Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Mohamed Saied Abo Elela OK...I have never watched that movie before, call me a retard or something, but I just finished watching that movie for the very first time ever few moments ago...You know it's a brilliant sci-fi movie when it still gets you on the hook even after more than 3 decades, when the ordinary sci-fi loses its touch within 5 years max! As far as I am concerned, this movie was the very first to plan how the machines may write the end of this world themselves, the first one to predict that a global hacking war can lead to a whole country being shut down completely; regarding hospitals, traffic, police, army, communications, everything! I loved the movie...It would be great to watch it right now with all that hacking stuff going around! 9/10...Amazing!

zkonedog In this quintessentially 1980s movie (it co-stars Dabney Coleman, so that pretty much qualifies it right there), a young computer-hacker (played by a very young Matthew Broderick) accidentally hacks into the U.S. defense missile control center (while trying to forge his high school grades!) and initiates a game of "war" with a supercomputer that is used to formulate possible outcomes of thermonuclear war with Russia. Broderick's character initially plays the "side" of Russia, prompting the computer to be the U.S. and eventually push the real military generals to the brink of starting an actual war based on the faulty information the computer is giving them.I won't spoil the end of the film here, but suffice it to say that it is, at the very least, an interesting little morality lesson on nuclear proliferation and mutually-assured destruction. I began watching this movie at home on my couch one morning I was off from work and got hooked, ending up watching it to its conclusion. It just has that perfect mix of playfulness (you really can't get too serious with Broderick as your star) and serious issues that plague our current world.Surprisingly, this is probably the best film I have ever seen that deals with very serious, terrible issues (like nuclear weapons) in a dramatic format. Rocky IV was a little too weepy, and Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country was a bit too political (both in their takes on U.S./Soviet relations), but this film had the right blend of entertaining scenarios and moments that really made me think.I would recommend this movie to two types of people: 1. Those who grew up in the 80s and still love the styles/themes/films of that decade and either want to re-live them or experience this one for the first time; and 2. Children with an interest in history or politics, as they will love the simplistic messages inherent in the film's conclusion. Also, if you are an adult who can suspend his/her cynicism for about two hours, then you will find this film worthwhile as well.

LeonLouisRicci A Computer or Technology Centered Film is Inherently going to be Dated. There is No Stopping the Exponential Advancement and this Film has that Albatross Hanging and Holding one's Attention in almost every Frame.Ironically, Personal Computers have become Not Only an Inseparable Part of Everyday Life, but Considered Our "Personal" Friends and We Display much Affection and Attention to our Artificial, Inanimate Companions, and it is that Overwhelming Inclusion where this Movie Finds many Curious Admirers.After All, it's like Looking at Infants. so Young, so Cute, so Nostalgic. Add to that, the Global Thermonuclear "Wargames" Scenario and the 1980's Fresh Take on Intelligent Machines Humming Along and Without much Effort, making their way into the Everyday of Human Existence, You have a Movie with an Enormous Appeal.Nostalgia is a Powerful Thing. Computers are Powerful Things. the Computers in This Film are Dinosaurs, Today We Seem Like Smart Rodents Looking Out and Hiding in the Crevices by Comparison. This is a Much Remembered and Loved Movie. It Hit All the Right Keystrokes as it Became One of the Biggest Hits of the Era and Folks Today, Looking Back, Seem to Love it Even More. It Can Also be a Time Travel of Technology and Political Mindset.So Even Those That Were Not Alive or Consciously Aware of the Way Things Were in 1983 Find the Film Fascinating on Many Levels. It Transcends its Place in Time and Has Become a Minor Classic Dealing With Hackers, Computers, and Cold War Paranoia. The Two Lead Teens Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy are Superb and Lead the Viewer Through This Troubling Scenario and Charm just Enough to Take the Edge Off the World On the "Eve of Destruction" Story and Make it Entertaining Enough, and the Film Becomes Fantasy. A Fairy Tale of Sorts, but Like Most Fairy Tales, Scary Enough to be Cautionary.

David Conrad "WarGames" is so much more fun than it has a right to be. Being a 1983 movie that trades heavily in technical jargon and low-res computer readouts, it should feel hopelessly dated; it doesn't. As a movie that makes plucky teens its heroes, it should feel juvenile and frivolous; it doesn't. Since its plot is an explicit reaction to Cold War tensions, it should come across as heavy-handed and moralizing; it doesn't. Good acting, writing, and directing—the basics of movie-making—conspire to avoid these pitfalls, seemingly almost in spite of themselves.Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy were two of the most successful teen stars of the 80s for a reason. They look and talk like the kids next door. In this movie, both of their characters would be artificially, almost eerily normal, the Hollywood version of "average" kids, except that they're both just a little bit "off" in ways that aren't necessarily intended but are nevertheless endearing and refreshing. Broderick, probably by nature rather than decision, underplays everything even in the face of nuclear Armageddon, and this works because it keeps the tone light. Another way to balance the apocalyptic plot that places tens of millions of lives on the line would have been to make the acting comically over-the-top, but this would not have been as relatable and would quickly have become tiresome. As for Sheedy's character, she could easily have been just another movie girlfriend relegated to the sidelines, but the script adds idiosyncrasies and Sheedy brings a playfulness that keeps her sharing the spotlight for most of the film. She rides a motorcycle on which Broderick's character rides behind her, a fact that goes rightly unremarked in the movie but which I think deserves approbation from commenters, and she has a charismatic way of sauntering freely into places she isn't expected.The set design has the visual appeal of a Bond movie, with a huge, flashy command center, an underground bunker, and an antagonist's plush island retreat. The camera has lots of room to play among these sets, but the scenes in Broderick's prosaic classroom, closet-sized school office, and cluttered bedroom look small and cramped. His escape from them into the wider, more dangerous world of high-stakes espionage therefore feels like breaking free, and it is a journey we want to go on instead of nitpicking the nonsense of it all. The script gets away with a lot of loose logic because it moves so fast and keeps introducing new twists. Instead of just explaining himself to the authorities (who are doubly stupid here: they have the stupidity of military brass in an anti-war movie and the stupidity of adults in a teen movie), Broderick goes it alone. When the military is told they're playing a game, they persist in thinking it's real, and when Broderick is told early on that his "game" is "definitely military" software, he promptly "plays" it anyway. But the movie knows what it's doing, even if the characters don't, and makes a point of the lack of distinction between games and reality for the computers that we program to manage both. It sounds like a sci-fi premise, but in a rarity for sci-fi and "hacker" movies, the script gets a lot of the technical language right. Like, for example, the concept of "computer learning," which in the movie and often in real life is explored through games of tic-tac- toe.Though in many ways a relic of the '80s, "WarGames"'s smart decisions keep it entertaining for more than just the nostalgic.