James Croot The Post NZ Jun 7, 2023 4/5

[WarGames] is a standard ‘80s teens-in-peril and up-against-the-authorities tale, but one which, despite a strange side-trip to an Oregon island, really does a great job of building up the tension towards a thrilling finale.

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Matt Brunson Film Frenzy Jan 14, 2023 3/4

A clever if occasionally far-fetched adventure-thriller.

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David Nusair Reel Film Reviews May 10, 2020 3/4

WarGames kicks off with an exciting sequence...

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David Denby New York Magazine/Vulture Jan 1, 2020

Like a man drawn to the edge of a cliff by the lure of the abyss below, we're secretly obsessed by the apocalypse. Moralists may claim that WarGames is more exploitation than warning, but it's still an exciting, giddily entertaining movie.

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Octavi Marti El Pais (Spain) Sep 6, 2019

The movie is a spectacle as well as a presumably pacifist proclamation. [Full Review in Spanish]

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Martin Chilton Daily Telegraph (UK) Jul 31, 2015 4/5

The chase sequences with government agents are tame but the film builds to a tense (and witty) conclusion at the Cheyenne Mountain nuclear bunker in Colorado Springs.

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Nathan Ditum Total Film Jul 30, 2013 3/5

What keeps it remarkably fresh is an unpatronising approach to what is ostensibly a kids' thriller, and a set of ideas (remember when Hollywood used them?) that rightly consign all the cradle modems and dot-matrix printers to the margins.

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Alan Jones Radio Times Jul 30, 2013 4/5

This inventive nail-biter is very much a product of its time -- blending the arms-race unease of the early 1980s with the beginning of the home-computer revolution -- but it still manages to both grip and entertain.

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David Sterritt Christian Science Monitor Jul 30, 2013

It's far too simplistic for comfort -- and downright dangerous if it makes anyone think today's self-destructive forces will bow jovially out of sight as soon as we grown-ups loosen up a little.

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Dave Kehr Chicago Reader Jul 30, 2013

Classic humanist-didactic filmmaking, effectively presented as a thriller.

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Rob Vaux Mania.com Jun 5, 2013 B

Memory makes the heart grow fonder, even when you're blowing up the world.

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Mark Pfeiffer Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema Aug 8, 2011 A

As a Cold War message movie and cinematic descendent of Fail-Safe, WarGames examines the inherent danger in favoring technology's cool logic and situational calculations.

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Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com May 11, 2011 B+

In many ways, John Badham's intriguing tale was prophetic.

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Randy White Common Sense Media Jan 2, 2011 4/5

Suspenseful Cold War tale with teen gamer in control.

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Scott Nash Three Movie Buffs Jun 17, 2010 3.5/4

Although today it feels rather dated, especially with its technology, it is one of the better examples of the genre.

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Fernando F. Croce CinePassion Jun 3, 2010

In this sage satire, warfare is boiled down to the inanities of tic-tac-toe

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James Berardinelli ReelViews Apr 30, 2009 3/4

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.

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Variety Staff Variety Mar 26, 2009

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.

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Walter Chaw Film Freak Central Nov 9, 2008 3.5/4

What works best about it works still: it's a paranoid film with an ambiguous ending.

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Michael Booth Denver Post Mar 14, 2008

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.

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