Net Games (2003)

Silly

Adam Vance (C. Thomas Howell) has a problem. His wife (Monique Demers, whom you may have seen on in-flight United Airlines travel shows) is recovering from rape and is not as amorous as Adam would like. Adam's friend recommends an online site notable for its risqué chat rooms. Thus begins Adam's descent into a Fatal Attraction for the Internet age. The plot is both as simple as that and far more complex; sadly, though, the complexities don't make much sense.

Angel (Lara Sloatman, Amityville - New Generation, Pauly Shore Is Dead) is the woman whom Adam meets in the chat room, and they are soon engaging in, ahem, candid chats. (These chats are more amusing than bawdy as the characters speak their lines, hit a few keys, and then speak the next line. I understand the presumed need for the characters to talk, but still, I am not speaking as I type this. Perhaps speech recognition software would have been a good idea in the film.) When Angel becomes too aggressive for Adam, he tries to call off their fiber-optic relationship. Too late, though.

The primary problem with the movie is the number of implausibilities and absurdities the viewer must accept. For instance, on the night that was to be Adam and Angel's first telephone "date," he has to go out with his employers to celebrate a big contract. No problem there, but Angel calls repeatedly (apparently 24 times), and we see her rather upset in her home. Later, though, we learn that she must have been following him at the same time. At another point, Adam and his best friend do something very stupid when they find a body and decide to bury it. Later, however, it turns out that they must have been followed to the remote location even though I'm sure that if I were ever burying a body, the one thing I would make absolutely sure of as I drove to the burial site is that I was not being followed.

There is also the issue of Adam's wife, Jennifer. Remember, her inability to be romantic is the premise that sends Adam scurrying for the depths of cyberspace. Later, however, she demonstrates a personality change so dramatic that it is laughable. Angel, for her part, is clearly unbalanced, yet she lives in a house that is almost palatial. Though serial killers are, I suppose, good at hiding their crimes behind the facade of an ordinary life, few have been adept at amassing wealth. Granted, film and television often feature characters living in digs far more costly than they would seem to be able to afford, but this movie takes it a bit too far.

Finally, there is the question of what the movie wants to be. It has some moderately graphic scenes and nudity, but it is about as erotic as laundry. Those graphic scenes culminate in murder, and the scenes in the chat rooms are not nearly as engrossing for the film viewer as they are for the characters. If "Net Games" seeks to be a mystery, it fails there, too. In the first 20 or 30 minutes of the film, we know that Angel is blond, lithe, and libidinous. Throughout the film, there are a few blond characters. The detective investigating the case is a blonde, for instance. One of Jennifer's friends is, too. Could either of these women be the mysterious Angel? The film seems equivocal on one of these questions, and ultimately, the connection between Angel and Adam is not sufficiently explained, at least not for me after my one and only viewing. May 16, 2007

A fair warning to browsers of the Internet

Net Games is an excellent movie once one realizes that it reflects a real situation and real dangers which browsers of the net face. The plot resembles the infamous "Cybersex Torture Case," a real court case in which young woman used the net to lure a man into sexual relationships with her and then, as part of her perversion, had him arrested. October 24, 2005

Flimsy Plot - skip this and move on to something else

I see that C. Thomas Howell has appeared in many movies since his heyday in the 80s as an accomplished young actor.

I bought this movie in part for the cheap price, the internet-related plot and to see how much older C. Thomas Howell is; I do not recall seeing him in any movies since the 1980s.

In just a few words: what a very big disappointment! On a rare occasion, I give some low budget movies a chance, but this one started out lame. [...]

The plot is thin and flimsy and the acting is very stiff. Do not bother renting it much less purchasing it, unless it is in the $1 DVD bin and you want to watch a bad movie to kill time. I plan to take my copy of the DVD to Goodwill.

[...] September 3, 2005

Cyber-sex KILLS!

A sex-deprived husband decided to play around with Cyber-sex. He makes contact with a demented nymphomaniac who torments the sex-deprived husband with threatening phone calls and e-mail....and the husband can't make her stop. The nymphomaniac kills the husband's best friend. Could he be next? Erotic, exciting adventure! August 3, 2005

very very good

I bought this movie at Walmart in the bargain pile for $6 expecting nothing more than a mediocre or crappy movie. It turned out to be an awesome movie with plenty of tna, suspense, and a good story. It starts off with this bored married guy (C Thomas Howell aka ponyboy) looking for a little sexual spiceup in his life and he finds the girl mom warned you about in an internet chatroom. This movie is like a cross between scorned and fatal attraction. I usually dont waste my time reviewing movies but I just gotta let everyone know this movie is dope!!! Definitely worth the money or rent! I OWN OVER 200 DVDS HAVE SEEN THEM ALL AND THIS IS IN MY TOP TEN! August 26, 2004

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