Since I've actually reviewed this movie before, I think this time I'll just babble about random things on the periphery that happen to pop into my mind. That's not to that I wouldn't just do that anyway.

In the Practice What You Preach department, I am sad (but not a bit shocked) to report that the disc is neither region free nor css free. Oh well. Like I said, I wasn't holding my breath. (And it's unlikely that the writers / producers / director / actors had any control over that part of the process, even if they had wanted it to be different. Like Ryan Phillippe said in the featurette, just about everything these days is controlled by a very few all-encompassing corporations. I'm thinking the distribution of this movie is no exception.)

The movie was most entertaining a second time around. In it's own right, it really is a well made film, so long as you don't go in expecting two solid hours of philosophical pontificating as to the ideals of open source vs proprietary software (without even beginning to touch on the naming of "free software" versus "open source software" debate). If such a film were to be made, I would certainly watch and enjoy it too, but this one is good for what it is: A fast-paced action suspense paranoid thriller.

Given the timing of the DVD release, I couldn't help but think that already some of the material is seeming a bit dated. Tim Robbins general comment about the software world being a changing quickly every day was apt. This little blurb in the story about massive venture capital banging down the doors of a couple guys writing code in their garage in efforts to fund a would-be open source company? Uhhhhh, yeah. That's a far cry.

In a somberly related note, I couldn't help but think of Eazel as I watched these scenes. [Here's where we truly go into the off-topic tangent.] A company with some great ideas for user interface improvement and great code (which still lives on) goes down the toilet. Why? Because they didn't have a way to bring in sufficient money to keep going. That, in a word, sucks.

What does it say about our values as a society when firms leeching, blood-sucking lawyers who produce nothing of any real value to anyone can afford plush offices with panoramic views of the city, but people who have been coding their asses off to release user-friendly software to the community complete with GPLed source (the most valuable in terms of making it free to the people and keeping it that way) has to shut down shop. I'm not saying there's an easy solution at hand. I'm just saying that's fucked up. End of rant.

And back to the movie. Well, I'm not sure what else to say about the film itself that I haven't said already. Some people didn't like it that much. I did. There.

I did find it intersting that on the documentary, not a single mention of the word "Microsoft" was made by anyone, nor was the name Bill Gates uttered. I have yet to watch the director's commentary, but when I do, I will find it extremely amusing if he manages to make it through the entire film without at least mentioning the obvious references in passing. I know what's going on. They're trying to keep as far away from any potential time in libel court as possible. Can't say I blame them. Still, the way the topic of a certain Redmond-based company is so carefully not mentioned makes it twice as noticable.

I must confess that as of this writing, I haven't watched most of the deleted scenes just yet, so I can't comment on them. By the time I got there, I clicked into the submenue I was like, "Oh, cool dude!" And then decided I was totally movied out for the night.

I'm getting some sleep now. Peace, billg-worshipers.