WarGames: 25th Anniversary Edition

Although technologically dated, director John Badham's 1983 cautionary Cold War thriller is still a blast. Matthew Broderick stars as David Lightman, a high school misfit who unwittingly hacks into a military missile command supercomputer to play a game called “global thermonuclear war”…and inadvertently winds up launching the countdown to World War III. Together with gal pal Jennifer (Ally Sheedy), David must convince the military that, first, he is not working with the Soviets, and two, that the computer thinks the situation is real, not a simulation, With its appealing young cast (supported by a stellar ensemble of great character actors, including Dabney Coleman and Barry Corbin), WarGames told an exciting story that tapped into the prevailing Reagan-era “Evil Empire” nuclear nightmare scare (this was the same year ABC broadcast The Day After), and is still just as chilling in our own age of missing WMDs, terrorist threats, and rogue nations. DVD extras on this “25th Anniversary Edition” include a ported-over commentary by Badham and writers Walter Parkes and Lawrence Lasker, as well as a new retrospective documentary (with interviews of cast and crew), and three new featurettes, the best of which looks at the film's impact on the hacker community. Highly recommended. (D. Liebenson)