Ryan Phillippe was starting to make progress as an actor. Best known for teen movies such as "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Cruel Intentions," he stretched his chops in last year's "The Way of the Gun" with a gritty performance as a kidnapping murderer. Phillippe is surprisingly good in the movie and it gave one hope that he could evolve into something more than just a pretty face.
But it wasn't meant to be. Instead of following up his adult role in "The Way of the Gun" with another challenging part, Phillippe chose to star in "AntiTrust," an inane teen thriller that gets more unbelievable and laughably awful as it progresses.
The young heartthrob stars as Milo Hoffmann. Milo and his buddies are computer nerds and recent graduates of Stanford University. They plan on starting their own business together until Milo receives a call from Gary Winston (Tim Robbins). Gary, who looks strikingly similar to Bill Gates, owns a company called NURV (Never Underestimate Radical Vision), which is strikingly similar to Microsoft.
Gary recruits Milo in his home, giving him a dazzling speech and asking him what he would do with a billion dollars. He tries to show Milo that he is just a regular guy obsessed with being the best at what he does. Milo takes the bate and, with his girlfriend Alice (Claire Forlani), moves north to work for NURV.
In less than two months, NURV is supposed to unveil some new satellite system that will change the way the world communicates. People will be able to send video images with their cell phone and all sorts of neat, needless stuff. Milo must make sure they are able to meet their date.
"AntiTrust" is full of twists and turns, all of which you can easily predict, but it would be mean to reveal any of them in case someone out there plans on wasting their time and money by seeing the movie.
Writer Howard Franklin ("The Man Who Knew Too Little") and director Peter Howitt ("Sliding Doors") try desperately to create "The Firm" for minors but fail miserably. Sometimes, when you watch a movie, you scream out "That could never happen!" or something similar. That happens every five minutes in "AntiTrust."
Why Robbins is in this movie is anyone's guess. Maybe he needed the money to direct his dream project or maybe longtime girlfriend Susan Sarandon wanted to give more to the countless organizations she supports. He does his best to give the film a little class, but he can't overcome the ludicrous script.
Phillippe is just plain terrible. For the first hour he speaks in a whisper and is lifeless. It's easy to understand why he is so bored, but he got paid a lot of money when he took the part, so he could have tried a little harder. Towards the end he begins to show signs of life but by then it's too late, and not for one second is he convincing as a computer nerd. It even looks like they used a keyboard double for the scenes that required him to type.
Easy-to-please teens might enjoy "AntiTrust," but everyone else should see something else. Movies don't get any dumber than this.
Grade: D-
"AntiTrust" is now showing.
