Meh, that's a kid's film. A fun kid's film, but still.

I don't agree. The McGuffin (the decryptor chip) is magic, the ethical conundrums are juvenile. It's teenage wish fulfilment for liberal geeks (and I say that as a liberal geek); a high-tech version of the Blues Brothers and just about every gang-of-mistfits-thwart-horrible-landlord film.

Sorry, but I saw it in the theater when it came out and it was just a total let-down - not my idea of a serious film at all.

There aren't many better examples from Hollywood out there, so we have to take what we can get...

Wim Wenders 'The End of Violence' (1997) belongs in the category of tastefully executed cryto-thrillers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_Violence