Tech thriller needs a serious script reboot

HE might have handed over his James Bond duties to Daniel Craig, but that doesn't mean Pierce Brosnan has been lying low.

In fact, the 63-year-old seems to be everywhere even more now.

Just earlier this month, the Irish actor made the headlines for all the wrong reasons when Indian netizens trolled him for appearing in a newspaper ad as the face of a potentially deadly brand of mouth freshener. (Its maker has since debunked the allegations.)

On the big screen, Brosnan has also been averaging about four films annually - mostly B-grade ones, though - over the last two years. One of them is I.T., an entertaining but disposable technology thriller that could use a script reboot because of how comically low-tech the whole affair is.

Directed by John Moore (A Good Day to Die Hard, 2013), it opens with Brosnan playing aviation tycoon Mike Regan preparing his company for an IPO on the back of an app he touts as "Uber for private jets".

When his video presentation runs into problems, a freelance help from the IT department, Ed Porter (James Frecheville), is dispatched to solve the problem.

The latter gets it up and running for him in no time. Impressed by what he's seen, Regan engages Porter to help him sort out the Wi-Fi problems in his house.

Bad decision, because Porter turns out to be quite a creep (the bad haircut - even by a computer nerd's standards - is the giveway) and takes the opportunity to tap into his boss's smart home network.

It doesn't help that Regan's teenage daughter Kaitlyn (Stefanie Scott) is also at an age where she's just starting to get interested in boys and Porter begins to make advances on her. As the two become closer, Regan gets annoyed his employee doesn't know where to draw the line and fires him.

Porter goes around the bend and becomes the ghost in the machine as he hacks into the family's smart home system and make life a living hell for the Regans by taking control of their house, car and smart phones.

Things get slightly predictable but for a thriller, I.T. is sly enough to know it has to move at an exciting pace so the audience has little time to question or think about the gigantic plot holes.

The short running time of just over 90 minutes also means any sort of character development or back story is sacrificed. How Porter ended up being a psychopath and whether Regan is a good or bad guy are just two questions that only writers Daniel Kay (Pay the Ghost, 2015) and William Wisher Jr (The Terminator, 1984) can answer.

Unfortunately they don't, leaving this high-tech thriller more frustrating to figure out than the time you forgot your own Wi-Fi password.

Rating: C+