New World Disorder (1999) Poster

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3/10
Nice, if you are for a comedy...
diktiomenos26 January 2002
I have seen New World Disorder twice but still remain unsure about the intention of its creators. Was that supposed to be a comedy? If yes, they surely succeeded. If not, well... it is sad to see Hauer falling into oblivion while advocating the merits of Iomega´s Zip drive.
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3/10
Unrealistic cyber thriller
Leofwine_draca3 September 2016
Warning: Spoilers
With budgets spiralling and realism dwindling, it's a wonder Rutger Hauer stays in the film business. I mean has he actually made a good movie in the last ten years? Not that I can remember at any rate. NEW WORLD DISORDER is a predictable, cliché-ridden, aggravating thriller with silly, over the top and unrealistic action scenes (most of them consist of guys just shooting wildly with machine guns) and cheesy dialogue. Without Hauer it would be a real stinker.

I guess it goes without saying that you have to be a fan of the actor to get a kick out of this movie. Recent years have seen Hauer's waistline expand to an alarming degree yet you may find it odd to note that he has EXACTLY the same hairstyle in every single one of his movies. I have a feeling he refuses to cut it. Hauer may not be an A-list star (in fact now he's probably down to a D-list) but he always gives fun performances in his films and this is no different. Mainly he does comic relief as he pretends not to know what computers are (one "hilarious" scene has him trying to plug a mouse in) and he even gets to dance. Check out his bizarre fashions with a different bow-tie every day.

With Hauer acting like a buffoon it needs a respected actor to bring back some credibility to the film. Enter Tara Fitzgerald. Tara, what the heck are you doing here? This isn't your kind of thing and you stick out like a sore thumb. Your American accent keeps slipping when you raise your voice and you really are embarrassing yourself. Go back to what you're good at (i.e. hard-edged period dramas or whatever). It's a shame to see this undeniably beautiful actress making a fool of herself to this proportion but that's what money will do.

The bad guy is played by Andrew McCarthy. Not to be rude but he's a rubbish villain and totally nonthreatening. The cyber-element of this film quickly becomes tiring too. Once again we are presented with Hollywood's unrealistic view of computers (websites loading at a touch of a button in the 1990s) and lots of pseudo-scientific dialogue which doesn't make much sense. It's all just an excuse for action and shooting anyway so it strikes me as kind of pointless. Maybe it's impossible to make a good action film on this low a budget. I don't know. In the end I was struck by the preposterousness of watching two foreign actors both pretending to be Americans in a film made in Luxembourg. It makes you wonder what the world is coming to.
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New World We'll-take-your-order Mr Hauer
Gary-16114 August 2001
My goodness, what's happened to Rutger? I thought you had to stay in pretty trim shape to cope with the rigours of film work but how wrong, how, how...TERRIBLY wrong. "I've seen take-a-ways you wouldn't believe. Burger Kings on the hard shoulder's of Luxenbourg. I watched French fries shimmer in the pans of open-till-lates. All those pounds will be lost in time...." Yes, but how, Rutger? You look way wrong for any kind of vigourous movement, let alone taking on international terrorists. So wide in girth is he that they've had to hire a very slim actress just to be able to fit in the frame with him and even then she seems to be precariously hugging the walls. Who is this pipe cleaner of a girl? No, it can't be, but it IS! It's Tara Fitzgerald, one time doyen of glossies and the British great white hope to rival Julia Roberts (or something.) At what tremulous point does the tide turn for top talent and they slide down the greasy pole to appear in this asinine tosh? Who'd be an actor in today's climate? Poor Tara has enough make up plastered on her boat race to look like Marcel Marceau, I suppose to compete with American bright young things. Rutger wears a bow-tie and various other eccentric outfits, one of which is a dead ringer for Quentin Crisp during his ex-pat in New York period. Towards the end of the film, our Rutger huffs and puffs and sweats (he's actually standing still in Tara's office) and she asks him for a date. Oh, the indignity. The man needs to sit down not get involved in any more vigourous activity.

But pity the other actors. The tv guide lists the following, 'starring Rutger Hauer, Tara Fitzgerald, John Bondi, Hari Dhillon'. Yes, yes, but what about Andrew McCarthy, doesn't he warrant a mention? I mean, he once appeared in a film with Sharon Stone. Not a very good one, granted, but he was billed. Oh, it's too cruel, and he's miscast as well. Still, they all seem to be enjoying themselves immensely. But they can't say it beats working in an office because that's where they always seem to be working, although Tara is nearly forced out of windows every time Rutger barges in. When not in offices, Rutger is seen risibly driving up the same stretch of road with the same glass building in the background. The denoument always seems to take place in an abandoned warehouse with a balcony lacking adequate safety barriers. How do terrorists get access to these buildings? Do they just knock and when nobody answers, bite off the locks with their teeth? It explains why bad guys have such bad dentistry, scowl constantly and show constant ill will toward their fellow man. Estate agents ring a bell, Gentlemen? Oh, it's supposed to be America. Real Estate, then.

I've never heard so many non American nationals speaking in dodgy American accents in an EU country. It's pretty unsavoury working for the Yankie dollar. This 'cyber thriller' has the dubious distinction of being forgettable from scene to scene as opposed to thirty seconds after the end thus making it the world's first virtual movie.
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1/10
B movie crap! Poor Rutger...
Alphaszone5 December 2001
Ugh! What an awful film. I was up in the middle of the night (a time when most things on stink anyway) channel surfing and landed on this. I thought I would check it out because the little cable synopsis sounded kind of cool and Rutger Hauer is great. Well, not in this movie. The horrible script managed to kill or at least stifle a great actors performance. The story which centers around a hacker ring or something like that (it was hard to keep track because the story was so askew and boring to boot) it ridiculous and tired. It's been done similarly a hundred times...and usually with much better results. The worst thing about this film would have to be Andrew McCarthy. I just could not believe that was him in that silly goth looking get up. His character was so flat and comical as a bad guy (and it was unintentional by the looks of it). His lines were horrible. Now I'm no fan of Andrew McCarthy by any means but if I may say so this movie was a new low even for him. Ok, so it is a B film and it was straight to video so maybe I'm expecting a little much. Or maybe not, Rutger has been in plenty of other B movies like Mr. Stitch and they still proved to be entertaining. It can be done...good B movies are out there.
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1/10
Yuck! Probably the worst "computer" movie ever made!
wayne-26 September 2001
Geez, couldn't they find a competent technical expert who knows at least SOMETHING about computers when they make a computer movie? I could find a 12 year-old who could have fixed the zillions of plot holes. One of these days Hollywood writers will learn that SILICONE was in breast implants, not computer chips (it's SILICON, stupid!) And the "computer" company headquarters building with a box office (I guess they sell tickets for tours!) Rutger Hauer (who looks HORRIBLE in this movie - who dressed him?) should ask any fourth grader about how many bytes there are in a megabyte (1,048,576 bytes, not 144,000.) I've never seen a movie use so much ammo without hitting anyone! And I guess the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg does not have CLASS (Custom Local Area Signalling Services) with caller ID and call trace. I'll never figure why anyone would have spent money to make such dreck. Insipid, inane, stupid, oh, let me count the adjectives! (by the way - which police department keeps booze in the fridge for everyone to nip at? And where is this hetero rubber/leather dance club in Silicon Valley?) This now tops my list of awful movies - yes, even worse than U.S. SEALS!
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2/10
What was he thinking?
Bectile15 September 2001
Rutger Hauer really should get himself a new agent. Last night I was horribly fascinated by his 1997 movie "Bleeders". It was so awful it was like watching a train wreck... I couldn't look away!

Then this afternoon "New World Disorder" came on, and it didn't sound too bad.

Hauer plays your typical grizzled anti-tech cop. Everything from references to 8-tracks, the beat up old car he drives, to his wardrobe complete with bow tie beats this into your brain throughout the whole movie! Gimme a break! He deserves better. Some of the old Rutger shows through, but generally he plays an old fart and it pained me to watch!

The soundtrack music was lame and many of the characters were flat, it played exactly like a "made for TV" movie. The plot was okay, and it barely kept me watching, but it could have been so much better! How disappointing.

If you really like Rutger Hauer, as I do, you can get a few moments enjoyment from when he is able to put a little personality into the role, but generally this movie was a predictable waste of time.

Rebecca
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1/10
Don't want to be unkind, but this movie sucks
bawitdaba8723 December 1999
There's no way around it. New World Disorder is just not a good movie. The acting is terrible. The story is yawn inspiring. The action scenes are so badly staged that they make Roger Corman look like the Wachowski Brothers. Don't get me wrong, I like Rutger Hauer, despite the fact that he's a bit long in the tooth for an action movie. I also am a sucker for a good "Computer punks steal a priceless program that everyone will kill for" story, but this one just doesn't live up to the genre. Perhaps there is a dearth of good entertainment elsewhere in the world, but here in the USA, there ain's nothin' splendid about New World Disorder.
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7/10
Underrated nice B action movie, give it a chance
jose_moscardo23 December 2014
I don't understand why the score of this movie is so low. For me it has been a nice surprise, I bought it in a second hand DVD shop because I like Rutger Hauer but without big expectations (Hauer has starred in some good or very good movies but also in many bad ones). However, what I found here is a very entertaining thriller with good performances and some welcome innovations inside its genre and category (yes, series B action).

Rutger Hauer is obviously overweight here but still cool and charismatic, Tara Fitzgerald is cute and charming, and Andrew McCarthy plays a good and odious villain. I like the concept of a veteran cop who ignores everything about computers fighting against a group of tech criminals (with the proper help from his younger female colleague) and I like the relation between the two main characters and how it develops. Also I like the touch of comedy and some funny dialogs ("I don't know the difference between a microchip and a potato chip").

The movie is well directed, the script is more than average for this kind of product and there are a couple of very good action scenes (I liked specially the one in the nightclub). Also I found the soundtrack cool.

I really enjoyed it and I recommend it to fans of Rutger Hauer and very decent series B flicks.
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10/10
Nice action and cool Hauer!
Hyena16 October 1999
In Silicon Valley, programmers develop super defensive program for computers, which impossible break open. However, group hackers-bandits kill the programmers and are tortured to steal a program, but it falls into the hands of detective David Marx, which thinks that computers - the whole only writing type-writers with the screen :-) But when hackers delete all its bank, Marx declares an open a war by "New World Disorder". Splendid film!
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6/10
I had the same opinion until I watched it again and Paid Attention!
FourPawsJake20 March 2005
When I first watched this movie I was busy and half-way paying attention to the movie. I had the same negative opinion as some of the other posted reviews. I am a devoted Andrew McCarthy fan (I own all of his movies, yes even this one) and love to watch him act…I thought to myself, "Maybe it's not so bad so I'll give it another try". So I watched the movie again, this time paying attention, and it was not really that bad of a movie – average I'd say. It was not the best movie I'd ever seen but it was not bad either. As for the earlier comments that McCarthy can't pull off the "villain role", I totally disagree (but then again, I'm extremely partial to McCarthy's performances). He plays the villain just fine…I do admit that his specialty is seducing, kissing, and making love to a woman on the screen (and there is No close second in that category) but he can pull off the villain in any role he is cast to do so.
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Probably the worst film I've ever seen.
dbstewart20 August 2001
Probably the worst film I've ever seen. Totally ludicrous plot, appalling continuity, gross overacting. And that's the film's good points. How a respected actress like Tara Fitzgerald got involved in this dross is beyond belief. It's no wonder there is no 'goofs' page as it would probably overload the IMDb database. One to definitely miss.
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This movie stinks
pablo7DS22 September 2002
I saw this movie while channel surfing the other night and it sounded interesting. Boy, was I wrong. It has a predictable plot and poor acting. The bad guys lose and the good guys win. Don't waste your time with this one.
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stupid computer technology action
taaka14 June 2000
As always when Rutger Hauer participates in a movie, I had high hopes for a classic hauer movie. This movie did not deliver at all. The plot about the ultimate encryption software, supposedly worth millions were really thin. Andrew McCarthy plays the villain and Rutger Hauer teams up with Tara Fitzgerald in the hunt for him. After a while the hunter becomes the huntee as they stumble over the program that McCarthy is on a quest to get.

McCarthy doesn't really suit to play the bad guy, he is a good actor, but he doesn't have the ability to elevate movies like this(who does).

Rutger Hauer has gained a few pounds since Bone Daddy, and the flirt he has going with the cute Fitzgerald is not realistic at all. All in all this movie fails to deliver good action scenes nor a good story, so I must rate it 3/10. You can do better Rutger!
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