Basically, a private school filled with rich twats and silly teachers disconnected from reality, is taken over by a computer genius and his armed thugs, as a part of a much bigger robbery heist. However, one of the school kids, who is also a computer genius and the social outcast, manages to evade capture and makes the lives of the bad guys a living hell. In other words, it's basically Home Alone, just taking place in a school and instead of mechanical contraptions you get computer gimmicks.
I caught this movie one lazy afternoon on TV, and despite its childish dialogues, unrealistic portrayal of computers and other miscellaneous things that characterize a bad movie, it still made me laugh and spend a pleasant 90 minutes. Don't expect much as far as acting goes, and it doesn't help that 90% of the cast is either a stereotypical unimaginative mercenary hired by the bad guy, or a stereotypical unimaginative student/teacher, with the addition of a few stereotypical unimaginative cops (and soldiers at one point). Patrick Stewards certainly does a good job as the bad guy, but he knows this film is not going anywhere and it shows. He's just there having fun.
The people who made this obviously had no idea what actual computers look like or how they work, or at least they made the assumption that the audience wouldn't know the difference, as is the norm for 80s and 90s movies (as well as plenty today). Particularly weird, is a scene at the beginning, where Oswald Paxton (the protagonist) is trying to pirate a game before its release and the security system of the company he's trying to hack into makes him play a racing mini-game, where he has to make it to the exit of a long corridor piled with skeletons coming out of closets, at which point he is granted access to the game files. "Oh brave hacker, pass the test and we shall see if you are worthy to pirate our game. Only the chosen one will distribute our game for free".
At any rate, its certainly enjoyable. The dialogue, although badly written, is actually quite funny and the gags are also. The plot also isn't that bad, as you aren't informed on what the bad guys are actually trying to steal, but you get pieces of information as the film progresses and is revealed at the end, which is something that kept my attention. Also, seeing Patrick Stewart as the bad guy was actually pretty fun, and you get plenty of action too. 6/10
