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Reviews/Film; A 1970's Caper Movie With Heroes of the Time

Sneakers
Directed by Phil Alden Robinson
Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
PG-13
2h 6m

Reviews/Film; A 1970's Caper Movie With Heroes of the Time
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September 9, 1992, Section C, Page 18Buy Reprints
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"Sneakers" looks like a movie that just surfaced after being buried alive for 20 years. It's an atrophied version of a kind of caper movie that was so beloved in the early 1970's, starring Robert Redford and Sidney Poitier, both of whom were very big back then, though they now appear embarrassed to be imitating their youthful selves in such creaky fashion.

Mr. Redford even says at one point, "We're getting too old for this," as if to disarm criticism. Instead the line calls attention to all of the other ways in which time has overtaken the movie, directed by Phil Alden Robinson ("Field of Dreams") and written by him with Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes. Mr. Lasker and Mr. Parkes are the team that wrote the somewhat funnier and timelier "War Games" (1983), which also made use of computer mythology.

At the center of this caper is a little black box, one of those magical instruments on which mad doctors pin their hopes for world domination. In fact, it looks like a telephone answering machine, but it can instantaneously break any computer code that a company, industry or nation might use to guard its secrets.

Mr. Redford plays Dan Bishop, who was a notorious computer hacker in his undergraduate days in the 1960's. In the film's opening sequence, the youthful Dan, played by Gary Hershberger (who looks remarkably like Mr. Redford), and his pal Cosmo (Jojo Marr) are seen as they break into the computers of the rich to provide money for the poor. Dan manages to escape a raid on their lab, but Cosmo winds up doing prison time.

Dan has since gone more or less straight and now runs a company that tests security systems for large corporations. Mr. Poitier appears as one of his associates, a 20-year C.I.A. man cashiered, it's said, because of a personality conflict.

Theirs is pretty much an all-star gang, the other members being played by Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix and David Strathairn. Playing Dan's nemesis is Ben Kingsley, who shows up as the adult Cosmo, who not only looks entirely different but also speaks with a strange mid-Atlantic accent. Dan and Cosmo, once pals, now engage in series of a bitter and violent confrontations for possession of the little black box.

"Sneakers" is jokey without being funny, breathless without creating suspense, in part because of the feeble plot. Any 11-year-old film buff will be ahead of its revelations. The characters are more often described by the dialogue than they are defined by what they do. The two exceptions are the fellows played by Mr. Strathairn, who is blind and has developed phenomenal hearing skills, and Mr. Phoenix, who is easily identifiable because he is so much younger than anyone else in the movie.

The performances are generally quite bad. Among other things that date "Sneakers" is its abiding faith in technology. Everything in the movie works perfectly, the fancy electronic surveillance equipment, the voice-identifiers, the computers, the little black box. Nothing crashes except the movie.

"Sneakers" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has some vulgar language and sexual situations. Sneakers

Directed by Phil Alden Robinson; written by Lawrence Lasker, Walter F. Parkes and Mr. Robinson; director of photography, John Lindley; edited by Tom Rolf; music by James Horner; production designer, Patrizia von Brandenstein; produced by Mr. Parkes and Mr. Lasker; released by Universal Pictures. Running time: 125 minutes. This film is rated PG-13. Bishop . . . Robert Redford Crease . . . Sidney Poitier Young Bishop . . . Gery Hershberger Whistler . . . David Strathairn Mother . . . Dan Aykroyd Carl . . . River Phoenix Gregor . . . George Hearn Dick Gordon . . . Timothy Busfield Liz . . . Mary McDonnell Cosmo . . . Ben Kingsley Young Cosmo . . . Jojo Marr

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section C, Page 18 of the National edition with the headline: Reviews/Film; A 1970's Caper Movie With Heroes of the Time. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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