Nightmare Code (2014) – Movie review

Nightmare Code (2014)

Director/Producer: Mark Netter
Screenplay by: M.J. Rotondi & Mark Netter

Starring:
Andrew J West
Mei Melancon
Googy Gress
Ivan Shaw

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In Nightmare Code we are introduced to a new job in a tech company that has a very different program on their hands. It can make them a top player in the tech-information field. The Company had a serious tragedy befall them when their genius programmer snapped and shot almost everyone in the office, then killed himself. That man was Foster Cotton, and he wrote the code for a thought recognition program. The program predicts people’s future actions based on their thoughts, mood, feelings, and state of mind, through facial recognition and posture analysis. Applications for law enforcement and anti-terror are perfect uses for this technology.

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A young man, Brett Desmond, assumes the job to debug the program which only days before it was ready to be presented began rewriting its own code. When Brett finds the backdoor access into the code, the code finds access to him and discovers ways to manipulate his thoughts. What he finds at the source of this problem is more terrifying than the program itself. Is there an actual ghost in the machine?

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The story unravels in layers and keeps building into a tightly wound thriller. Philosophical and moral questions are raised through the storytelling that will keep the viewer thinking, but it doesn’t sound preachy or make a judgment. The whole film is viewed through the ‘eyes’ of the program itself, but doesn’t feel restricted in any way other than creating a claustrophobic atmosphere. Often shown as a 4-way split screen, it intrigued my voyeuristic tendencies and built the action to a crescendo.

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The last 20 minutes of this film are tense and terrifying, as the code fulfills its objective. Fans of The Matrix, The Lawnmower Man, and Ex-Machina, will love this smart tech thriller turned nightmare. It isn’t often that I give such praise to a real indie film and filmmaker, but Nightmare Code is a real winner. Hats off and a respectful bow to Mark Netter for this shining achievement. This started as an Indiegogo campaign and the page is still up (but not taking anymore donations) if you want to see the film’s humble roots and early progress. Its currently available now on I-Tunes Movies and Amazon Streaming or dvd.

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http://www.amazon.com/Nightmare-Code-Andrew-J-West/dp/B010CG2EJ6

A tense tech thriller that brings you inside the world of programming then attacks you with terrifying aspects of their work.

I give it 4.0 chilling killer coding out of 5 on the pressure cooker world of programming perfectionism.

Ex Machina (2015) – movie review

Ex Machina (2015) 

Directed by Alex Garland
A young techie, Caleb, is chosen to assist tech guru and company pioneer, Nathan. He is escorted via chopper to a remote underground base, isolated from the world where he meets his boss and his new project. Caleb is to give a personal analysis to an intelligent humanoid, Ava. Caleb is putting her through the Turing Test to see if she has fully achieved AI and could pass as human with her intellect. He meets with her everyday and a relationship develops. Caleb provides simple analysis of her human-like qualities as Nathan watches from a monitoring and security system. Caleb’s interactions with Ava tell us much about human interactions with each other. The lab itself experiences periodic system black outs. It’s during one of these system failures that Ava tells Caleb that Nathan is a liar and not to be trusted.

Nathan is an arrogant, manipulative prick, the kind that we have all come across in our lives. It’s difficult to tell if his original intentions were for the betterment of the world or just to stroke his own ego. During proceeding system blackouts Caleb and Ava have short bursts of uncensored discussions. Nathan discovers a problem with letting Caleb get extremely attached to Ava. He reveals his plans to replace her with the next model version, 9.6. She will be destroyed, and along with her, the memory of what Caleb and Ava had shared. Is that murder? The movie’s question is whether Ava had reached true AI. I’d say by the end of the film she has…adopting and formulating both the best and worst traits of human kind

The movie is an intellectual curiosity and is therefore only effective when you’re in the frame of mind to engage in both self analysis and to delve into the bigger questions of the human condition. Existential dilemma and conflict, aspects that make you think beyond the borders of a movie, are what make classic science fiction films. I think that is something missing from many of today’s sci-fi movies. This film certainly has a high quality story and script, but no high action. I just don’t think it can impress the CGI expectant modern audience and be considered a classic. I would recommend it, but I just don’t see many others doing the same.

Interesting analytical sci-fi film worth a viewing for its thoughtful stimulation.

I give it a 4.0 terabytes of AI analysis on the realistic robot reverb scale.