If there is a technology lover in your household consider these great ideas for DVD's to give as gifts:
Star Trek (2009)
Sure there will be many Trek fans that call it blasphemy what JJ Abrams has done with the Trek universe in this reboot of the original story line, but it is also the first movie that I have gone back to see again (four times in fact) since I was a kid. The visuals are stunning and the acting plays homage to the Trek of old, but it does so in ways that breathe new life into an essentially dead property. The DVD for the new Star Trek comes out on November 17th so look for it to be offered with some deep discounts during the Black Friday sales.
Sneakers
Sneakers is a techno cops and robbers movie of sorts starring big name talent like Robert Redford and James EARL Jones. In it several different people are on the hunt for a special piece of computer equipment that can decode encrypted information. The great news is that it is a fairly cheap DVD to buy these days.
Takedown
This one probably does not show up on many people's hit lists but it deserves to be mentioned. Takedown is the true story of the arrest of Kevin Mitnick, one of the first true hackers who used his skills to drive the phone companies crazy, gain influence with important people, yet essentially do no physical harm. His "crimes" of intruding into secure computer systems and other hacking exploits earned him six years in solitary confinement because the government was afraid he might figure out a way to use the jailhouse phone system to launch a nuclear attack. Uh... right...
War Games
One of the earliest semi-realistic tech movies War Games played on the fears of the time period, the fear that one slight mishap might send the world into nuclear war. In the movie a young Matthew Broderick uses his computer and telephone to hack into the NORAD computer system and play games on the supercomputer server housed there. In the process he starts a program that although intended to be used as a simulation actually comes close to starting World War 3.
