PRIME RISK (1985)
Article 4121 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-31-2012
Directed by Michael L. Farkas
Featuring Lee Montgomery, Toni Hudson, Sam Bottoms
Country: USA
What it is: Thriller

A female hacker and her aspiring pilot boyfriend concoct a scheme to rip off money from ATMs. However, they stumble across a plot by spies to destroy the economy of the United States.

To point out that this movie is basically a rip off of WARGAMES is a no-brainer; the blurbs on the VHS packet hint so persistently at the identity of its model that it could justly be accused of wearing its Xeroxed heart on its sleeve. The main differences are in the details, especially in choosing economic disaster over nuclear destruction as its Armageddon. That being said, the movie is passable; not great, not awful, it serves as an acceptable time-killer when nothing better is on, and can easily be forgotten in time for the next movie that comes along. The biggest names in the cast are Keenan Wynn and Clu Gulager; the former seems a bit bored by the whole thing, while the other is fussy and cranky. All in all, this is another movie that I can now take off the hunt list.