I.T. (2016)

Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Director: John Moore
Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Anna Friel, James Frecheville, Stefanie Scott, Michael Nyqvist
Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins
Rating: NC16 (Coarse Language and Sexual Scene)
Released By: Shaw
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 13 October 2016

Synopsis: I.T. centers on MIKE REGAN (Pierce Brosnan), a successful, self-made man who has it all - a gorgeous wife (Anna Friel), a beautiful teenage daughter (Stefanie Scott) and a sleek, state-of-the-art “smart home”. His company, Regan Aviation, is on the verge of changing the private jet business forever when his relationship with Ed Porter (James Frecheville), his I.T. consultant, goes awry. Mike quickly finds himself in a deadly, high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse when Ed starts using his I.T. skills to stalk Mike’s daughter and endanger his family, his business, and his life. In a world where there is no privacy, and personal secrets can go viral by the click of a mouse, Mike needs to rely on his old connections to defeat a new kind of nemesis.

Movie Review:

Every generation needs a couple of tech thrillers. Sneakers, Hackers, The Net, Antitrust, Firewall and last year’s Blackhat just to name a few. So many of them and most of them aren’t that particularly good to begin with. We have four more years before the end of the decade and Pierce Brosnan and his Irish DreamTime outfit brings audience another forgettable tech thriller, make that home invasion tech thriller.

In I.T., Brosnan stars as an aviation tycoon, Mike Regan who is preparing to take his company public. The details are blurry but all we need to know is Regan is starting an Uber-like service for billionaires and millionaires. Instead of cabs they have jets. Anyway, impressed by the capabilities of his temp IT guy, Ed Porter (James Frecheville from Perfect Mothers), Regan befriend Porter hoping he can help him in the app his company is developing for the new venture. Unfortunately, Porter turned out to be a psychopath who wired his smart home and threatened his family and him.  

I.T. offers nothing new nor original to the genre. It is completely devoid of thrills and action and in most of the screentime, Brosnan looks as frustrated as the audiences. The movie only starts to pick up it’s languishing pacing when a peculiar “cleaner” (played by Michael Nyqvist from John Wick, Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol) appears to aid Regan resolve his sticky situation. What might have helped matters would have Nyqvist sticking for a while longer but what we have in the end is a movie that is filled with too much laughable loopholes and a truckload of dumb cops.

We have definitely seen our fair share of middle-aged men going through desperate measures to protect their loved ones. Mike Regan is no exception. Strangely, despite the wealth and company he built, he is a very stupid man. Who the hell invites a stranger to his house to tweak his wifi? Considering this man is a smartass in technology. With all the money in the world and Mike Regan prefers to risk his life to take back some thumbdrives in a psychopath’s lair? The more you think about it, the less it makes sense.

James Frecheville puts in a fine performance as the nerdy/psychotic IT guy even though the sickest thing he did is to transmit a video of Regan’s teenage daughter masturbating to everybody’s smartphone in her school. His antics are overall pretty mild liked tweaking Mrs Regan’s mammogram record and taking control of Regan’s fancy Maserati that you probably wish Ed Porter could do more than that. And in a frail attempt to invoke some sympathy, the narration even throws in a backstory about his character being an abused victim from a broken family.

Coming from the hands of Brosnan’s fellow Irishmen, John Moore aka the guy who nearly crippled the Die Hard franchise and killed The Omen remake, this is not a title you expect to rise above any other average tech thriller you seen in the past decade. All in all, the movie features a decent cinematography with Ireland making a good substitution for Washington DC and Brosnan desperately extending his shelf life as an action hero. 

Movie Rating:

(Never hire a temp IT guy to work for you)

Review by Linus Tee