From the first frames of Anti-Trust, you know where the story is headed. The piercing eyes of Bill Gates-like computer software guru Gary Winston fill up the screen as he tells us that in this newly computerized world "You are either a one or a zero; alive or dead; there is no second place." Is it any surprise then that the film's earnest hero will run afoul of this egomaniac? Not at all. Just as it's no surprise that Anti-Trust is a fluffy, no-brain thriller with a few scares, a lot of glitz and plenty of hollow, adolescent preaching.

In the words of Teddy (Yee Jee Tso), best friend to hero Milo (Ryan Phillippe), "human knowledge belongs to the world." So begins a two-hour public service announcement about the dangers of corporate/computer chip America and its insidious control of the known universe. From the outset, it seems like writer Howard Franklin has an axe to grind with Bill Gates, whose ego and power are embodied so succinctly in Gary Winston (Tim Robbins). Like Gates, Winston is a billionaire whose company Nurv fairly controls the computer market. Like Gates, Winston is known to "borrow" fledgling software companies' technology and market it himself. Unlike Gates (we should hope), Winston has a very nasty streak, without which there would be no movie.

But that is neither here nor there. Let's look at why the film doesn't work. For starters, do you believe that Ryan Phillippe, oh he of the pouty lip and tousled Grecian locks is one of the world's twenty most brilliant computer programmers? That he alone can solve the one problem holding back the launch of software giant Gary Winston's brainchild satellite system? That he alone could bring Winston to his knees? Nah, didn't think so. And that rather undermines the entire premise of the film. If your hero doesn't exude brilliance in a techno-thriller where his smarts are all he has, then, well, what do you have? And do you believe that a true computer geek would have a hot girlfriend like Claire Forlani? Well, sure, if he looked like Ryan Phillippe.

All this goes to say that the filmmakers seem to have put more into the film's glitzy image than its believability. On that level, it works like aces. Phillippe and friends, especially Forlani and Rachel Leigh Cook as seductive geek Lisa are very easy on the eyes. Likewise, the world of Gary Winston's Nurv Computers is hip and sexy to the max. And who wouldn't want to live in the seaside compound replete with aquariums that feature "living" seasons that Winston calls home. The art department must have had a play day here. It's all incredibly cool and, for awhile, it hides the fact that the film has very little going on except what we expected from the outset. That being that Gary Winston is a bad boy who wants to rule the world and will do whatever it takes to succeed. Murder, anyone?

More than anything, the movie is dragged down by young actors who don't have the chops for what could have been a provocative and electrifying thriller about cutting edge technology. There are potential glimpses of The Devil's Advocate and even Wallstreet here, but writer Franklin never takes it far enough. Had the filmmakers really explored the film's stated theme -- "in this business, you're either a one or a zero" -- there just might have been something worth investing in emotionally. Instead, everything here feels dumbed down for a hipster generation who will probably get a charge out of the film, even as the real adults in the audience sit back and sigh in frustration. On some level, Anti-Trust is good fun on a very, very B-movie guilty pleasure level, but in the final analysis, the film also has "wait for video" written all over it.