No Hope
With her boyfriend being less than happy about her leaving for a lucrative job in Istanbul, computer expert Hope Cassidy (Nikki Deloach) leaves him behind and boards the plane, befriending an air stewardess on her flight over. But Hope soon discovers all is not right in Istanbul when she finds her life and identity stolen and she ends up in a Turkish prison with no one believing her that her identity was stolen.
You lost me at Hope. The opening scene of "The Net 2.0" features a character by the name of Hope being chased through the streets of Istanbul, annoyingly freeze framing every few seconds as we hear her story via a narration and she explains that her name is Hope and when things get bad you need a little Hope. Yes "The Net 2.0" features dialogue like that along with a Turkish cabbie who says he is good for everything but also good for nothing. I could go on down the bad dialogue root as there is plenty more and it is probably the most memorable thing about "The Net 2.0" which I should explain is not a sequel to "The Net" which starred Sandra Bullock but covers a similarly themed storyline of computers and identity theft. In fact the only real connection is that director Charles Winkler is the son of Irwin Winkler who directed "The Net".
But poor dialogue is not the only issue which makes "The Net 2.0" hard work and Charles Winkler tosses us around in a way that you begin to wonder whether the mess is intentional, done to try and hide the movies many other weaknesses. We have a visual style which switches from shaky camera to supposedly CCTV camera images to frenetic darting between characters which combined with a narrative which jumps between Hope being stuck in a prison to her story as to how she got there is just chaos. Toss on some dodgy special affects, some characters that seem to have their tongues firmly stuck in their cheeks and the end result leaves a lot to be desired. In fact I don't even know whether behind all the chaos there is a good movie trying to get out because it is impossible to tell.
As for the acting well from start to finish it is weak and that just adds to the mess which "The Net 2.0" becomes. In a best of a bad bunch way you have Nikki Deloach who at least is likeable whilst Güven Kiraç as Osman, the friendly and fatherly cab driver, at least makes you question whether he is just a nice guy or might be more sinister at least for a while anyway.
What this all boils down to is that "The Net 2.0" is a weak mess which ironically makes the original "The Net" seem like it could have won an Oscar. I wish I could give you a real reason other than it is not the worst movie I have ever seen as to why you should watch it, but I can't.
