era - which it was. However, the basic story, of hope and faith in people, that runs through it, are a applicable now as then. So while the technology is very old and quaint, the story has not lost its strength and younger audiences seem to enjoy it as much as when I saw it at the theatre years ago. It was great to watch it again and the video/audio quality was excellent.

Great movie from the 80 es, about a high military Computer programe to play World War Games such Nuclear war between USA and Soviet Union and a boy and his friend caught in the middle. Excelent review, this movie, from my youth. Had arrived on time.