Random Movie: WarGames (1983)

Ah yes. The "accidental" wreaking of havoc is one of my favorite plot formulas. In WarGames, David (Matthew Broderick) accidentally almost starts WWIII. I say almost, because no missiles actually get launched. They come close to getting launched around, oh, 11 damn times, but never get out of the silos. Oh, was that a spoiler? Sorry. You see, young David tells his 1983 computer that takes up 1/3 of his bedroom to dial numbers at random to try and find a company that is putting out some pretty hot 1983 games. Checking the results, he suspects that he may have found the company, but he in fact found a backdoor to a government computer system. David's computer runs a simulation called Global Thermonuclear War, tricking the government computer in to thinking the Russians have initiated an attack on the U.S. Obviously hilarity ensues. Not because the movie is a comedy (it isn't), but because of the extremely nonsensical film that follows. There are major holes in the story. David tries to tell the FBI that while he did break in to their system, after he saw about it on the news, he threw the phone number away. Someone tells him that they know, because they found the number in the trash. Apparently their investigation stopped there, because David tells them that the computer called him back, but no one seems to care or is able to verify that. Had they investigated that however, we may not have had the resulting high quality film to entertain us. This is a pretty run of the mill 80's movie. Marginal acting and direction and it definitely has the Weekend at Bernie's Effect going on. It was nominated for 3 Oscars, which I find hilarious. It was nominated for Best Writing, Best Cinematography and Best Sound. Really? Best Sound? You want to know the name of another movie that year nominated for Best Sound? Return of the Jedi. Anyway, I actually do watch this movie fairly often, and it is one of those movies that is hilarious as time goes on, as most of it is an anachronism now, but it is still one of my "comfort movies."