Terminal Entry (1987) User Reviews (7)

Terminally Stupid

[anxietyresister · 4/10 · 18 May 2009]

Take WarGames, dial down the intelligence level by 99%, add a bunch of dumb teens and some incredibly cheesy action sequences and what have you got? Do you need me to tell you?

You know the scenario.. three guys and three gals hack into a terrorist computer network which they think is a game but is instead a real life program. They order the assassination of the Russian peace envoy, explode a few oil refineries and generally wreck mayhem all over the good ol' US of A. Only when they order their own deaths as a joke do they realise this is all actually happening in real life. Who can save them? Why, only a bearded border control guard and his bubbly news anchor girlfriend. Then, you have the hard-as-nails black guy and the obese White House security officer. (NEVER accuse the writers of sticking to convention!!)

Obviously, the fat dude is the only one to actually get shot in the film.. big target you see. The rest of the action involves lots of blanks being sprayed randomly about, tons of extras diving onto the ground in slow motion and explosions where the sound effects seem out of proportion to the minor blasts we see. There's some hand to-hand combat too, which wouldn't look out of place in a comedy satire. Meanwhile the computer nerds take it in turns to unwittingly plot the destruction of the free world on their PC, and shag the attractive ladies they bought along with them for the ride.

See, it's films like this that give spotty anti-social freaks who play Warcraft all day long a vain hope they may have a hope of losing their virginity. Sorry, not gonna happen. Despite six kids causing the deaths of thousands by ordering a hitherto unknown band of radicals to commit acts of terrorism over their PC, and supermen who can kill people by the dozen without taking so much as a scratch themselves, this is by far the most ludicrous plot in the movie.

Still, it's not entirely without merit. The script is so hair-brained in will almost certainly keep you engrossed till the end, and it's always worth having a giggle at the many overdone battles. But at the end of the day, this amounts to very little but a waste of time and energy. Don't hold your breath for the DVD release. *GASP* 4/10

P.S There is a 'funny' monologue by one of the main characters over the ending credits which is possibly the most UNhilarious things I've ever heard in my life. Plus an extra scene which would suggest a sequel. Except it never made it past the drawing board. Phew!

Computer Game gone wrong movie

[anthrakas · 4/10 · 30 October 2003]

Well. I have to say I saw this film when I was 14-15 and I found it amusing.

It is based around a group of teenagers who gather and play an adventure game together. They try to find the ultimate game and finaly they find a very exciting one that sends terrorists to targets.

They seem to have full control over this terrorist network indeed.

By coincidence they find out that the terrorist acts they plan are executed for real!

Nice twist, but the movie is definetly dated and it hasn't age well.

Terminally ill... (spoilers)

[vertigo_14 · 2/10 · 20 March 2005]

I knew this was going to be bad. I expected it from the minute I picked up the box, turned around and looked at the screen caps and couldn't stop laughing at the dated looking teenagers.

What the heck was Yaphet Koto and Edward Albert doing in this 'Wargames' rip-off? The story of a bunch of teens who spend the weekend in a secluded cabin in the woods hacking into an on-line video game called 'Terminal Entry.' Although, they hadn't figured out that it's not a game at all, but terrorists actually using the interface to carry out their hijacking of the American communications system (there only seems to be one that they're after) and are using the game to carry out their assassination plots.

It's is a terrible, achingly boring movie that is so slow movie. The action scenes are pathetic, the dialog is stupid. You can immediately sense how lame this movie will be from the very beginning when the model is showering nude (why are people always so happy when they shower in the movies?) in full make-up or when Yaphet Koto is being shot at in his helicopter by ground terrorists, and doesn't seem the least bit bothered by the fuselage of gunfire. Edward Albert plays the hardened, five-foot soldier who takes it upon himself to single-handedly kill the terrorists. It's his mission.

Two stars because hottie Patrick Labyroteaux actually adds a bit of humor.

Do yourself a big favor, pocket the cash and time you would spend watching this mess and do something else.

So bad it's actually Funny...

[egs · 3 January 1999]

Watching the dish one day me and a friend where flipping through the channals and happened to discover Terminal Entry on one of the channels. It said AO (adult Only) so we thought what the hell! Only if we knew the truth. Just the cheap credits make you want to turn it off right away. Let alone the plot. A bunch of high school kids hack into this Terriorist Satellite and hack into this "game". Now how do they get the password for this game. SImple at the start of the movie with the only NUDITY in it anywhere. AO my ass. Well anyway they start playing this game and are telling "Agents" who happen to be real to assassinate and blow up all these places. Well then this one moron who hacked the game, decides to blow up have the united states which ends up really happening but he doesn't know that it is. Finally He decides to top it all off, and to Agent # 23 gives the location of the farm house, and tells him to kill the six kids in side and even downloads his picture into the computer so he knows who to kill. Well this is one agent right..Well when they show up TO KILL 6 TEENAGERS, theres 10 of them , then suddenly more and more appear outta no where. Then of course the military guys that have there own plot happening show up and just makes the movie even more screwed. You don't need to be a thinker to watch this one. It was a good laugh though!

FOr Cheap laughs rent this cheap film Terminal Entry

Absolutely terrible, not even many stupid laughs

[Seagalogist · 2/10 · 4 September 2007]

This movie sucks. I mean I found it in a bargain bin at a store and I expected a movie that was so cheesy and terrible it made you laugh. Instead what we get is a story about a group of teens who love computer games and spend 19 hours 'online' non stop. I stress online because when was the internet ever like what it is in this movie? Its so inaccurate. This movie has dated badly. Movies made in the late 80s/early 90s generally do, but they still remain some charm. Terminal entry does not. The only thing good about this movie is how bad the acting of the teenagers is and how the magnum PI wannabe guy is so Uber cool! Watch it at your peril. If you want unintentional humour watch 'Stone Cold' or 'Hard to Kill' (classics).

Solidly fun movie

[tarbosh22000 · 7/10 · 10 November 2014]

Captain Danny Jackson (Albert) is a Strike Team Leader who is trying to stop Islamic terrorists from crossing over the borders of the USA from Mexico. He's working with Colonel Styles (Kotto) and their mysterious and overweight boss Stewart (Smith). Complicating their job is the fact that the terrorists are now communicating via the all-new technology of "going online". This is confounding them, especially Jackson, who is a man of action who would rather be shooting a machine gun from a speeding jeep than tinkering around on a computer like some kind of nerd. Which brings us to the activities of six teens - Bob, Tom and Howie (Labyorteaux, Stone and Temeles) and their prospective girlfriends Chris, Tina and Gwen (Helmer, Nipar and Terashita) who go out to a remote cabin in the woods to play the awesome new online game, Terminal Entry. What they don't realize is: this game just got real. The kids are messing around with the same system the terrorists are using to communicate, and that Jackson and Styles, along with reporter Dominique (Swope) are trying to crack. It all comes to a head when the teens, the baddies and the heroes converge. What will happen? We LOVED Terminal Entry. It was only natural that a movie would be made that marries together two standards of the video stores of the day: action movies and Romps (teen sex romps as we call them). But one of the most fascinating things about this movie is how ahead of its time it was. Who else in 1988 was talking about computers going "online", Islamic terrorists ("suicide hit squads" in the movie) crossing our borders, and kids with headsets heavily involved in interactive video games? The movie is so ahead of its time, the filmmakers didn't even realize it was unrealistic to give all the guys girlfriends. It was before the trope of "girlfriend-less dork" even developed in the popular consciousness. Of course, Terminal Entry will never get any credit for being ahead of the curve by anyone except us.

It's wall-to-wall "80's Awesome" as everything from the clothing, to the dialogue and of course the computer graphics scream 80's. To us, that's a very good thing. Even the Celebrity Video intro oozes with 80's charm. It's probably our favorite VHS label intro. Further increasing its 80's cred is the presence of Rob Stone, who is instantly recognizable to Mr. Belvedere fans as Kevin on that classic show. Sadly, this is his only film role to date. Also, the movie features Edward Albert at his coolest, as he plays the hero with aplomb with machine guns and missile launchers. He's the only dude awesome enough to bring nunchuks to a rural forest fight outside of a Godfrey Ho joint. Presciently, he says, "They're bringing the war to us." Yaphet Kotto is always nice to see, and he puts in a cigar-chompingly good role. We also loved seeing fan favorite Paul Smith. Tracy Brooks Swope, who was in such "classics" as Counter Measures (1999) and the immortal Keaton's Cop (1990) is also on board.

And lest we forget Patrick Labyorteaux as Bob. He's the charismatic, funny, wacky kid who looks like an 80's version of Leave It To Beaver's Tony Dow, and lives by BPOL - Bob's Philosophy Of Life. Based on his monologue during the end credits (which are yellow on blue), perhaps they were setting up a series of "Bob" movies or TV shows. They seemed to be investing a lot in his character. Fascinatingly, it was all produced by the mysterious Sandy Cobe, the man behind the great Revolt (1986) and a few other items. The music by Tweed Sneakers is appropriately 80's, and our man John "Action USA" Stewart did stunts. It all adds up to a solidly fun movie that is ripe for reappraisal.

Before The Net (1995), before Hackers (1995), there was Terminal Entry. As it says on the back of the box, "Terminal Entry picks up where War Games left off." We think it should be enjoyed by a new generation of fans.

Provocative computer hacking thriller

[lor_ · 27 March 2023]

My review was written in July 1988 after watching the movie on Celebrity video cassette.

"Terminal Entry" is an imaginative action feature pumping new life into the video games genre previously spotlighted in such films as "Tron" and "WarGames".

Pic had brief theatrical exposure last fall ahead of its current video cassette status. It promises to have a busy afterlife among genre fans.

Topical element dels with Middle East terrorism coming home to roost in the U. S. as Kabir Bedi leads a large group of arab fantatics inflitrating our nation over the Mexican border. Edward Albert is the squad leader and Yaphet Kotto his military boss, both in undermanned positions on the border patrol, and catching hell from their superior, a White House security adviser essayed by Paul Smith (doubling as an associate producer on the film). Things are heating up since a U. N. peace meeting is taking place shortly on the president's California ranch.

Simultaneously, a group of six young computer hackers are spending a weekend at a remote house and tap into a difficult-to-access computer program called Terminal Entry, which thy think is a new form of interactive computer fiction (game). Actually, it is Bedi's command program for ordering and coordinating acts of assassination and terrorism by his farflung troops.

The premise of the screenplay by Mark Sobel (who previousy mad the computer-themed film "Access Code") and David Mickey Evans is more ingenious than its predecessor "WarGames" in that the film's action and complications are predicated on the kids not knowing that the game they're plaing is the real thing. Theyh blithely oder assassinations (carried out on real people) and in a cute twist, hacker Patrick Labyorteaux gets into the ture spirit of the ocmpetion by asssming the terrorists' point-of-view and making himself ad the other five youngsters a target. This leads to a well-staged climax of Albert, Kotto & Co. To the rescue when terrorists attack the kis' houae.

Briskly paced (except for some romantic interludes with the kids), film is well-enacted by the adults plus convincing gung-ho computer whips plaeed by Labyorteaux, Rob Stoen and Heidi Helmer. Director John Kincade's balance of action and gamesmanship at the computer terminal is solid as are tech credits.

Finale is overly cynical, however, as he kids don't even get their wrists slapped (even thogh they "ordered" several killings) and Laborteaux' voiceover during the end credits implies a form of megalomania rather than having learned a lesson.