Bicentennial Man Review
by "Berge Garabedian" (drsuess AT microtec DOT net)December 13th, 1999
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
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
