WarGames 1983

Vincent Canby, New York Times: Like a video game once played, tends to disappear from one's memory bank as soon as it's finished. Read more

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: Classic humanist-didactic filmmaking, effectively presented as a thriller. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: As tense and effective now as it was 25 years ago. The worry back then was more about Soviet missiles than about credit card identity theft, but good filmmaking techniques haven't changed. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: To me, the most enjoyable aspect of WarGames is when David is at work on his computer system. There's something wonderfully nostalgic about watching a guy play with such antiquated machinery and recognize that it was [once] considered state-of-the-art. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: As a premise for a thriller, this is a masterstroke. Read more

Tom Charity, Time Out: The first half has a sardonic edge to it, but the more seriously the movie takes itself the sillier it gets. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: John Badham solders the pieces into a terrifically exciting story charged by an irresistible idea: an extra-smart kid can get the world into a whole lot of trouble that it also takes the same extra-smart kid to rescue it from. Read more