The Net (1995)

Most of us have shrugged off the loss of our personal privacy in the digital age because we are too busy to care, uploading dopey movie reviews, sharing cat videos or answering Facebook surveys - which Golden Girl or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle are you? - but this thriller, released when the internet was just twelve years old, has Sandra Bullock's Angela Bennett, a computer programmer, realising with horror that not only has her identity been stolen but the people who stole it have replaced her details with those of a woman wanted by police, forcing poor Angela off the grid and requiring her to navigate a murky tech underworld of highly sought-after 3.5" diskettes, dial-up cyberhacking using WHOIS commands, mysterious pi symbols that conceal html code, two-hander mobile phone bricks, and deep web stuff like a computer program that features a likeness of Mozart dressed like Beetlejuice playing electric guitar - will Angela escape the anarchy and get her old life back? (a big green block cursor blinks slowly awaiting input of the sort GETLIFEBACK)

★★☆☆☆

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Eye In The Sky (2015)

Depicting a situation rather than telling a story, this war room thriller purports to show a realistic lead-up to a fictional air strike and it is fascinating if only to wonder at the reality of the technology (not the hummingbird spycam - that's certainly not being used by British Intelligence) and to wonder at the likelihood of the discussions that take place between British and American military leaders and politicians who drink tea and weigh up potential collateral damage.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEW