Antitrust (2001)

24% of critics liked it
(106 reviews)
48% of users liked it
(45,100 ratings)

Just how far should one man go to stay ahead of his competition? Milo Hoffmann (Ryan Phillippe) is a young and gifted computer software designer who with his close friend Teddy is about to launch a high-tech start-up firm based on Milo's inventive ideas in convergence, in which he's helping to… More Just how far should one man go to stay ahead of his competition? Milo Hoffmann (Ryan Phillippe) is a young and gifted computer software designer who with his close friend Teddy is about to launch a high-tech start-up firm based on Milo's inventive ideas in convergence, in which he's helping to create new ways for different forms of digital technology to work in harmony. However, before Milo and Teddy can get their company off the ground, Milo receives a very tempting offer from Gary Winston (Tim Robbins), a trailblazing genius in the digital world who has turned his company N.U.R.V. (which stands for "Never Underestimate Radical Vision") into one of the richest and most powerful computer firms on Earth. While Milo is sympathetic to Teddy's beliefs that computer technology should belong to the people and that open source software is the most promising future lies, Winston has long been Milo's role model in design and research, and Milo feels Winston's offer is too good to pass up. Milo and his girlfriend Alice Poulson (Claire Forlani) move out to Silicon Valley, and at first Milo thrives on the challenges of his new position, and develops a close working relationship with fellow designer Lisa Calighan (Rachael Leigh Cook). But Milo underestimates the ruthlessness of the leading-edge software industry, and he soon learns there's a sinister undercurrent to Winston's drive to stay on top. Antitrust earned rising star Ryan Phillippe his first million-dollar paycheck after well-regarded roles in 54 and Cruel Intentions. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG-13, 1 hr. 50 min.
Directed By: Peter Howitt
Written By: Howard Franklin
Genres: Drama, Action & Adventure, Mystery & Suspense

In Theaters: Jan 12, 2001 Wide
On DVD: Dec 26, 2001
Studio: MGM/UA

Critic Reviews

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Got a by-the-numbers plot? A premise that's intriguing but also has holes in it? Dialogue that needs punching up? Hire Tim Robbins. He can save just about anything.
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail
My, my, such a high-tech setting -- too bad it's marred by such a low-tech plot.
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
There's not an original note in Howard Franklin's screenplay or Peter Howitt's direction.
Joe Baltake, Sacramento Bee
A witty but repetitious and predictable paranoid thriller.
Dennis Lim, Village Voice
The flashy topicality amounts to little, and Peter Howitt's slavishly generic direction doesn't help.
Susan Stark, Detroit News
As sly as it is knowing, and played with wit to match its conviction.
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
This wannabe thriller about the new techno industry is a misfire.
Charles Cassady, Common Sense Media
Silicon Valley story of good versus evil-sort of.
Harry Guerin, RTE Interactive (Dublin, Ireland)
It won't win any Oscars but it might make 14-year-olds wonder whether it's really worth spending life in front of a screen.
Brent Simon, Entertainment Today
Passably entertaining in spots, but doomed by its bungling of the thriller elements.
Christopher Tookey, Daily Mail [UK]
A thriller about creativity which doesn't display any of its subject matter.
Michael Dequina, TheMovieReport.com
This thriller in name only is all too characteristic of the cinematic scrap heap that is the first month of the year.
Jean Lowerison, San Diego Metropolitan
A pretty good ride.
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
Antitrust will never go down in history as a great thriller, but nowadays, when thrillers are about as popular as whale meat, it'll suffice.
James Sanford, Kalamazoo Gazette
It's refreshing to see a filmmaker who's well aware of the limitations of his material, someone who can step back and say, 'Hey, this isn't 'Schindler's List': We're just trying to give the audience two hours of corny fun.'

Read all 15 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Dan S

A thriller that starts out fun and likable but ultimately ends on a remarkably absurd note. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed parts of it and I've definitely seen worse, but the end of this kept the stupid coming, and coming, and coming. The bright spots? Ryan Phillippe is… More
A thriller that starts out fun and likable but ultimately ends on a remarkably absurd note. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed parts of it and I've definitely seen worse, but the end of this kept the stupid coming, and coming, and coming. The bright spots? Ryan Phillippe is routinely excellent (he has the ultimate "BS face", also seen in "Breach") and the film doesn't get too pretentious because it's evident it's just a fun little movie. Too bad they overdo the fun and crank up the cheesiness to an unbearable degree at it's conclusion.
Dean M

This tale of a software writer who discovers the success of his Bill Gates-like boss and menor may be based more on treachery than talent, is unfortunately degenerates from topical drama to ludicrous thriller.
Ginny

One of those movies I liked when I was still in college.
Stuart B

Ok-ish thriller which takes a not too subtle swipe at microsoft and bill gates
danny d

terrible movie
Steven V

"This isn't a game! In the real world, when you kill people they die - for real! And in the real world you're fucked!" - Milo Hoffman This movie was made to convey a message. If criticised in terms of, say,… More
"This isn't a game! In the real world, when you kill people they die - for real! And in the real world you're fucked!" - Milo Hoffman This movie was made to convey a message. If criticised in terms of, say, similarity to "the Firm", or "yet another cyber thriller", then you really missed the point. The message is pretty blunt, and guaranteed to anger a certain large corporation. This corporation has been known to spend extraordinary resources on PR, so almost certainly some of the comments on this message board will be produced by that corporation and should be read in that light. While murder is a bit over the top, pretty well all the other crimes committed by the large corporation in this movie are things of which the real corporation has been seriously accused, been found to be planning, or in some cases, convicted; yet in every case managing to escape with fines or compensation payments much smaller than the profits they made from the crime. It's also obvious why the motif of murder was added: some of the technical details of why their actions are pure evil are difficult for a non-techie to understand, so to make the movie accessible to a wider audience, they added a more blatant crime. Antitrust is not a futuristic movie, it is present day; nothing in this movie is more than about 1 or 2 years in the future, at most, and most of it is happening now or happened several years ago. Technical realism: while some of the technology stuff is rubbish, the effort put into realism is dramatically good compared to information technology in any other movie I have ever seen. The algorithms they discuss improving are even algorithms the product would really require. Not only that, the product is frighteningly similar to the large corporation's actual current development path. This movie was about as unrealistic and irrelevant as All the President's Men.
Deb S

Milo: This isn't a game! In the real world, when you kill people they die - for real! And in the real world you're fucked! Gary Winston: It's just a matter of time before someone borrows your technology, improves it and makes a billion dollars on it. Ryan Phillipe… More
Milo: This isn't a game! In the real world, when you kill people they die - for real! And in the real world you're fucked! Gary Winston: It's just a matter of time before someone borrows your technology, improves it and makes a billion dollars on it. Ryan Phillipe (Cruel Intentions) stars as a computer wizard Milo who catches the eye of Gary Winston (Tim Robbins), a kind of seedier version of Bill Gates, whose company is on the verge of achieving a quantum leap forward in the realm of global communications. Their `Synapse' satellite system, once operational, will make global communications through any medium a reality and Milo just so happens to be one of maybe twenty programmers in the world who can accomplish the task before the targeted date set by Winston to launch Synapse. But Milo is not so much of a nerd that he would fail to notice his new boss is even resorting to murder in order to keep his project up and running. Director Peter Howitt manages to create quite a bit of tension as Milo slowly realises that no-one can be trusted, and everything ties up nicely in a well paced and exciting ending. <a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=2e1viq0" target="_blank"><img src="http://i54.tinypic.com/2e1viq0.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a> <a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=idslf7" target="_blank"><img src="http://i55.tinypic.com/idslf7.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a> <a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=30w7ach" target="_blank"><img src="http://i54.tinypic.com/30w7ach.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a> <a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=eiw12o" target="_blank"><img src="http://i53.tinypic.com/eiw12o.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>
Andrew F

It was suprisingly good. It had me on the edge of my seat. It was pretty clever and is definatley underrated, but it felt really weird.
Jason R

Kind of an underrated film! I watched this in theaters when it first came out and just recently saw it again on cable and it is still really good.
Leo L

Interesting movie. Good story plot.