Time employee robs bank

Big screen Haxploitation action

By Robert Blincoe • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 17th August 2001 15:47 GMT

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An employee of Time Computers uses his hacking skills to help rob a bank in the comedy film The Parole Officer.

The Time techie uses a virus to makes sure all the alarms in all the banks in Manchester go off as the robbery is taking place.

The character, Colin, works in the Blackpool branch of Time, which is a concession within the Office World store. He's played by comedian Ben Miller, who's usually found in the Armstrong and Miller TV show on Channel 4, often nude with a strategically placed household item covering his genitals.

The Reg called Time in Blackpool to see if any of the genuine staff there had the skills to perform a bank heist. "Haven't a clue," said Bill, who hasn't seen the film and knows nothing about it.

Time HQ didn't seem to know about its appearance in the film either, but their logo is clearly seen in the store where Colin works.

The film has some decent knob, vomit, and diarrhoea jokes, but wouldn't trouble our Top 10 Haxploitation film list.

The plot is that the parole officer, played by Alan Partridge star Steve Coogan, witnesses a murder committed by a bent copper. He's going to be framed for the crime unless he can grab the CCTV recording of the incident from a security box at the bank. He recruits the only three people he's managed to get to go straight to help him get it.

Interestingly Colin, who likes Belgian trance music, doesn't use a Time laptop for the crime. Instead he employs a Dell Inspiron. ®