Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
A computer programmer's dream job at a hot Portland-based firm turns nightmarish when he discovers his boss has a secret and ruthless means of dispatching anti-trust problems.
Antitrust is a competent but largely forgettable late-90s/early-2000s tech thriller. The plot borrows heavily from paranoid corporate conspiracy thrillers with a thinly veiled Bill Gates analogue as villain, but fails to develop its premise with much sophistication or tension. The acting is serviceable but unremarkable — Ryan Phillippe is bland in the lead, and Tim Robbins, while watchable, is given a cartoonish villain to play. Cinematography is functional and occasionally stylish but nothing memorable. Novelty is low as the film recycles familiar hacker/corporate thriller tropes without adding a distinctive voice. The ending resolves predictably with a tidy, unearned conclusion that undercuts whatever tension was built.