I just watched this in my dormitory auditorium with a bunch of other freshmen. One of the graduate students introduced the movie by saying that it's hilarious for its absolutely outdated technology. I wondered before if it was supposed to be funny, if it was considered funny in its own time, or if it's only been funny since recent times.
After watching the movie, I think it was supposed to be semi-serious, but I think even movie watchers of that day would have called it "so-bad-it's-good". To call the acting in the movie poor would be to insult poor actors (and that was how Angelina Jolie acted way-back-when!?). Also, 28.8 Bps (along with all the other made-up pseudo-tech jargon they made up)? I can only laugh.