Matthew Broderick introduced the masses to the world of hacking, phreaking and global thermo nuclear war.

The average person at that time had never heard of a phone phreak, but we see the lead character get free calls on a payphone and stealing software via his 300 baud modem before anyone knew there was software worth stealing.

Not only are his parents affluent enough to supply him with a computer, he gets discarded computer hardware from friends at a local university to make the super-duper hacking machine that ends up getting him in big big trouble.

While a lot of this story is pretty improbable, some of the plot was dead on for the time. There were no minature computers and cameras and while the government had satelites, they couldn't count your eyelashes from the stratosphere like they can today.

Nuclear war with the Soviet Union was a real threat when this movie came out... all of my friends talked about it and posters with mushroom clouds were all over our school. Sting came out with the song "Russians" and we all peed in our pants when the show "The Day After" aired on prime time TV.

It was a scary time and this movie masterfully played on the fear of nuclear threats and the real likelihood (and nowadays a reality) of having formerly human-manned stations automated by computers.

Lots of excitement, great background music and lots of 80s nostalgia abound in this film. If you're in your late 20s to early 40s and you haven't seen this film, it's your duty to get it!

I wish the DVD had more features, such as out-takes and interviews with the stars and perhaps others (like folks at NASA or other famous computer geeks) who may have been influenced by this film. The DVD platform isn't taken advantage like it should be, especially w/ a film of this genre. Nonetheless, it's a better format than VHS and definitely watchable over and over again.


What a Blast!   January 4, 2003
 20 out of 21 found this review helpful

This review refers to the MGM DVD edition of "War Games"......

"War Games" is a film to be enjoyed by the whole family. Only the very young may not find it entertaining as it may be beyond their comprehension.Take a trip back to the early eighties. There may have been "a car in every driveway, a chicken in every pot..", but definately not a computer in every teenager's bedroom.

David Lightman(Matthew Broderick) is a high school slacker. He is highly intellegent but for the most part an underachiever when it comes to his school work. Not a problem though. He only has to go home where he has a very high tech computer set-up for the time period. Once there he justs hacks his way into the school computer and changes his grades! Brilliant! So brilliant in fact, that one day he finds that he has broken into a high security system, and finds himself in the Defense Department's war computer. He was only looking for games, and he found one..."Global Thermonuclear War"!

The computer starts playing the game with him, he thinks it's a blast(excuse the pun)he even takes the Russian side, until he realizes...this may be no game. The military is perplexed by what they see on their big screens and they immediatley go into a defense mode.The only hope now is to find the creator of this game and hope he can make the computer stop playing before WWIII begins!

You'll be riveted by the thrilling and high tech action as David and his girlfriend(Ally Sheedy) go on the run with the FBI close on their heels, and try to prevent this terrible tragedy from occuring.

The young stars steal the show in this one, but it is rounded out by fine performances by Dabney Coleman and John Wood. It was directed by John Badham who keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout.

A very nice DVD. You'll view all the action in sharp colors and an outstanding picture. You have the choice of widescreen or standard.(No need to figure out which side it's on, you make that decision at the beginning of the film)Very good sound in Dolby Dig 5.1. There is feature length commentary by the director and the writers. Be sure to GO BACK to RESUME after pressing on this choice to get to it.It also includes a nice booklet and may be viewed in French or with subtitles in English, French or Spanish.

This is one everyone in the house should be happy with.. and may even take up Chess afterwards...enjoy...Laurie


C'mon, all you 80s Fans!! You know you LOVE this Film!!   April 4, 2008
 16 out of 21 found this review helpful

You know it, you love it. WarGames is a film that's even more poignant now that we're celebrating its Silver Anniversary (that's 25 years, Dubya) - with one of the biggest threats we face as a planet being the spectre of loose nukes.

For those WarGamers who simply can't wait until Amazon posts the specs of this oh-so-muy-especial edition:

Disc One:
* 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen Transfer
* Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 Audio
* Commentary by Director John Badham and Writers Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes

Disc Two:
* Loading WarGames
* Attack of the Hackers
* Inside NORAD: Cold War Fortress
* Tic Tac Toe: A True Story
* Interactive Superpower Weapons Briefing Gallery
* Sneak Peek at WarGames 2: The Dead Code
* WarGames Theatrical Trailer

Now, don't nuke me: These specs are **UNCONFIRMED**. And yes, it appears there is no new commentary *and* there is that trailer for the upcoming direct-to-DVD release of WarGames 2 with a completely unknown cast. Oh well, c'est la vie, and la vie goes on...



Movie is great, but the commentary is superb!   September 6, 2000
 9 out of 9 found this review helpful

Watching this movie again brings back some great nostalgic feelings -- back in these days computers were *special*, something amazing and almost magical. Being a software professional, I often yearn for those times again, where we weren't something as boring as "IT professionals" but "wizards". Reading an old copy of BYTE from 1980 or watching WarGames helps :)

I won't praise the movie further, but I want to highlight the commentary audio track: the director, John Badham and the two writers, Lawrence Lasker and Walter Parkes comment every scene in the movie. It's really great stuff, not the usual junk you might hear actors say about their own role in the movie (that seldom sounds convincing) but lots of technical details about how the movie was made (for example, the initial blizzard scene was apparently created with the help of helicopters) to exactly what sort of computer equipment was used (a TRS-80) and why. The commentators are having lots of fun and manage to share a lot of trivia (for example, W.O.P.R. was considered named PSIOP(sp)).


Spanish subtitles don't work   November 1, 2003
 8 out of 16 found this review helpful

There is an error in this DVD, and other folks here have also spotted it. The advertised Spanish subtitles do not work. French comes out instead. When you select English, the words are in English. When you select French, the words are in French. And when you select Spanish, the words are again in French.

I had bought this DVD specifically for its Spanish subtitles since I have family that doesn't understand English very well. Que pena.