3/5 fun detective story for rutger hauer fans
  by
This is a fun little movie to watch if you are a Rutger Hauerfan. He's an over the hill detective who gets partnered with a beautiful young cop who knows her way around computers.... He had some nice chemistry with his partner in the movie (Tara Fitzgerald). He also had some truely comic moments(watching him try to dance made me howl with laughter!). Andrew McCarthy made a fine villian. The story line is lacking a bit (a little too predictable), but as long as you aren't looking for much substance, it is quite entertaining. I enjoyed it because the movie didn't take itself too seriously, and it looked like the actors had fun with their parts. A must for fans of Mr. Hauer! END

3/5 Great Fun....for Rutger Hauer fans!
  by Randolph A. Sopicki (Spring Valley, Ca USA)
This movie is great fun and worth your time if you're a fan of the man, Rutger Hauer. As far as story, continuity etc. It really doesn't offer much.

For Fans Only!!

3/5 It's a bit pricey at $94.99.
  by
I'm having the luck of watching this movie on terrestrial TV. A quick price comparison with other Action & Adventure movies makes me wonder why this movie is so steeply priced?

2/5 Egads, what a bundle of cliches!
  by Jeffrey Leach (Omaha, NE USA)
I admit it. I'm an unabashed Rutger Hauer fan to the point that I'll watch any film this actor stars in. Unfortunately, doing so means I have to weather a lot of bad movies. You see, Hauer once appeared in big budget films like "Blade Runner" and "The Hitcher," A level films that showcased his charisma and talent. Then something sinister happened. The actor started appearing in cheap, decidedly cheesy low budget action thrillers. You would turn the television on at three o'clock in the morning and see Hauer stumbling through a movie called "Split Second" or "Arctic Blue." Don't get me wrong; I love low budget movies, even bad low budget movies, so seeing Hauer in one doesn't necessitate that I turn the television off. It's just that in the case of this particular actor, I know he's capable of making better films. I can only conclude that he has totally thrown off any pretense of making serious pictures in lieu of taking a shot on the chin for the paycheck. And "New World Disorder" is definitely a shot on the chin, a film so bogged down with clichés, trite dialogue, and wooden acting that only diehard Hauer completists need bother treading this unholy ground.

Hauer steps up to the camera to play yet another grizzled detective, one David Marx, on the trail of a gang of thieves ripping off computer chips in Silicon Valley. The movie starts by showing us a couple of Young Turks who are using a company's massive computer and research facilities to create a new security program called Rosetta Stone. Their plan, as far as I was able to discern, was to work at this corporation just long enough to make the program and then bail so they can market the product as their own invention. Neat, huh? Well, a gang of high tech goons led by Kurt Bishop (Andrew McCarthy sans shiny eyeballs!) just happens to rob the company as the techies download Rosetta Stone. Predictably, the two employees stumble over the robbers, one of them dies, and the other flees with the disc even as Bishop discovers what these two were doing. The lure of a program that can provide this level of security, and the potential wealth involved, spurs Bishop on a mission to track down the other programmer. Enter Marx and hotshot FBI Agent Kris Paddock (Tara Fitzgerald), who must work together to stop the nefarious Bishop from executing his infernal plans. The clichés start pouring in fast and furious as we see Marx resist all efforts to change his ways. He doesn't even have his computer plugged in at the office, he drinks heavily, and he doesn't like some young woman moving in on his investigation.

Paddock doesn't much care for Marx, either. She sees him as an old fogy completely incapable of cracking a crime involving computer technology. Of course, a bond slowly starts to emerge as the two realize each of them possess abilities the other lacks. Paddock learns that Marx is tough as nails and worth having around when the bad guys start shooting. Marx acknowledges Paddock has the know how to infiltrate the confusing world of Silicon Valley. We then follow the two through the obligatory action thriller scenes. There's the first shootout with Bishop and his gang at the apartment of the missing techie, the discovery of the aforementioned techie dead at a techno dance club, the inevitable shakedown of witnesses, the conflict with the police hierarchy, the requisite kidnapping of a principal character, and the even more requisite "prisoner for computer disc" exchange that goes to heck in a hand basket in a heartbeat. You even get the totally predictable "computer geek out of jail and now working in the backroom of a video arcade who will hack into any computer system in the world in less than a minute guy" named Leo (Branwell Donaghey). The movie ends on a tearful note as Paddock helps Marx send his alienated daughter (sigh) an e-mail. All together now: Awwwwww, ain't that sweet!

Precious little works in "New World Disorder" outside of Rutger Hauer. As many times as I have seen this actor in this type of role, I still get a kick out of watching him snarl and snap his way around a police station. I cannot say the same about the rest of the cast. Tara Fitzgerald moons around with her British accent in a completely unremarkable turn as the computer savvy Paddock. Leo, the felonious hacker who owes Agent Kris a few favors, hams it up in such a way that would have computer geeks the world over blaring "stereotype!" And Andrew McCarthy! Wow, I could spend an entire paragraph discussing his role in the movie. One needs to look no farther than "New World Disorder" to understand how slippery the slope of celebrity is in Hollywood. It's horribly painful to see how far a once universally admired actor can fall, and equally painful to realize what a once famous actor will do in order to avoid getting a real job. Throw in a plodding pace, ineptly executed action sequences, dialogue that will melt your eardrums, and you should have a basic understanding of what awaits you when you hit start on the DVD remote.

Forget about extras. Discs like these rarely have anything beyond a trailer or two. "New World Disorder" is the sort of film that you might watch if you stumbled over it late at night and couldn't sleep, but you wouldn't watch it again. I know I won't. It is really a one star film, but I am going to give it two because of Hauer. I don't think I've ever given any of his movies a one star rating, and I won't start now. As I said earlier, Hauer fans and completists will want to see this one; all others must stay far, far away. Good luck.










1/5 When Bad Things Happen to Good Actors
  by (San Antonio, TX USA)
Some films just force the question. Why? Why was this made? Especially considering Mystery Science Theater 3000 has gone off the air. Equally baffling is the title of this particular movie. New World Disorder. Perhaps cutting out the first two words would give viewers a better idea of the content of this film. In it, Rutger Hauer plays...well...Rutger Hauer. As Detective David Marx, he and partner Tara Fitzgerald must keep a revolutionary security system safe from a gang of kerchiefed computer nerds who travel everywhere-including the system designer's living room-on motorcycles. The most depressing part of the scenario is the fact that the gang leader-a bearded man with a pierced chin and a penchant for burning people alive-is played by the otherwise-highly-respectable Andrew McCarthy. Even the extensive talent of this onetime Brat Packer is bogged down under cheesy dialog and an almost non-existant plot. One can only hope McCarthy was either drunk, bankrupt, or being held at gunpoint when he accepted this role. Unfortunately, one must also hope this blemish to an otherwise successful career will not banish the former eighties' idol forever to the ranks of B action flicks.