Blackhat

Although less intentionally comedic than Hackers, the idea of Chris Hemsworth as one of the world's most preeminent hackers is no less ridiculous than Angelina Jolie as one. The movie's story revolves around the search for those responsible for cyber attacks in both United States and China which causes the creation of a joint task force and brings Chen Dawai (Leehom Wang) to the United States to get his old college buddy Nick Hathaway (Hemsworth) out of prison to help with the search.

Along for the ride are Dawai's sister Lien (Wei Tang) who wastes no time in taking a romantic interest in Hathaway (creating a problematic romantic subplot that has no hope of ever paying off), Holt McCallany as a Federal babysitter, and Viola Davis having fun as the one-note Department of Justice ball-buster who uncharacteristically chooses to help the criminal putting her own career and life in jeopardy when the plot demands it.

Despite having a loose understanding of how both government agencies and computer code works, and several fast-paced action sequences, Blackhat has surprisingly boring stretches where the story gets bogged down. Blackhat is easily one of director Michael Mann's most disappointing films. It feels more like a fast-and-loose cribbing of the director's style than something that Mann himself produced.

Both the Blu-ray and DVD include a featurette on the subject of making the film's characters believable. The Blu-ray also includes DVD and digital copies of the movie, and additional featurettes on cyber-crimes and the locations used on the film.

[Universal Studios, Blu-ray $34.98, DVD $29.98]