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Bicentennial Man (1999)
Runtime: 2 hrs 11 mins
Synopsis: Bicentennial Man follows the life and times of the title character, an android (Robin Williams) who is purchased as a household robot programmed to perform menial tasks. The Martin family quickly learn that they don't have an ordinary robot when Andrew begins to experience emotions and... Bicentennial Man follows the life and times of the title character, an android (Robin Williams) who is purchased as a household robot programmed to perform menial tasks. The Martin family quickly learn that they don't have an ordinary robot when Andrew begins to experience emotions and creative thought. In a story that spans two centuries, Andrew learns the intricacies of humanity, life, and love. -- © 1999 Touchstone Pictures [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Robin Williams, Embeth Davidtz, Sam Neill, Wendy Crewson, Oliver Platt
Screenwriter: Nicholas Kazan
Story: Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg
Producer: Chris Columbus, Wolfgang Petersen, Michael Barnathan, Gail Katz, Neal Miller, Laurence Mark, Mark Radcliffe
Composer: James Horner
DVD Info
Release:
Jun 5, 2003
Reviews
The film swiftly settles into an unevenly paced, episodic structure, unsure whether it's a family saga, a sci-fi drama or a children's comedy.
The worst kind of movie -- one with no direction, no identity, and above all no heart.
Bicentennial Man is sometimes sweet, but it's also a phenomenal waste of talent, and a continuation of a Williams' trip down the wrong road.
Columbus lays on the sentimentality thickly, sometimes letting it get in the way of the storytelling. The longer the movie continues, the more overt he becomes in his emotional pandering.
Virtually every emotion, motivation, idea, character and plot point in the movie is flat and perfunctory -- except for those that carry the invisible subtitle, 'Cry, dammit!'
You long for [Williams] to break the metal mold, if only for a minute, to remind you that you are watching the best improvisational comedian of this millennium.
Becomes a somber, sentimental and rather profound romantic fantasy that is more true to the spirit of the Golden Age of science-fiction writing than possibly any other movie of the '90s.
It's one thing to ask an audience to love a mechanical man, but quite another to love a mechanical performance.
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