For this year, I’m going with the reminder of the fractured phrase: Hooray for Hollyweird! Most of us love movies and I enjoy recommending what you should watch on any given day. So, Hooray for Hollyweird … and for today’s recommendation, let’s go back to 1983 for the very forward-looking “WarGames” with Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy.
Yes, “WarGames” is a teen-centric movie about a computer nerd who nearly starts World War III and Broderick is at his smooth best here as the “cool but doesn’t know it” high schooler. “WarGames” could have fallen into a sappy, stereotypical mess, but is one of the few films that took a very dark look into our future and pretty much hit a home run with each.
After you get away from Broderick showing off his stuff in school and on a computer and Sheedy becoming interested in him, you’ll find yourself in a world where computers talk; computers interact with humans; computers talk over the phone; and computers run things that maybe they shouldn’t be in control over.
Remember, that’s 1983: there was no internet (ye); most homes did not have computer; few people knew what a “firewall” was (and this was the first mention of one in a movie); and that the implications of what could be done via computer would ever be much more than a “game.”
Whew! Science fiction it was not. “WarGames” showed you then today’s technology. What was somewhat fantasy then has evolved into everyday reality from smartphones; to computers making a diagnosis not just of a vehicle, but also of humans; to the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI).
Basically, you’ll remember, Broderick sets off to play new games by hacking in to what he believed was a game company’s computer. Instead, he would up into a military computer that was in the infant stage of taking over launching the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
Oh, boy!
After Broderick and Sheedy, the supporting cast for “WarGames” is light with the best being Dabney Coleman as the tedious bureaucrat responsible for the incompetent new computer and Barry Corbin as the garrulous general who enjoys putting Coleman in his place. Otherwise, you won’t find much to distract you from Broderick.
It’s a streaming world, so go find “WarGames” … and then you’ll definitely say … “Hooray for Hollyweird!”
(CLICK here … to read my review of “WarGames”)
(CLICK here … for links to all my movie reviews)
(CLICK here … for a chronological list of my reviews)
(CLICK here … for all my reviews of horror movies)
(CLICK here … for all my reviews of ‘007’ movies)
(CLICK here … for all my reviews of war movies)
(CLICK here … for all my reviews of Christmas movies)
(CLICK here … for all my reviews of sports movies)
CLICK TO VIEW MY PHOTO GALLERIES & MOVIE REVIEWS:
My movie reviews | Sunrises | Sunsets | DriveTime1 | DriveT2 | DriveTime3
Idiot Parking | Naples Driving Lessons | License plate game | Contrails | UF Gators
Naples1 | Nap2 | Nap3 | Nap4 | Nap5 | Nap6 | Nap7 | Nap8 | Nap9 | Naples10
Disney1 | Diz2 | Diz3 | Diz4 | Diz5 | Diz6 | Diz7 | Diz8 | Diz9 | Diz10 | Diz11 | Disney12
Diz13 | Diz14 | Diz15 | Diz16 | Diz17 | Diz18 | Diz19 | Diz20 | Diz21 | Diz22 | Disney23
NYC | China | Europe | Miami Dolphins | Halloween Horror Nights | Cruises | D.C.
Actors: Charles Bronson | Pierce Brosnan | Gary Busey | Michael Caine | Chevy Chase
Sean Connery | Jamie Lee Curtis | Matt Damon | Robert De Niro | Leonardo DiCaprio
Clint Eastwood | Gene Hackman | Téa Leoni | Steve Martin | Steve McQueen
Roger Moore | Eddie Murphy | Chuck Norris | Brad Pitt | Dennis Quaid | Robert Redford
Burt Reynolds | Rene Russo | Arnold Schwarzenegger | Frank Sinatra | Donald Sutherland
Directors: William Friedkin | Sam Peckinpah | Sydney Pollack | Peter Yates
© Chuck Curry and A Gator in Naples, 2025
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without
express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner
is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that
full and clear credit is given to Chuck Curry and A Gator in Naples
with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
