Sneakers (1992) - Blu-ray Assessment

      Sneakers, 1992.

      Directed by Phil Alden Robinson.

      Featuring Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley, Mary McDonnell, River Phoenix, Sidney Poitier, and David Strathairn.

      SYNOPSIS:

      Sneakers makes its debut on 4K Ultra HD and is released again on Blu-ray in a new edition that includes a fresh 4K scan of the film, along with the same special features as previously. It seems that one of the commentary tracks was not included in the last Blu-ray release, making this new version potentially worthwhile for those who purchased the previous edition.

      There’s an insightful exchange toward the end of Sneakers. Cosmo (Ben Kingsley) converses with his longtime friend Martin (Robert Redford) and remarks: “The world isn’t governed by weapons anymore, or energy, or money. It’s governed by ones and zeros, bits of data. It’s all just electrons.” He emphasizes: “It’s about who has control over the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it all revolves around the information!”

      It’s important to note that this film was released in 1992. The World Wide Web, as it was known in the 1990s, was still in its infancy, guided by its creator Tim Berners-Lee. The emergence of social media was nearly a decade away.

      How relevant is that quote today? We currently live in an age saturated with misinformation and fabricated images and videos, with a notable amount of AI-generated content mixed in. It’s easy to acknowledge that Trump was elected President twice during this chaotic environment.

      This is what makes Phil Alden Robinson’s Sneakers (with screenwriting contributions from Lawrence Lasker and Walter Parkes) worth revisiting, even 33 years after its original release, in this new Blu-ray edition from Kino Lorber.

      Redford’s character, previously known as Martin Bishop, now goes by Martin Brice. Back in 1969, he was friends with Cosmo, who was taken into custody after a hacking attempt went wrong. Martin managed to escape and believed for decades that his friend had died in prison.

      Martin leads a group of so-called “sneakers” tasked with testing computer systems through hacking attempts: former CIA agent Donald Crease (Sidney Poitier), technician and conspiracy theorist Darren “Mother” Roskow (Dan Aykroyd), young hacker Carl Arbogast (River Phoenix), and blind phone “phreak” Irwin “Whistler” Emery (David Strathairn).

      When two individuals posing as NSA (National Security Agency) agents leverage Martin’s past against him, he is forced to enlist his team to secure a Russian-funded black box before it lands in enemy hands, putting him on a collision course with his history. Accompanying him on this journey is his ex-girlfriend, Liz (Mary McDonnell), who shares his technological interests.

      Sneakers is an enjoyable film that may seem outdated at first glance but truly was ahead of its time, as noted earlier. “It’s all about the information?” is a sentiment that holds even greater significance today.

      Kino Lorber has produced a new 4K scan for this edition, available on Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD. I received the Blu-ray for this review, and it looked excellent on my mid-range setup. I’m sure the 4K Ultra HD version is equally impressive.

      Regarding bonus content, there are no new features included for this release, but it seems that the commentary track with Phil Alden Robinson and screenwriters Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes was missing from the last high-definition edition of the film.

      I recently listened to the commentary by Lasker and Parkes with John Badham for WarGames, which is packed with valuable insights, and the commentary found here with Robinson is similarly informative. I always appreciate when screenwriters participate in commentary tracks, as they provide great perspectives on the film's development and any changes that occurred on its journey to the screen.

      The other commentary features Robinson and cinematographer John Lindley discussing the film. While the first commentary can be viewed as a strategic session, this one is more tactical, delving into the script's execution during filming and the various challenges encountered.

      The final bonus feature is a 40-minute documentary, The Making of Sneakers, which begins with an in-depth exploration of the screenplay's writing process. Mathematics professor Len Adelman, who served as a consultant for the film, shares his insights, along with John Draper, the individual who pioneered “phone phreaking” by figuring out how to replicate the sounds that allowed free calls from payphones. He later encountered the discovery that the blue whistle found in Cap’n Crunch cereal achieved the same result.

      The second half of the documentary explores the story and characters that emerged from all that development work. When combined with