A Good Day to Die Hard director John Moore is back with a predictably dull tech thriller which manages to underwhelm rather than thrill. This psychological drama which stars Pierce Brosnan and Anna Friel – yet despite the cast’s best efforts, I.T falls short of providing any kind of hook and ultimately fails to keep the audience on its side for long enough for anyone to care about what is happening on screen as the narrative unfolds.

Sounding more Irish and looking more menacing than usual, Brosnan is Mike Regan, a self-made aviation millionaire planning to expand his empire by launching an Uber-style app for private jets. Regan seems to have it all, a dutiful wife (Anna Friel), a beautiful teenage daughter (Stefanie Scott) and a modern state-of-the-art smart home with all mod cons. However, things start to go terribly wrong when the firm’s I.T guy Ed Porter (James Frecheville) is brought in by Regan to the family home to help with some tech issues.

When Porter takes this as an opportunity to worm his way into his boss’s life, tempers start to fray resulting in Porter being fired from his job. Feeling dejected and snubbed, Porter takes it upon himself to destroy his boss’s reputation and everything he worked so had for by using his vast I.T knowledge. Cornered and unable to second-guess Porter’s motivations, Regan takes things onto his own hands by playing his former employee at his own game.

I.T.Despite playing with ideas of home invasion not dissimilar to classics such as Cape Fear, or even the more recent cult favourite Taken – I.T sadly fails to hit the mark. With a flimsy premise and an even flimsier screenplay, it falls upon Brosnan’s inherent charm and Bond credentials to try and bring some much needed life into this messy production. Frecheville fails to convince as Porter, resorting to a fairly pedestrian performance of a deeply deranged young man. The usually brilliant Friel is sadly given very little to work with, she performs the dutiful wife part to the best of her ability, but is ultimately let down by a less than riveting dialogue.

For a film which purports to deal with issues of privacy, I.T falls short of making a convincing commentary about the subject, resorting instead to cliched tropes about modern technology. Despite its better efforts, the film doesn’t seem to know what it is exactly trying to be or who it is, in fact, aimed at.  With a less than veiled attempt at portraying Brosnan as a pseudo-Liam Neeson in Taken, I.T just doesn’t tell an interesting enough story to keep the suspense going and ends up looking cheap and predictable. 

I.T. is released on March 10th.

REVIEW OVERVIEW
I.T.
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Linda Marric is a senior film critic and the newly appointed Reviews Editor for HeyUGuys. She has written extensively about film and TV over the last decade. After graduating with a degree in Film Studies from King's College London, she has worked in post-production on a number of film projects and other film related roles. She has a huge passion for intelligent Scifi movies and is never put off by the prospect of a romantic comedy. Favourite movie: Brazil.
i-t-reviewFor a film which purports to deal with issues of privacy, I.T falls short of making a convincing commentary about the subject, resorting instead to cliched tropes about modern technology.