Very well executed

I'll tell you why so serious

Great Film overall

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

One has to wonder, after seeing a documentary such as this, if the ideas in the film were more important than its quality. The thing is every movie is propaganda: if they were artistic expression of creative people they wouldn't all look the same. Most people are not actually paying for truth and they are not paying for art, instead they are only looking for validation of their own concepts and ideas.That is why I find it difficult to comment on a film like Freedom Downtime. On one hand I totally believe Kevin Mitnick and a lot of hackers to have been mistreated and witch hunted by governments and the American one in particular. On the other hand it is hard to take seriously a documentary that is almost completely one-sided, like Michael Moore's stuff.The entire premise of the film is that Kevin's friends talk freely to Emmanuel Goldstein, while corporations, government agencies and hostile witnesses and agitators in the Mitnick case refuse to cooperate. But I can't possibly buy that. They accidentally met two friendly lawyers during the making of the film; I am sure they could have made a whole lot more trying to tackle the problem legally and diplomatically. A high profile case like that should have attracted a lot of legal vultures. But instead the makers of the film went out of their way to show how unfair they were treated and thrown out from every place they were trying to get to. So did Moore, if you remember his movies, and they were of the same format: sticking it to people and then complaining they were not taken seriously, then showing only the producer's point of view.I have read Mitnick's book, which is much more open and moderate, and it had a whole lot much of an effect on me. This film is two hours long and it very rarely actually discloses facts. Probably Wikipedia's page is more informative than this documentary. I had the impression it told more about Bernie S. than about Kevin Mitnick, so clearly something was off. There is an interview with Mitnick bundled with the film, but it is so badly made that I have to ask myself if Goldstein wanted to discredit Kevin. They feed him energizers and then let him blow off steam on record. The poor guy is so enraged and traumatized by his experience that he can barely express himself.Anyway, to summarize: I really empathize with Mitnick's plight and the point of view of the authors of the film, but I don't think the film was very good. The purpose of such a production is to show a point of view in a way that brings more people to it, in a way that makes people believe the point. People that are in the field and have every reason to already believe what is in the film have no need to see it, while people who don't have very little chance to connect to anything Freedom Downtime has to offer. As such, it failed and was probably more of an ego trip for Goldstein and his crew.I can't stop fearing, though, that I am having the same reaction the legal system in the US had about Mitnick: if the defense lawyer is not highly skilled and highly paid, probably Kevin is guilty; if the film is low budget and made by amateurs, then its message is probably not good.

I eagerly looked forward to seeing this supposed documentary, but to be quite frank, it was painful to sit through.I've long been aware of the Mitnick story and have also been a reader of 2600 for many years.That may in part account for my high expectations of this film.I actually felt sorry for EG as he showed up at the doors of company after company looking to talk to people about the Mitnick case (of course he never got talk to anyone because he put absolutely zero effort in planning any of these meetings whatsoever or even attempting to get a contact person to talk to).My thought as this progressed from the absurd to the comical was this: how high can you possibly be to drive literally across the country to wind up at a company like Sun Microsystems and show at the receptionist's desk hoping to speak to someone about the Mitnick story. Then, to stand out in the parking lot trying to get the main phone number for the company and actually be frustrated and amazed to get a voice mail system and not get to talk to anyone.At one point I was going to turn it off, but hope prevailed as the "film crew" continued to show up just about anywhere hoping to talk to anyone about anything in they might actually do that. The highlight of these "interviews" was letting a drunk guy hold a "Free Kevin" bumper sticker and ramble on why his wife left him because he had no money.As bad as this documentary was (and to call it one is an insult to the genre) it did bring to light the absurd way Mitnick was handled in prison - being put into solitary for months at a time. I suppose that's the one positive point to take from the film. (Mitnick is long since out of prison, by the way, and has a successful consulting firm and a book out last summer that is doing well. I have yet to read the book but probably will simply because I want to read him talk about his social engineering skills.) Hopefully the next time Mr. Goldstein embarks on a road trip to do interviews for a documentary he'll actually have more than a list of names. I'd recommend some crayons and paper so he'll have something a little more interesting to present to his viewers as he waits in reception areas for meetings that will never take place.

Freedom Downtime is basically a personal video record of the "Free Kevin" campaign to free notorious hacker Kevin Mitnick. It's not really about hacking at all and the comparisons to Michael Moore are only appropriate in that the filmmaker confronts those who have been deemed as bad guys. Other than that, Freedom Downtime shares nothing in common with Michael Moore films and is an interesting, albeit scary, look at the justice system in the USA.It should be an interesting film for anyone who remembers the "Free Kevin" campaign that was once so prevalent on the internet. It's full of that dry humor so appreciated by hacker culture, which adds a little hacker flavor to an otherwise serious subject. Those not familiar with Mitnick may not appreciate the film as much, but they'll still come away with an inside glimpse into serious problems with the justice system and the corporate media's willingness to ignore the truth when it wishes to do so. Of course, this won't come as a big surprise today, when trust in the corporate media is at an all-time low and people have turned to the internet as a result.

Freedom Downtime is an eloquent and thought provoking documentary about the disgusting abuse of power in the United States. Kevin Mitnik's life was destroyed by the "justice" system. This film documents the campaign to free him, and provides a fascinating insight into the hacker world. You will laugh, you will cry, you will want to take up arms against the state...