Sneakers

A security consultant (Robert Redford) finds that his murky past is about to come back and haunt him when he is given he job of finding a mysterious device of great interest to various governments.

There’s a gentle charm to this that’s hard to resist. The rag tag group of friends (including Sidney Poitier bringing some real gravitas to the film) get together to work on a huge job, each playing to their strengths. It’s got the same easy way about it as the Soderburgh Ocean’s Eleven but more tactile and down to earth than glossy.

Is it the law that Robert Redford must wear a trench coat in every film?

Sneakers is oddly prescient - the maguffin in play is a box that can decrypt any encrypted data and communications, the implication being that everything is online now and we’d all be fucked if this were to happen. Well guess what? Everything is online now and we’d all be fucked if this were to happen.

Good old fashioned fun with a low-key sense of humour that pulls you into its world, then a plot with real stakes that keeps you interested.