ANTITRUST

Bill Gates is a murderer, according to this ludicrous but guilty-pleasure thriller. Yes, at one point, the film’s archvillain, Nurv software CEO Gary Winston (Tim Robbins), mentions Gates as a rival, but the line is a joke between the filmmakers and the audience — from ruthlessly defending himself at a trial before Congress to acting like a Muppet in a Nurv commercial set in a minority-filled classroom, Winston couldn’t be anybody but Gates.

Trying to meet a tight deadline for some program that does something revolutionary, Winston hires boy wonder Milo Hoffmann (Ryan Phillippe), one of those idealistic, open-source code geeks. At first, Milo is wowed by Winston’s seeming benevolence (and a company car), but soon he uncovers Nurv’s cutthroat side — and it’s all being run out of the company’s daycare center. As Milo tries to put the pieces of a friend’s murder together, the ridiculousness mounts: we see past scenes run ferociously through his head; a whirling camera indicates his frenzy; and faux techno blares whenever something exciting is about to happen. Claire Forlani plays his girlfriend, and Rachel Leigh Cook is his ally at work — or are they????? Silly stuff, but did Orson Welles have the balls to suggest Randolph Hearst was killing competitors to get ahead?

— Mark Bazer