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movie-reviews.colossus.net - : Few things irritate me more than unrealized potential in a motion picture, and Chris Columbus' Bicentennial Man is replete with it. The basic idea, about a robot's journey from household appliance to human being, is inherently fascinating, but, by relegating the story to a disappointing level of superficiality and never attempting to venture more than skin-deep into some intriguing themes, Bicentennial Man comes across like recycled, diluted Star Trek. Even Pinocchio had more substance. Bicentennial Man is more interested in being a parable about the nature of humanity than in being a science fiction movie, which is fine. The problem is that the final product is too trite to work as anything more than light, pointless entertainment. Laugh a few times at Robin Williams, cry a little at the manipulative, melodramatic finale, then get in the car and forget about it. Only someone deluded or hopelessly naïve would see this movie as profound. more...
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www.nitrateonline.com - : Robin Williams trades in his transgender apron and brassiere flambé for a glistening suit of technologically immortal tin, some rapid-fire stand-up humor (you laugh in spite of yourself), and an amiable cyborg soul in search of a human heart along the neural pathway of life. This very slick, barely skin-deep fable spanning the 200 years that define the title, starts in the proverbial ''not too distant future'' and winds up two hours later with one of those sickly sweet, predictable endings whereby San Francisco and a multi-racial world tribunal substitute for the Emerald City and the whimsical wizard. In Andrew’s multi-generation journey, he does mange to find a sense of humor, boning up on 20th century Rodney Dangerfield and delivering, in blitzkrieg fashion, some fairly Williamsesque knock-knock jokes dealing with lip-less chickens. Click your red slippers Dorothy; here comes Holiday Ho-Ho-Hokum sprinkling with cheer, but devoid of pressing issues, Y2K fears, and anything closely resembling controversy. more...
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