

BICENTENNIAL MAN
RATING: 6.5 /10 -->So-so

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The last time that director Chris Columbus and Robin Williams teamed up for
a movie, the result was 1993's MRS. DOUBTFIRE, a film which domestically
grossed over to $220 Million dollars. This time around, the duo take on a
movie which appears to be a frothy little children's pic from the looks of
its trailer, but actually is a pretty serious film dealing with the various
aspects that make one human.

PLOT:
In the year 2005, a rich family buys a made-for-the-home robot/servant
created to help them around the house. Over the years, the robot and others
notice that he is different from the rest of his peers, this android appears
to have some artistic talents, a personality and emotions. The film covers
200 years in the life of said machine, as he attempts to "evolve" into a
human being, by the way of our world's ever-changing technologies.

CRITIQUE:
This ain't a kids movie, folks! It only took about thirty minutes into this
film for the kids in my theatre to start chattering it up. And that's about
where most of the "real comedy" ends and the existential drama begins. Don't
get me wrong here, the robot doesn't suddenly begin quoting Kierkegaard or
anything, but the movie is essentially an interesting adult film peppered
with a few funny moments, all within a much deeper context of what defines a
"human being", how technology might affect our conditions in the future,
what constitutes "freedom" and how love transcends all. Pretty deep for a
Robin Williams movie, eh? Some of the things I liked about this film
included its span time of 200 years, which I don't remember ever seeing done
in the same way, the concept itself, which dealt with one's identity, the
need for acknowledgment from others, and to a certain extent, racism or
robotism, in this case. I also dug on all the cool little gadgeteries which
became slicker and slicker as the years went by, as well as the consistently
healthy performance from Oliver Platt.

What didn't I like about the movie? Well, this also has to do with the fact
that it spanned 200 years, since I wasn't able to truly identify with any
one human character across the entire film, save for the robot, to whom, I
personally did not invest much emotion. I did however enjoy some of the
human characters in the movie, but as you may have guessed by now, after 200
years, not too many of them were around at the end. And looking back, I
think the film might have benefited more had it stuck to its sci-fi route,
rather than its heavy-handed/humorous presentation here. I for one would
love to see such a film done entirely in serious tone, as opposed to the
generic humor that was tossed into this one every now and again (Maybe if it
starred someone not known to most for comedy?). The film also ran a little
long near the end with what eventually started to feel like a revolving plot
door as the robot just continued to work on his condition year after year
after year. In the end, despite the fact that it was set to touch our human
emotions, I felt little more than the robot did at the beginning of the
film. Interested yet cold and distant. All in all, the film was pretty
engaging to watch all the way through, but seemed to have sacrificed further
scientific depth in return for an unconvincing show of romance and humor. A
nice try, but overall, no dice.

I'd suggest you see it on video just for its original vision.

Little Known Facts about this film and its stars:
Robin Williams' middle name is "McLaurim". His first major movie role was
his starring gig as Popeye in 1980's Robert Altman flick POPEYE. When he
auditioned for the role of Mork for TV's "Mork and Mindy" show, Robin met
with producer Gary Marshall who told him to sit down. Robin immediately sat
his head on the chair. Gary Marshall immediately chose him saying that he
was the only alien who auditioned.
Actor Sam Neill's birth-name is Nigel Neill. Sam met his current wife Noriko

Watanabe on the set of 1989's DEAD CALM where she served as a make-up
artist. He was also one of the original candidates for the fourth and fifth
actor to portray James Bond in THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS and GOLDENEYE. Of
course, those parts went to Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan respectively.
Actress Embeth Davidtz birth-name is Gretta Milano. She hails from the state
of New Jersey. Her first big role was in Sam Raimi's 1993 film ARMY OF
DARKNESS.
Director Chris Columbus was first inspired to make movies after seeing THE
GODFATHER at the tender age of 15. After enrolling into the NYU film school,
he sold his first screenplay (never produced) while a sophomore there. Chris
is apparently writing screenplays for two comic-book film adaptations
including DAREDEVIL and THE FANTASTIC FOUR.
Writer Nicolas Kazan is the son of famed director Elia Kazan. His other
writings include FALLEN (7/10), MOBSTERS and REVERSAL OF FORTUNE, amongst
others.
This film was originally titled ANDREW MARTIN, and is based on the story
"Bicentennial Man", by Russian-born author Isaac Asimov.

Review Date: December 12, 1999
Director: Chris Columbus
Writer: Nicolas Kazan
Producers: Chris Columbus, Wolfgang Petersen, Gail Katz
Laurence Mark, Neal Miller, Mark Radcliffe, and Michael Barnathan
Actors: Robin Williams as Andrew Martin
Sam Neill as Richard Martin
Embeth Davidtz as Little Miss/Portia
Genre: Dramedy
Year of Release: 1999
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(c) 1999 Berge Garabedian