From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Dec 17 12:34:48 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Berge Garabedian" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Bicentennial Man (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.movies.current-films ~Date: 13 Dec 1999 06:42:34 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 110 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8324gq$i66$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> ~Reply-To: "Berge Garabedian" NNTP-Posting-Host: homer31.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 945067354 18630 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #22153 Keywords: author=garabedian X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer31.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:21372 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2511 BICENTENNIAL MAN RATING: 6.5 /10 -->So-so For more reviews and movie screensavers, visit http://www.joblo.com/ 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 --------------------------------------- JoBlo's Movie Emporium http://www.joblo.com --------------------------------------- (c) 1999 Berge Garabedian From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Dec 17 12:34:48 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Ssg722@aol.com (Susan Granger) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Bicentennial Man (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 16 Dec 1999 02:13:48 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 30 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <839hss$tdo$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer19.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 945310428 30136 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #22188 Keywords: author=granger X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer19.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:21412 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2516 http://www.speakers-podium.com/susangranger. Susan Granger's review of "BICENTENNIAL MAN" (Touchstone Pictures) The last time director Chris Columbus teamed with Robin Willliams they came up with Mrs. Doubtfire but, if you're expecting this to be a slapstick kids' flick, think again. Adapted from a short story by Isaac Asimov, it chronicles the life of a NDR-114 robot who begins as a household appliance in 2005, created "to perform menial tasks: cooking, cleaning, making household repairs, playing with or supervising children." Dubbed Andrew by the youngest of the family's children (deep-dimpled Hallie Kate Eisenberg) who cannot pronounce "android," he soon begins to show creativity, curiosity, and compassion, confounding his manufacturer and launching a 200-year quest to discover his humanity. Nicholas Kazan's thoughtful screenplay cleverly explores the technology of artificial intelligence as it integrates with human behavior but, since it follows a family for several generations with only Andrew as a connective, it involves too many characters, several with literary-allusion names like Galatea and Portia. Plus, there's a constant awareness that underneath the plastic prosthesis, there's comical Robin Williams, desperately itching to emerge. Sam Neill scores as Andrew's original owner, as does Oliver Platt as a bio-tech designer who becomes Andrew's friend. It's interesting that, just like Woody in Toy Story 2, Andrew makes a choice between pristine immortality and the inexplicable vagaries of humanity but, unlike that magical fantasy, children under 10 will quickly be bored or depressed by the insipid depth of this 2-hour, 13-minute saga. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, Bicentennial Man powers up to a surprisingly serious, existential 7, as a poignant parable of what it means to be human. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Dec 17 12:34:48 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!news.idt.net!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: James Sanford ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Bicentennial Man (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 16 Dec 1999 02:35:58 GMT Organization: EarthLink Network, Inc. ~Lines: 49 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <839j6e$krc$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer22.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 945311758 21356 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #22216 Keywords: author=sanford X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer22.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:21424 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2518 Remember when Robin Williams only wanted to make us laugh? If you're not already nostalgic for those long-gone days, you will be after sitting through "Bicentennial Man," Williams' latest foray into saccharine cinema. Those who weep over phone commercials or get a catch in the throat just thinking about Valentines Day might not mind slogging through this epic tale of a robot's quest to become human. Everyone else will emerge from "Bicentennial" feeling about 200 years older than they were when they went in. Thanks to vehicles such as "Toys," "Jack," "Jakob the Liar" and last Christmas' "Patch Adams," Williams has now officially become the Emmett Kelly Jr. of 1990s cinema, a clown who won't stop until your chuckles are tinged with tears. The actor who once did such a fine job of straddling the worlds of comedy and drama in "Good Morning Vietnam," "Dead Poets Society" and "The World According to Garp" has almost disappeared completely, and in his place is a hollow, perpetually misty-eyed impostor who's only interested in playing misunderstood saints victimized and persecuted by the cruel, cruel world. At the rate he's going, Williams will soon be starring in "The Michael Jackson Story." In "Bicentennial," inspired by Isaac Asimov's "The Positronic Man," Williams plays Andrew, an unusually sensitive and sentimental android who starts his life as a servant in the household of Richard Martin (Sam Neill) and his family and eventually embarks on a journey of self-discovery that spans from 2005 to 2205. Director Chris Columbus starts the film off as a corny but watchable sitcom and swings into "Forrest Gump" territory for the slightly more serious middle stretch. Andrew's fascination with humanity, his talent for woodworking and his appreciation of opera mark him as something more than just a run-of-the-mill robot, but the small-minded folk of the future refuse to accept him as a real man because of his "positronic brain." Can Andrew ever transcend his factory origins and become a real live love machine in time to win the heart of his mortal girlfriend (Embeth Davidtz)? Since Columbus pulls all the stops out in the last 45 minutes, getting to the answer requires swallowing more syrup than you'd find in the best-stocked International House of Pancakes. "Bicentennial Man" has some sharp special effects, a handful of imaginative fashions of the future and a handful of genuinely funny jokes that are vintage Williams. Unfortunately, Columbus and Williams are so resolutely determined to melt your heart, they finally resort to using the cinematic equivalent of a flame-thrower. The largely undramatic story drags on and on to a foregone conclusion, and the movie's worthwhile moments are quickly forgotten as Williams turns on the waterworks, Davidtz struggles to look longingly into his oozing eyes and Celine Dion (sounding more than a little robotic herself) wails another of her sterile love themes over the closing credits. James Sanford From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Dec 17 12:34:48 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!fu-berlin.de!arclight.uoregon.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Michael Elliott" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Bicentennial Man (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 16 Dec 1999 02:37:03 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 93 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <839j8f$gtq$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer17.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 945311823 17338 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #22221 Keywords: author=elliott X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer17.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:21403 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2513 Christian Critic's Movie Parables - http://www.christiancritic.com BICENTENNIAL MAN (opens December 17) * * out of * * * * stars ======================== DIRECTED BY: Chris Columbus STARRING: Robin Williams, Embeth Davidtz, Sam Neill, Oliver Platt WRITTEN BY: Nicholas Kazan RATED: PG for language and some sexual content SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Job 33:4, Genesis 2:7, Acs 17:24-25 --------------------------------------------------------------------- A robot/android with a positronic brain who desperately wants to know what it is to be human? Didn't we see this done (and done better) on TV's Star Trek: The Next Generation? Director Chris Columbus and star Robin Williams, who last teamed up to bring us MRS. DOUBTFIRE, join forces again for the futuristic faux-morality tale, BICENTENNIAL MAN. Based on an Isaac Asimov story, the film begins in the year 2005 with the delivery of a household appliance to the home of Richard Martin (Sam Neill, EVENT HORIZON). This appliance is an NDR-114 robot nicknamed Andrew by Little Miss (Hallie Kate Eisenberg, THE INSIDER), the youngest member of the family. He will spend the next 200 years in an attempt to be accepted by the world as something other than a Sharper Image catalogue item. Encouraged by the family who owns him, Andrew begins to explore various facets of humanity. Whenever he finds himself falling short of the human experience, his standard reaction is to say "That won't do" before going off to correct the defect. Over time, he develops and incorporates humor, taste, facial expressions, a central nervous system, a desire for freedom, and last but not least... a functioning male anatomical "package". He also sees his original family die and "lives" to see the generation after them die as well. His next step on the road to humanity is going to have to be his own mortality. The 200 years pass quickly in this roughly 2½ hour long film (That's about 45 seconds per year) and yet the film itself tends to drag by, weighed down by its own pomposity. What begins as a lighthearted family romp in the comedic style of MRS. DOUBTFIRE rapidly evolves into a self-important, new-age minded movie equivalent of a warm and fuzzy group hug where the physical intimacy is forced rather than genuinely spontaneous. Mr. Williams has some amusing moments as the titanium plated gentleman's gentleman. But unlike Dorothy's Tin Man, Andrew's heart never appears to be missing. From the very beginning, he demonstrates a curiosity and affection for the humans he serves. Most of the growth or development of the character is seen in the external improvements rather than in an internal realization. Stretched over the length of this movie, the characterization becomes transparently thin. Embeth Davidtz (MANSFIELD PARK) in a dual role which has her playing both Little Miss and her grandchild, Portia, serves as the love interest for Andrew. Knowing that she cannot invest her emotions in a machine, she nonetheless must admit that no human tugs at her heart in quite the same way. Oliver Platt (LAKE PLACID) brightens the screen as a kindly robotics engineer who drolly helps Andrew realize his goal to become accepted as human. And Sam Neill as Andrew's first (and last) owner shows a compassion and endearing affection towards his animatronic property turned friend. Chris Columbus tries to look at the age-old question "What is the meaning of life?" by turning the question on its head and simply asking, "what defines life?" Of course, he isn't up to the challenge of answering his own question which he nimbly sidesteps. Were the question posed to a biblically minded person, the answer is readily available: "The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." Job 33:4 [KJV] Despite the technological breakthroughs of the modern world, one thing remains clear. Regardless of how much man may make something to resemble a human, the God-given life that is in us cannot be duplicated. Andrew's quest for humanity is a noble but futile search. We may someday reach a point where we can build a machine like an NDR-114 with artificial intelligence, but to infuse that machine with a soul life is something that will always remain beyond our purview. God, after all, is the Creator of all life. Michael Elliott December 1999 http://www.christiancritic.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Dec 17 12:34:48 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!nntp.primenet.com!nntp.gctr.net!nntp.flash.net!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!arclight.uoregon.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Scott Renshaw ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Bicentennial Man (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 16 Dec 1999 02:37:15 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 98 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <839j8r$gu0$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer33.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 945311835 17344 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #22223 Keywords: author=renshaw X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer33.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:21408 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2514 BICENTENNIAL MAN (Touchstone/Columbia) Starring: Robin Williams, Embeth Davidtz, Sam Neill, Oliver Platt, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Kiersten Warren, Wendy Crewson. Screenplay: Nicholas Kazan, based on the short story by Isaac Asimov and the novel _The Positronic Man_ by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg. Producers: Wolfgang Petersen, Gail Katz, Neal Miller, Lawrence Mark, Chris Columbus, Mark Radcliffe and Michael Barnathan. Director: Chris Columbus. MPAA Rating: PG (profanity, adult themes) Running Time: 132 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw. And so Robin Williams' career has come full circle. Twenty years ago, his celebrity was insured when he played an innocent to the ways of humanity, drawing sit-com laughs from his literalist misunderstanding of idioms and his awkward attempts at humor, before ending the story with a speech to tell us everything he has learned. In BICENTENNIAL MAN, Williams plays an innocent to the ways of humanity, drawing sit-com laughs from his literalist misunderstanding of idioms and ... well, you get the idea. After two decades of box office success and an Academy Award, it has come to this: Robin Williams is playing Mork again. I'm sure Williams would not see things that way. He would doubtless inform us that his is a complex and challenging character, a domestic robot called Andrew serving the Martin family of Northern California. He would explain that the relationships were rich -- the mentor/student connection between Andrew and Martin patriarch Richard (Sam Neill); the gentle affection between Andrew and the Martin's youngest daughter, whom he calls Little Miss (Hallie Kate Eisenberg); the more profound affection between Andrew and the grown up Little Miss (Embeth Davidtz). He would describe a robust character arc, in which Andrew comes to exhibit creativity and feeling, and begins a life-long quest to become more human. He might even acknowledge the comic relief value of Oliver Platt as eccentric robotics scientist Rupert Burns, and Kiersten Warren as the perky female robot Galatea. All of that might have been true in some incarnation of the story, based on two short stories by Isaac Asimov, the father of the robot-in-existential crisis concept. This incarnation, however, is directed by Chris Columbus, whose contributions to deep-thinking Western cinema include HOME ALONE, HOME ALONE 2 and NINE MONTHS. He's an unapologetic crowd-pleaser as a director, but a crowd-pleaser in the most irritating of ways. His is a style that favors low-brow gags and gee-whiz pacing, then feigns depth by wrapping things up with sentimental message-mongering (and, in this particular case, three -- count them, _three_ -- death bed scenes). BICENTENNIAL MAN doesn't even manage the gee-whiz pacing; after a moderately promising start, the film drifts into two hours of Andrew growing ever more pensive about his place in the world. Such pensiveness is likely meant to allow Robin Williams an uplifting acting showcase (at least once Andrew sheds his metal casing for Williams' human face). Williams has seemed inordinately fond of uplifting acting showcases lately, eschewing straight-ahead comedy for roles like PATCH ADAMS, WHAT DREAMS MAY COME and JAKOB THE LIAR. Unfortunately, he's not doing himself any favors in his choices of material, heading for parts that allow him to do plenty of emoting between gags. There's no gravity to Williams' performance as Andrew, none of the conflicted pain of a being coming to terms with its own consciousness and its isolation in the world. That's because he's being directed by Chris Columbus, for whom gravity is just the thing that keeps his films from floating away entirely. When BICENTENNIAL MAN sticks to light comedy, it's not half bad. When it takes its epic scope too seriously, it's more than half bad. BICENTENNIAL MAN does boast solid work from its supporting cast of Davidtz, Neill and particularly Platt (for my money, now the most reliable comic actor in film). The technical credits are top-notch, with one wild scene in which Platt molds artificial flesh into Williams' face. There's even the chance to consider possible metaphors in Andrew's desire to be legally recognized as a human to marry the woman he loves (advocacy for "non-traditional" marriage?). There's also plenty of opportunity to watch the film grow ponderous in the long stretches between laughs, and to consider how stale Robin Williams' once-promising career has become. The man who stepped lightly from broad comedy to DEAD POETS SOCIETY and THE FISHER KING has spent the last year in reverse. BICENTENNIAL MAN's few simple pleasures can't make up for its shallow philosophizing -- or the sense that, for Robin Williams, everything old is nanoo again. On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 I, shazbots: 5. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit Scott Renshaw's Screening Room http://www.inconnect.com/~renshaw/ *** Subscribe to receive new reviews directly by email! See the Screening Room for details, or reply to this message with subject "Subscribe". -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Dec 17 12:34:48 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Jon Popick ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Bincentennial Man (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 16 Dec 1999 02:54:28 GMT Organization: Planet Sick-Boy ~Lines: 77 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <839k94$fso$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer27.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 945312868 16280 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #22225 Keywords: author=popick X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer27.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:21409 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2515 PLANET SICK-BOY: http://www.sick-boy.com There are two sides to Robin Williams. One is the wacky comedian that America fell in love with on Mork & Mindy, and the other is an Oscar-winning actor. You can tell the two of them apart by Williams’ facial hair – clean-shaven means he’s in out-of-control mode (Good Morning, Vietnam), while a full beard indicates a more serious, restrained Robin (Good Will Hunting). But how do you tell which side you’re going to get when his face is obscured by a mask? Although Williams is beardless under his costume in Bicentennial Man, he shows the control and self-discipline of his tranquil alter-ego. I guess it goes to prove that looks can be deceiving. But that’s not the only thing surprising about this film. Disney seems to be selling it as a holiday film for children, but it’s actually a pretty serious drama (containing a handful of laughs) with a running time of well over two hours. And here’s another shocker – it’s rather good. Based on a short story of the same name by science-fiction guru Isaac Asimov (he later fleshed it out into a novel called The Positronic Man with collaborator Robert Silverberg) and adapted for the screen by Nicholas Kazan (Fallen), Bicentennial Man is basically a futuristic version of Pinocchio. Williams (Jakob the Liar) stars as a robot servant that dreams of becoming a human being. As the title implies, the film takes place over a two-hundred-year period, which means that Williams’ droid watches generations of his human “family” succumb to death while he never ages. After showing a nifty robot assembly line during the opening credits, the film opens “sometime in the future.” We don’t know how far, but we do see that cars can talk and that sweaters with patches on the elbow are back in style again (later on, we find out that its 2005, so get your patches ready). A well-to-do clockmaker named Martin (Sam Neill, The Horse Whisperer) has just purchased an NDR-114 robot for his family. The machine is supposed to be responsible for housekeeping and food preparation, but instead shows un-robotic traits like creativity and a desire to learn. He is called Andrew and the Martins treat him like a member of the family, except for making him live in the basement. Andrew hits it off with the Martins’ youngest daughter (Hallie Kate Eisenberg from the Pepsi commercials), who he calls Little Miss. Before you know it, the years have flown by and Little Miss has become Old Wrinkled Miss (Embeth Davidtz, Mansfield Park). But prior to kicking the bucket, Little Miss introduces Andrew to her gaunt granddaughter Portia (also Davidtz), who is the spitting image of her willowy grandmother. Andrew and Portia also have a close relationship, but she’s engaged to marry a guy that looks like Jay Leno’s great-great-great grandson (Jay Johnston, Mr. Show). Aside from his depressing family life, Andrew runs into a female android (doesn’t the word “android” imply a lack of sexuality?) that works for an NDR-114 specialist named Rupert Burns (Oliver Platt, Lake Placid). Andrew expresses his desire to become more human, and he and Burns create revolutionary technology to begin the transformation. Burns starts by slapping some flesh-colored Flubber onto Andrew, and then adds a central nervous system and so on and so on. But no matter what type of upgrades he receives, Andrew is still only recognized as a simple machine. One of the greatest features of the film is the realistic aging of its characters. The other is the unbelievable fact that Bicentennial Man received a “PG” rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. It has a couple of frank discussions about sex, as well as around a dozen bad words (including, alphabetically, “ass,” “bitch,” two different versions of “goddamn,” and about a half-dozed occurrences of “shit”). There’s even a scene where Andrew squeezes out a post-coital fart after his first lay. This rating seems particularly wrong following the MPAA’s “R” rating for Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo. They both had very similar content, but since Deuce’s target audience was drunk, date-raping frat-boys, it was slapped with the “R.” Bicentennial Man is being pushed on kids, and ended up with the “PG.” Go figure. 2:15 - PG for language and some sexual content From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Dec 18 21:06:05 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.direct.ca!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: ejohnsonott@prodigy.net ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Bicentennial Man (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 17 Dec 1999 17:38:49 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 111 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <83dsf9$djs$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer26.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 945452329 13948 (None) 140.142.17.40 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #22230 Keywords: author=johnson-ott X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer26.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:21429 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2520 Bicentennial Man (1999) Robin Williams, Sam Neill, Wendy Crewson, Embeth Davidtz, Oliver Platt, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Stephen Root, Lynne Thigpen, Bradley Whitford, Kiersten Warren, John Michael Higgins, George D. Wallace. Screenplay by Nicholas Kazan, based on the short story by Isaac Asimov and the novel "The Positronic Man" by Asimov and Robert Silverberg. Directed by Chris Columbus. 131 minutes Rated PG, 1.5 stars (out of five stars) Review by Ed Johnson-Ott, NUVO Newsweekly www.nuvo-online.com Archive reviews at http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?Edward+Johnson-Ott To receive reviews by e-mail at no charge, send subscription requests to ejohnsonott@prodigy.net or e-mail ejohnsonott-subscribe@onelist.com with the word "subscribe" in the subject line. Following the release of "Patch Adams" last December and this month's "Bicentennial Man," it appears that a new holiday tradition has been established. Here's how it works. Each Christmas season, Robin Williams unveils a new mawkish comedy/drama. Then, writers like me race for our word processors, eager to warn filmgoers that the latest manipulative drivel from the human Care Bear is just as wretched as its predecessors. The tradition is completed when audiences ignore writers like me and flock to their neighborhood theaters, helping the movie make a gazillion dollars. God help us, everyone. Last year, the gap between reviewers and the general public was so wide that several articles appeared with titles like "Patch Adams: The Critics vs. the Audience." Some argued that reviewers were too cynical and hard-hearted to appreciate the magic of the film. Others stated that general audiences were too easily taken in by Hollywood schlock. My favorite article suggested that the medical comedy/drama received horrible reviews because critics were secretly teaming with HMOs to try and destroy personalized health care. As in "Patch Adams," Robin Williams spends a lot of "Bicentennial Man" trying to win the hearts of leery, emotionally constricted people. As in "Patch Adams," death features prominently in the movie (nothing says Christmas to me like a tender euthanasia scene). The big difference this time is that the filmmakers attempts at emotional manipulation are less offensive. Where "Patch Adams" used young chemotherapy patients, a rape victim and others as props for Williams' shtick, "Bicentennial Man" requires the star himself to cook up his own pathos. That's not a problem for Robin Williams. In a screenplay based on a couple of Isaac Asimov stories, he plays Andrew, a melancholy robot longing to become human. Apparently, the folks behind this movie never saw an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," where Brent Spiner routinely (and far more credibly) dealt with the same Pinocchio themes as the android crew member, Data. Following Andrew's purchase by a wealthy Bay Area family, Williams spends the first hour of the movie in full robot drag, and the results are not pretty. To accommodate his middle-age frame, the metallic suit is awfully thick. While most of the suit is silver, portions are copper-colored. From a distance, the copper looks like Caucasian flesh, giving the suit an odd, peek-a-boo appearance. The tacked-on facial features, particularly the eyebrows, resemble a cross between Robin Williams and Mr. Potato Head. Williams' performance during the first half of the film is as constricted as his outfit. Proper and very deferential ("One wishes only to serve"), he slowly develops a personality, to the delight of owner, Sir (Sam Neill, who gives the film's most interesting performance) and his daughter, Little Miss (Hallie Kate Eisenberg, the girl who lip-syncs in soft drink commercials). Though other family members are less entranced, Sir encourages Andrew to further his personal growth, leading the robot to experiment with humor, which allows Williams a chance to do some stand-up comedy bits. The can-I-win-over-the-family first hour is dull and remarkably inert. Despite periodic shots of futuristic cities and flying cars, the home segments play merely like a bawdy "Seventh Heaven" episode. When Andrew finally takes off to explore the world and search for "others like myself," things only improve slightly. He eventually meets quirky robotic expert Rupert Burns (Oliver Platt), who helps him in a series of "upgrades." Once Williams finally looks like himself, he goes into that sad, twinkly mode that drives writers like me straight up the wall. Eventually, Andrew returns home to woo Little Miss' granddaughter, Portia (Embeth Davidtz), leading to a sappy "what does it mean to be human" final act. If any of this sounds intriguing, trust me, it isn't. Director Chris Columbus, the man responsible for "Stepmom," another horribly manipulative touchy-feely movie, tries to make Andrew's quest seem profound, but in Columbus' heavy hands, all the fuss and bother remains maddeningly pedestrian. Rather than epic, the second half of the film is simply dreary and depressing, with the comic moments seeming contrived at best. While not as awful as "Patch Adams," "Bicentennial Man" is a dour, tepid affair masquerading as an inspirational comedy/drama. Of course, as long as audiences continue to flock to this kind of pabulum, Williams will continue to crank it out. Robin Williams is a talented man in danger of becoming a habitual hack. But you can rescue him from artistic ruin by refusing to shell out money for films like this. Save Robin Williams! Together, we can stage a mass intervention and break this nightmarish holiday tradition! Don't go to "Bicentennial Man!" Oh, who am I kidding? This dog is going to make a fortune. © 1999 Ed Johnson-Ott From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sat Dec 18 21:06:05 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Mac VerStandig" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Bicentennial Man (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 17 Dec 1999 17:39:03 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 70 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <83dsfn$f46$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer30.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 945452343 15494 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #22232 Keywords: author=verstandig X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer30.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:21431 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2521 Bicentennial Man 1 Star (Out of 4) Reviewed by Mac VerStandig critic@moviereviews.org http://www.moviereviews.org ***Moviereviews.org has been asked to start collecting a list of readers in the Washington, DC area who would be interested in attending advanced promotional screenings of major motion pictures for free. If this interests you, please e-mail Moviereviews.org at passes@moviereviews.org with your name and zip code (to verify that you are in the Washington, DC area). Then check back at Moviereviews.org (http://www.moviereviews.org) as often as you like to see what screenings you could be eligible to attend!*** ---Starting on Christmas Eve you can hear Mac VerStandig's movie reviews on the radio in Portland, Maine once a week in addition to reading them on Moviereviews.org. Details on time and dial placement still to come. Stay tuned!--- *** A copy of this review can be found at http://www.moviereviews.org/bicentennial_man.htm *** Bicentennial Man is an impuissant and confused movie that follows a robot through 200 years neglecting to ever develop another character in depth or share with the audience that the title-referenced bicentennial will mark the end of a journey that seems to be equally as long and laborious for the audience. Director Chris Columbus' film centers around a not-very-entertaining Robin Williams as Andrew, the aforementioned machine, and his trials and tribulations which are as unexplored as the West Indies that other guy named Columbus supposedly discovered. In "the not too distant future" we meet the Martin family and their newest household appliance: Andrew. Our protagabot ventures from generation to generation of a cliched and overly dull Martin family- mostly women. He also comes across a few other humans and robots, but none interesting enough to warrant any attention in this review. They come and go, Andrew stays, and the movie limps it way through a Jetsons-style future setting. Now banished to a fate worse than ordinary reruns, TV Land, there was a delightful 1960's Don Adams show (that Fox unsuccessfully tried to bring back a few years ago) called Get Smart. Richard Gautier, a relative unknown that never ventured past G. I. Joe fame, played Hymie the Robot. Much like Andrew, Hymie was a machine that actively sought life and commonly found himself in hilarious situations were his inner-workings were experimented with ineptly. Hymie was friendly and romantic, yet inevitably robotic. Richard Gautier may not be Robin Williams, but the show is just as funny and doesn't cost $7.75 and an otherwise good Friday or Saturday night. The positive end of this almost-dead battery does have some traits of which to boast. In a time where they are rare, Bicentennial Man is a movie that you needn't be embarrassed to take Grandma and the tots to. Robin Williams is very funny and touching with some traditional Disney tear-jerking scenes. The explanation offered of sex is edited to a level of general appropriateness. But the movie is even confused about its family traits as we learn that being human is the ultimate accomplishment and you needn't mourn the dead (for all those that pass away, only one tear is seen). We are also told that imperfection is the key to life and marriage can be taken lightly. This film also marks 1999's Christmas time family film that most wants to be the next Miracle on 34th Street or It's a Wonderful Life. Last year, Chris Columbus entered Stepmom into this notorious yet largely unspoken contest, following his slightly more appealing earlier bids which include Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire. Mr. Capra, rest assured, we don't need a robot to locate the West Indies. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Dec 29 13:29:54 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!isdnet!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Bob Bloom ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Bicentennial Man (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 19 Dec 1999 20:12:48 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 80 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <83je80$gn8$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer24.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 945634368 17128 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #22254 Keywords: author=bloom X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer24.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:21456 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2526 Bicentennial Man (1999) 1 1/2 stars out of 4. Starring Robin Williams, Sam Neill, Embeth Davidtz, Oliver Platt and Hallie Kate Eisenberg. Directed by Chris Columbus. It is in the nature of our species to continually try to better ourselves, to evolve. And you can't fault a person for doing what comes naturally. So, I really can't be upset with Robin Williams who seems to have turned his back on comedy to strive to become an Actor. After all, we all want to improve, to continually grow ... Ah, the hell with it. Who am I kidding? Just call me a selfish s.o.b. I want my old Robin Williams back, the one who kept me laughing for nearly two hours in concert back in Columbus, Ohio, about 17 years ago, the Robin Williams from "Good Morning Vietnam" and "Aladdin." I want the spontaneous Robin Williams who appears on talk shows or performs during Comic Relief. This new Robin Williams is creepy. Worse, he's kind of dull and boring. I'm tired of this touchy-feely guy who began emerging in "Good Will Hunting" and has invaded my multiplex in "Patch Adams," "When Dreams May Come," "Jakob the Liar" and now "Bicentennial Man." He has become the cliche of the comedian wanting to play Hamlet. Maybe this is what attracted him to "Bicentennial Man," an artificial weeper that is overly schmaltzy and ponderous. In the movie, based on a short story by science fiction legend Isaac Asimov, which was later expanded into the novel, "The Positronic Man," by Robert Silverberg, Williams plays Andrew, a robot who continually strives for humanity. How anyone can see this as an improvement is beyond me, but after all, it is science fiction. We first meet Andrew at the home of Sir (Sam Neill), his wife, Ma'am (Wendy Crewson) and their daughters, Miss (Undze Letherman) and Little Miss (Pepsi spokeskid Hallie Kate Eisenberg, who already is beginning to wear out her welcome). At first considered merely a "household appliance," Sir sees a creative spark in Andrew and encourages him to continue his explorations. As the decades pass - the movie covers 200 years - Andrew continues to grow and evolve. But then he falls in love with Portia, the great-granddaughter of Sir and the granddaughter of Little Miss. Both Little Miss as an adult (as well as an old woman) and Portia are played by Embeth Davidtz, best remembered as Ralph Fiennes Jewish maid in "Schindler's List." So, more than halfway through the movie, directed by Chris Columbus, who has done better work, we are now involved in a robot/girl love story and all the cliches that entails. The real stars of "Bicentennial Man" are the makeup and special effects people who created Williams' robot look. Unfortunately, later in the movie he is given a human face that looks like an old, tired Robin Williams. People are going to flock to "Bicentennial Man" no matter what I or any other critic says. It's inoffensive and the kids will like it, though the younger ones may become restless because of it's nearly two-hour-and-20-minute running time. But it is a rather weak movie, rife in self-important sounding dialogue and situations that don't ring true. I just wish Robin Williams would quit wasting his time and devolve. Who says moving forward is always progress? Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette,IN. He can be reached by e-mail at bloom@journal-courier.com or at cbloom@iquest.net From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Dec 29 13:29:54 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Michael Dequina ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Bicentennial Man (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 19 Dec 1999 20:13:28 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 45 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <83je98$hnu$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer10.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 945634408 18174 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #22259 Keywords: author=dequina X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer10.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:21468 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2527 _Bicentennial_Man_ (PG) *** (out of ****) The trailer for Chris Columbus' adaptation of Isaac Asimov's short story and novel _The_Positronic_Man_ makes this Robin Williams vehicle look like a futuristic sequel to _Patch_Adams_--in short, a ghastly piece of shameless audience manipulation. The sentiment is laid on as thick as molasses as the trailer shows how a robot named Andrew (Williams) is adopted by a family and proves to be "special"--unlike any other android, he appears to actually bear the qualities of emotion and creativity. His human characteristics eventually feed into a desire to become human, a dream that gradually comes true over the course of 200 years (hence the title). The trailer comes to a climax as Williams, no longer made of metal and bearing a flesh-and-blood appearance, asks comely co-star Embeth Davidtz to kiss him. Watching the film itself, I saw that the trailer was accurate in conveying one thing: _Bicentennial_Man_ is, without a doubt, a manipulative picture. But director Chris Columbus, schmaltzmeister that he is, makes no bones about it--he wants to move you. The surprise then came in how I was touched (though not quite moved) by this gentle, likable centuries-spanning fable. While Williams goes through his earnest warm-fuzzy motions as the lead (the only really distinctive thing about his work here is how he wears a head-to-toe metal suit for much of the picture), the standout work--and that which goes a long way for one's involvement in the picture--belongs to Embeth Davidtz, who has a dual role as Amanda, a.k.a. "Little Miss," the youngest daughter in the family that "adopts" Andrew; and Portia, her granddaughter. When Davidtz is recycled, so does screenwriter Nicholas Kazan recycle the contrived plot wrinkle of her character being betrothed to another. But with a proven buttons-pusher such as Columbus at the helm, it's easy to forgive uninspired plot mechanics, for the undeniable emotional pull compensates. Michael Dequina twotrey@juno.com | michael_jordan@geocities.com | jordan_host@sportsmail.com | mrbrown@iname.com Mr. Brown's Movie Site: http://welcome.to/mrbrown CinemaReview Magazine: http://www.CinemaReview.com on ICQ: #25289934 | on AOL Instant Messenger: MrBrown23 ___________________________________________________________________ Why pay more to get Web access? Try Juno for FREE -- then it's just $9.95/month if you act NOW! Get your free software today: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Dec 29 13:29:54 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Harvey S. Karten" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Bicentennial Man (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 19 Dec 1999 20:15:52 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 93 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <83jedo$161k$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer26.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 945634552 38964 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #22279 Keywords: author=karten X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer26.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:21481 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2528 BICENTENNIAL MAN Reviewed by Harvey Karten Walt Disney Pictures/Columbia Pictures Director: Chris Columbus Writer: Nicholas Kazan, story "The Bicentennial Man' by Isaac Asimov & Robert Silverberg Cast: Robin Williams, Wendy Crewson, Embeth Davidtz, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Lindze Letherman, Sam Neill, Oliver Platt Critics have jumped on director Chris Columbus for turning out a movie that looks like a Hallmark greeting card, one in which, they imply, sap oozes slowly and perpetually like molasses crawling up a tree in January. If I might demur, I find that Disney--we're talking Disney don't forget--pushes the envelope with "Bicentennial Man," just as that studio did in exposing the tobacco industry with the muckraking and explosively acted "The Insider." Disney, known for often appealing to the most commercial interests, is aiming "Bicentennial" at the young 'uns in a PG-rated movie--which contains some frank, discreetly expressed sexual discussion, a judicious scene of a couple in bed engaged in post-coital banter, and a nicely clarified exposition of the nature of robotics suitable for children without talking down to them. If you come expecting lots of laughs because Robin Williams is featured, forget it. This is not "Moscow on the Hudson" but rather intends to be a clone not of any other Williams film but a well-done exploration of another type of cloning. What's more, the picture goes beyond the multi-generational composition of P.T. Anderson's "Magnolia," harking back to the old-style family epics like George Stevens' 1956 "Giant." The title comes not only from the 200-year longevity of its title character but from the story's birth as an Isaac Asimov yarn that came out in 1976 during America's bicentennial celebration of independence (and also from a novel by Asimov and Robert Silverberg, "The Positronic Man"). During the first half, Robin Williams is encased in the 100-degree heat of a metal suit--leading Variety critic Todd McCarthy to complain about what he considers a throwaway first half: "Unfortunately, it takes about an hour for the film to even suggest that it intends to be about anything other than a futuristic tin man" while critic Roger Ebert, on the other hand, reacts, "At the 60-minute mark, I was really enjoying it." During the initial hour, Sir (Sam Neill) takes delivery of a robot which his family calls Andrew (Robin Williams). Andrew does the cleaning and can cook up a splendid chicken. The robot is treated with indifference and some fear by Sir's plastic wife (Wendy Crewson), badly by the envious older daughter, and with genuine affection by the adorable 7-year- old Little Miss (Hallie Kate Eisenberg). When Sir notes that the robot shows human traits like friendliness and creativity (though it breaks the favorite toy in Little Miss's glass menagerie), he acts to have its inners upgraded until, finally, Andrew receives a central nervous system and all the equipment he needs to be a real man. Despite the good treatment he receives at Sir's home, Andrewy's humanity compels him to ask for his freedom and his own living quarters, which he buys with money saved up from working with Sir. Columbus takes the story ahead a full two centuries from its opening in the year 2005 until the point that Little Miss's granddaughter, Portia (Embeth Davidtz) has grown to adulthood. As Portia faces life with Andrew, she is plagued with a conflict. Engaged to another, she ponders giving up her fiance and taking up with a man-machine who can implicitly promise her indefatigable love coupled with an inability to reproduce. This allegedly sappy story could actually be both scary and thought-provoking for children younger than 10 years of age, and parents might even be intimidated by its subject matter. What does a mother do when her 7-year-old girl asks, "Mommy, what does Sir mean when he says that men and women do something as often as they can (at first) because it feels good?" Or, Mommy, why does that cute Little MIssy look so gray and pale and bad and stays in bed at the end of the picture?" In addition to its provocative dialogue, "Bicentennial Man" features some cute scenes of the future city as people transport themselves about the skyscrapers in flying cars and the Golden Gate bridge is reborn as a double-decker. The whole project is an absorbing mixture of sci-fi and fairly deep (for a kid audience) dialogue about love and death, extending political correctness to the rights and dignity of a machine. Rated PG. Running Time: 133 minutes. (C) 1999 Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Dec 29 13:29:55 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: "Stephen Graham Jones" ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Bicentennial Man (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 19 Dec 1999 20:37:42 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 68 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <83jfmm$13u2$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> ~Reply-To: "stephen graham jones" NNTP-Posting-Host: homer19.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 945635862 36802 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #22287 Keywords: author=jones X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer19.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:21486 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2529 Bicentennial Man: I, robot Stories tend to come in two flavors: either the hero is in some sort of jeopardy (emotional, mortal, existential, etc) the whole time, or the hero is on some quest, during which he has to overcome various (life-threatening, etc) obstacles. Granted, as both of these story-types entail not only 'jeopardy' but the eventual completion of some 'goal,' it's easy to assume the two flavors are actually one. But they're not: the first situation tends to result from the hero's meddling--be it purposeful or not--while the second isn't quite so moral, as the hero has committed no 'crime' for which all this jeopardy is just dessert. There is still some 'just dessert,' however; without it, audience expectation would grind down to nothing, and we'd lose interest. It's just that now that just dessert takes the form of the hero achieving his goal. Which is to say the hero is deserving, has been wronged in some way that achieving his quest can right. Of course, then, too, the more naive and 'wronged' the hero is, the more deserving he is. It's a sympathy-identification trick, and in Bicentennial Man it works exactly as it should, to the point where we willfully overlook all the dramatic problems that arise when compressing a 200 year life span into a little more than two hours, because all that's important is whether or not Android Andrew Martin (Robin Williams) will do the Frankenstein-shuffle just about every mechanical man in cinema tries to pull off at one time or another: becoming human. And it's an interesting journey, ('Awakening,' yes) from the undifferentiated assembly line Bicentennial Man opens with to the uniqueness Andrew eventually achieves, as technology allows his mechanical self to be absorbed by his 'human' self: all his robot parts retreat under the skin, until it's just Robin Williams, albeit a Robin Williams who blinks with the sound of carriage returns on a typewriter. And the years pass, and the Pepsi generations slide by, and Andrew's adopted family dies off one by one, until--like Frankenstein again, or Duncan McCloud (Highlander)--Andrew becomes lonely. And of course the cure for loneliness is companionship, a mate. Thing is, though, this future society insists upon classing him with the household appliances, (per Cherry 2000, etc) nevermind how involved he is in this all too human condition. He does, after all, still have a positronic mind, is still hardwired to obey Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. Too, he can project movies from the top of his head. Add to this his immortality and presto, achieving his quest (of being human, where 'human' is a legal term for the courts to decide) just became that much more difficult. We've got to have escalation, after all, along with some insurmountable odds. This is how heroes are made. It's not the only way they're made, though. There also has to be the unusual (accidental, in Andrew's case; Short Circuit-type stuff) birth and the requisite attempts on his life when he's still the equivalent of an infant. And of course the love interest, (Embeth Davidtz, in two roles across time) the bungling sidekick, (mad scientist Oliver Platt) and, in Bicentennial Man at least, the bungling sidekick's bungling sidekick, Galatea, (as in 2.2) all of whom are instrumental in helping Andrew realize his human potential, which of course nobody could have injected with as much meaning as Robin Williams, never afraid to give the old heartstrings a tug. Does society ever recognize Andrew as human, though? As Bicentennial Man unfolds, it matters less and less, as the real issue isn't finally in how one's perceived, but in how one perceives oneself (to use Andrew's androgynous pronoun). Which is to say that, even though this is supposed to be the flavor of story not driven by morality, there's still a message in there. And Bicentennial Man is involving enough that you don't even realize it takes nearly two and half hours to get that message across. Granted, not much really 'happens' in the movie, but still, you kind of want it to go on. (c) 1999 Stephen Graham Jones, http://www.cinemuck.com/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Dec 29 13:29:55 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!fu-berlin.de!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: FilmFan16@aol.com (Dustin Putman) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Bicentennial Man (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 21 Dec 1999 06:46:00 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 95 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <83n7n8$sbo$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer14.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 945758760 29048 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #22311 Keywords: author=putman X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer14.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:21511 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2531 Bicentennial Man * * * (out of * * * * ) Directed by Chris Columbus. Cast: Robin Williams, Embeth Davidtz, Sam Neill, Wendy Crewson, Oliver Platt, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Lindz Letherman, Stephen Root, Kiersten Warren, Lynne Thigpen, Bradley Whitford, John Michael Higgins, George D. Wallace. 1999 - 131 minutes Rated PG (for mild profanity and sexual dialogue). Reviewed by Dustin Putman, December 20, 1999. If you saw 1998's "Patch Adams" and heard that Robin Williams' latest attempt at an earnest comedy-drama, "Bicentennial Man," is overly schmaltzy, as well, there may be cause for hesitation. Williams is a fine actor--he always has been--but in recent years, especially since his Academy Award winning turn in 1997's "Good Will Hunting," he hasn't, to my recollection, made a straightforward comedy since. If Williams wants to get a little more serious in his film projects, that is exclusively his prerogative, but the problem is, he usually seems to try just a little too hard, to the point where his dramatic work isn't effective, only melodramatic, corny, and groan-inducing. With that being said, "Bicentennial Man," based on the novel, "The Positronic Man," by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, is easily Williams' best film (in a starring role) since 1993's "Mrs. Doubtfire," both of which, coincidentally, were directed by Chris Columbus (who also made one of my personal '80s favorites, "Adventures in Babysitting"). "Bicentennial Man" is manipulative in its emotions, to be sure, but it almost always convinces and involves the viewer. And, yeah, there was one scene midway through that very slightly got my eyes watery (although it may have just been that I was having a horrible day to begin with, and the meaning of the scene got under my skin a little more deeply because of this). Opening in San Francisco, circa 2005, and spanning 200 years in total, a well-off family has a life-sized robot (Robin Williams, in a metallic-looking plastic suit) shipped to their door, programmed to obey all orders and act as a sort of housekeeper. With a bit more internal emotions than the average robot, he is named Andrew by the youngest daughter, whom he calls Little Miss (Hallie Kate Eisenberg), and becomes friends with the parents, Sir (Sam Neill) and Ma'am (Wendy Crewson). As time passes by and the family gets older, Andrew holds a special place in his heart for Little Miss (now played by Embeth Davidtz), and the feeling is mutual, but because he is just a robot, they know in their minds nothing could possibly come from their relationship. Seeking the help of Rupert Burns (Oliver Platt), a scientist who created his robotic model, Andrew, little by little, begins his quest to become a human, first acquiring skin, and later a central nervous system. By this time, his past family has all passed away, leaving him to care deeply for Little Miss' granddaughter, Portia (also played by Davidtz). However, because his brain is still mechanical and, thus, he remains immortal and considered inhuman, chances of Portia and Andrew being able to marry grow more and more slim. Meanwhile, she herself is getting older and Andrew realizes she won't be around forever, either. While not without its intermittent humorous moments, "Bicentennial Man" is, no doubt about it, a dramatic motion picture about the passing of time and life. Occasionally devastating to watch, as Andrew witnesses everyone he has ever loved and cared about die around him, the film does not utterly depress and seem as much of a betrayal as the conclusion to the otherwise very good "The Green Mile," because this film holds a deeper meaning, and the subject of death is more natural to the story. Every once in a while, you can see a glimmer of Williams' token maudlin ways beginning to shine through, but it almost always disappears quickly, reminiscent in ways of 1998's "Meet Joe Black." Passing through a 200-year time span, the picture appreciatively avoids an episodic feel, thanks to the 131-minute running time, which may seem excessively long, but really is the appropriate length to tell this story. Robin Williams, who breaks outside of his robotic costume by the 75-minute mark, is endearing and believable as Andrew, a character always balancing on the line between acting like a human, while still acquiring robotic traits. Matching him in his charm and likability is the underrated Embeth Davidtz, who has two roles (as the adult Little Miss and, later, as Portia), both of which capture Andrew's heart. Williams and Davidtz especially work well together, as they bring an urgency and spark to their unconventional romantic scenes. In notable supporting roles, Sam Neill turns in a quietly touching performance as Sir, who sees how quickly his life is passing before his eyes; Kiersten Warren, as Galatea, the only other functional robot of Andrew's model, has a bright comic sense; and young Hallie Kate Eisenberg (star of the popular Pepsi commercials) is cute, but in an unchallenging role. The only noticeably major flaw with "Bicentennial Man" is related to the advertising, not the film itself. Being promoted in its trailers as a zany Robin Williams comedy for the whole family, the film is really an occasionally dark parable on the process of life, and the fact that almost all of the characters die at one point through the story is enough to cause, perhaps, a little distress and confusion for younger viewers. "Bicentennial Man" is an accessible, yet appropriately serious, film that most audiences over a certain age of about 8 or 9 have the capability of appreciating. It's just too bad the studio, Buena Vista, has insisted on dishonoring its thoughtful themes and messages with a misleading ad campaign. - Copyright 1999 by Dustin Putman Http://www.atnzone.com Http://www.young-hollywood.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Dec 29 13:29:55 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.direct.ca!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: sef@kithrup.com (Sean Eric Fagan) ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.movies.reviews ~Subject: Review: Bicentennial Man (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 23 Dec 1999 03:59:11 GMT Organization: Kithrup Enterprises, Ltd. ~Lines: 92 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <83s6mf$16lm$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer36.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 945921551 39606 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #22334 Keywords: author=fagan X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer36.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2536 rec.arts.movies.reviews:21547 Directed by Chris Columbus. Cast: Robin Williams, Embeth Davidtz, Sam Neill, Wendy Crewson, Oliver Platt, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Lindz Letherman, Stephen Root, Kiersten Warren, Lynne Thigpen, Bradley Whitford, John Michael Higgins, George D. Wallace. 1999 - 131 minutes Rated PG (for mild profanity and sexual dialogue). I hadn't intended to post a review of this movie, but after seeing all of the praise in rec.arts.sf.reviews, I decided I just had to. Fair warning, though: this commentary is full of spoilers, and I make no attempt to hide them. Folks, this was a _bad_ movie. It failed on every level it tried, with the possible exception of some eye candy. Were I still rating movies on the IMMLSoMFtPF (Infamous Modified Mark Leeper Scale of -5 to +5), I would give this movie a -2. The story is allegedly based on Asimov's novella of the same name, as I am sure everyone knows by now. However, it's not very much based on it. It starts out with some of the same names and characters, but that's about where it ends. One of the first divergences is how the family reacts to Andrew. Not accepted by half of the family, and treated as a novelty by the father, we aren't given any reason for anyone other than "Little Miss" to care so much about Andrew. We also aren't given any reason to feel anything when he asks to buy himself. One of the early poignant moments in the novella, I have always felt, was when Andrew attempted to wear clothes -- they did not fit, and yet he wore them anyway, as he attempted to "be human" we realize later in the story. Yet this is not the case in the movie -- he first puts on clothes for a wedding, and just decides to keep wearing them. Why? No reason is ever shown, or implied by the actions or dialogue of the characters. Similarly, part of Andrew's greatness in the novella is his artistic bent. Although the movie starts out along that path, it quickly drops it, and he becomes a clockmaker. There is no examination into his woodcarving talent, or why it moves people so -- in fact, in the movie, Andrew makes clocks because that is what Sir does. Similarly, Andrew's attempts to turn himself into a cyborg are treated differently: instead of Andrew being the inventor, he is an experimental subject, maybe an artistic designer, maybe, at most, an assistant, and the real genius is provided by a human. And the worst offense, I thought, was the introduction of a romance, between Sir's great-granddaughter and Andrew. Now, I have only talked about differences between the novella and the movie; those, by themselves, would not have caused me to dislike the movie. No, I disliked the movie because it _failed_. As a comedy, most of the humour was simply not funny; in one early scene with Andrew telling jokes, the laughter of the family seemed very strained; the audience I was in laughed a bit, but not as much as we should have, given that this was a Robin Williams movie. The movie also tried to be a drama, and failed there as well. A hugely dramatic point in the story is when Sir dies, and Andrew is there at his side. Yet by deviating from the novella so much, and not coming up with equivalent material, we are not shown any real friendship between Sir and Andrew. _Some_, yes, but not enough to touch the soul as it should have. Next, of course, is the romance. Which I truly wish had not been there, but _still_ could have resulted in a touching story of what it means to be human, and would have given Andrew a reason to be. But that would have required more effort and talent than the writers and directors of this movie were either willing or able to give. And instead of a traumatic scene when Andrew is first denied his humanity (and, again: _why_ does he want it so much? By what right is he able to present his petition to the "World Congress" directly?), we have a scene filled with some regrets, but not much else. And that, of course, means that the scene where he _is_ given his humanity also fails. The last aspect of this movie, and its failure, bugs me the most: as a speculative fiction story, this movie is simply not all that speculative. There are robots: fine. What is the status of them? How have they affected society? The robots are now allowed to harm a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human to be harmed -- a robot in a domestic situation is going to be quite challenged, I should think, and yet they barely touch that. (A _single_ line, where Andrew says he cannot say who ordered him to jump out of a window, as it would cause family strife, was all they dared do.) These, and others, are themes that Asimov (and others) looked into, and, really, any movie based on an Asimov robot story should at least _acknowledge_ these possibilities. And the end of the movie has two more failures. First is that Andrew dies before he hears the proclamation. While this could have worked, it managed not to, and is one of the few times in this movie where going with the cliche would have worked better. And the last is that a character, who is then revealed to be a robot, violates one of the three Laws of Robotics -- and no comment is made on this, I am guessing simply because it was forgotten. ------- End of forwarded message ------- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Dec 29 13:29:55 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!crtntx1-snh1.gtei.net!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Jamey Hughton ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Bicentennial Man (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 28 Dec 1999 07:50:59 GMT Organization: University of Washington ~Lines: 96 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <849q53$s2u$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> ~Reply-To: bhughton@sk.sympatico.ca NNTP-Posting-Host: homer09.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 946367459 28766 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #22418 Keywords: author=hughton X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer09.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:21620 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2541 BICENTENNIAL MAN *** (out of five stars) A review by Jamey Hughton Starring-Robin Williams, Embeth Davidtz, Sam Neill, Oliver Platt and Wendy Crewson Director-Chris Columbus Rated PG Columbia Pictures MOVIE VIEWS by Jamey Hughton http://Welcome.to/MovieViews You may assume “Bicentennial Man” is just going to be another sentimental Robin Williams vehicle dripping with fabricated emotions and melodrama. You would be mistaken. Although this Williams Christmas offering has it’s share of problems, sentimentality is indeed not one of the major offenders. You may also be led to believe that “Bicentennial Man” is for children, with Williams in permanent shtick-mode playing a goofy futuristic robot who supplies various punch-lines to please the kiddies. Again, you would be mistaken. For any youngster expecting a non-stop barrage of slapstick humor, this film will seem monotonous and dull in it’s endless search for dramatic depth. There is humor (and some of it is genuinely funny), but “Bicentennial Man” will be best enjoyed by older viewers who are more familiar with emotional tinkering. This age group may be more appreciative of the few genuine aspects of the production. Others, I’m afraid, may be lost in this awkward futuristic stew of special effects and unrealized drama that “Bicentennial Man” has to offer. The movie does have a few wonders of it’s own. When we are first introduced to Andrew (Robin Williams), a NDR-114 prototype android designed as a helpful household appliance, the effect is utterly charming. Andrew is the new property of Sir (Sam Neill) and Ma’am (Wendy Crewson), and he takes a liking to their youngest daughter, Little Miss (adorable Pepsi spokes-girl Hallie Kate Eisenberg). Sir begins to notice that Andrew is showing a number of human characteristics (*gasp*), including his ability to grasp the idea of humor and friendship. A greedy business executive (wonderfully played by Stephen Root) wants to reprogram Andrew so this “malfunction” can be properly repaired, but Sir stands up for his desire to become more human, insisting that Andrew is unique. For these 45 minutes in the Martin household, “Bicentennial Man” shows enormous potential, with emotions that feel genuine and solid character development across the board. But, unfortunately, the film opts for an approach that spans the course of 200 years into the future. Andrew, with his positronic brain, survives through several generations while he attempts to “become human”. The film radiates so much heart in this section that apparently every other function was abandoned to compensate. It is awkward and uncomfortable to see certain characters exit at such a rapid pace, for even if the screen reads ‘12 Years Later’, it has only been 12 minutes for the audience. The film continues with this pattern until the possibilities have been virtually exhausted, and director Chris Columbus elects for a finale that is pleasant but completely under-calculated and sappy. Despite my disappointment regarding the film’s lost potential, I still think “Bicentennial Man” is decent family fare. Williams delivers an appealing performance as the machine who has aspirations of becoming a man, and then later does - with the help of an out-of-work inventor named Rupert Graves (Oliver Platt, playing the typical quirky supporting role we have become accustomed to). In both robotic and human form, Williams is a charming display of naive splendor, as Andrew learns everything from the birds and the bees to carving miniature mammals out of wood. Embeth Davidtz plays a dual role as grown-up Little Miss, and later her granddaughter Portia, who becomes a romantic interest for Andrew in human form. Sam Neill is terrific, as usual, playing an understanding man who first encourages Andrew to find inner freedom. The performances are all amiable, the James Horner score is lovely, and the film is swift, honest and funny with a great majority of it’s humor. The production values of “Bicentennial Man” are exceptional, with brief glimpses of our future society presented with great imagination and impressive special effects. There is an abundance of frank (but well-handled) discussions about sex, and some mild coarse language (Andrew calls a malfunctioning record player a “piece of fecal matter”, and is lectured in the proper method of cursing). And so I offer a delicate warning: “Bicentennial Man” is not the ideal family movie. A few aspects are rewarding, but the film, like the title character, becomes far too mechanical as it goes along. (C) 1999, Jamey Hughton MOVIE VIEWS by Jamey Hughton http://Welcome.to/MovieViews Cast Your Votes for "1999 FILM AWARDS" http://apps4.vantagenet.com/zsv/survey.asp?GO=Vote%21&id=9122019309 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Dec 29 13:29:55 1999 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams ~From: Greg King ~Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews ~Subject: Review: Bicentennial Man (1999) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies ~Date: 28 Dec 1999 08:25:45 GMT Organization: None ~Lines: 52 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <849s69$t96$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer35.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 946369546 29990 (None) 140.142.17.39 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #22438 Keywords: author=king X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer35.u.washington.edu ~Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:21630 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2548 BICENTENNIAL MAN (PG). (Touchstone/Columbia Tristar) Director: Chris Columbus Stars: Robin Williams, Sam Neill, Embeth Davidtz, Wendy Crewson, Oliver Platt, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Bradley Whitford, Lynne Thigpen Running time: 126 minutes. Based on an Isaac Asimov short story, Bicentennial Man is the story of a robot's 200 year quest to become human. Robin Williams is perfectly cast as Andrew, a domestic android programmed to carry out household duties - a sort of futuristic, robotic Mr Doubtfire, crossed with The Wizard Of Oz's Tin Man. But Andrew is unique, and has a wit and creativity and a personality that surprise and enchant his human family over three generations. Under the guidance of his master (Sam Neill), Andrew's abilities are fostered and developed, and the robot becomes more intrigued by understanding what it is to become human. But it is Andrew's feelings for little Miss (played at various ages by an enchanting Hallie Kate Eisenberg and Embeth Davidtz) and her grand daughter (Davidtz again) that inspires him to acquire a more human personality as well. With the help of a sympathetic scientist (the ubiquitous Oliver Platt) he gets a make over that eventually brings him closer and closer to his ultimate dream. This futuristic comedy basically explores what it is that essentially makes us human - our feelings and emotions, our mortality, our flaws and imperfections, and our ability to make mistakes. Writer Nicholas Kazan (Reversal Of Fortune, etc) and director Chris Columbus (Home Alone, etc) gloss over much of Asimov's vision of the future, and they tone down the darker edge and overtones of prejudice and intolerance that shaped much of his original tale. However, there are some nifty special effects briefly on display here, and the make-up that ages the actors is also very convincing. Columbus directs with his usual slick and light weight style, although there is less slapstick or physical humour here. The role of the android with human feelings is perfect material for Williams, who seems to prefer these earnest roles of late. Columbus manages to tease a far more restrained and understated performance from his star, who is hidden under some clever hi-tech make-up for much of the duration. However, there are several scenes in which one can almost sense Williams' more manic personality threatening to burst out of his constraints. Neill brings dignity and class to his role as the droid's compassionate and understanding master, while Davidtz brings warmth to her dual role. The film has a number of touching, heart warming moments, and Columbus is a rather manipulative director who turns the saccharine factor up to almost cloying levels at times. Bicentennial Man is also somewhat slow paced, especially in the second half, and its overly generous running time may test the patience and endurance of many. **1/2 greg king http://www.netau.com.au/gregking