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A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Widescreen Special Edition)

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Widescreen Special Edition)

List Price: $12.99
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Beautiful Fairy Tale, but not for the cynical
Review: Bruno Bettelheim, in his book "The Uses of Enchantment" indicates that those who grow up without exposure to (and to a certain extent participation in) fairy tales will lack something in their development as human beings. Joseph Campbell sets forth the same message in his "The Power of Myth". I believe that critics of "AI" who lambast Spielberg for the tone of the movie, and in particular those who decry the last 25 minutes have lost the ability to experience a sense of wonder. A sad commentary on the tenor of our times.

On the contrary, Spielberg is to be applauded for taking what Kubrick handed him, maintaining Kubrick's characteristic rawness, and yet splicing it to an ending which, if not exactly "happily ever after", lets the child in us relax and believe that everything will always turn out ok.

The acting and technical achievement have been highly praised elsewhere, and not without reason. This is one of Spielberg's greatest achievements in the area of effects without the "effects for effects sake" aura of films like "Jurassic Park". Haley Joel Osment's acting is stunning. At times you have to remind yourself that what you are looking at is an actor and not a machine and yet he handles the difficult final scene with just the right emphasis. Jude Law as Gigolo Joe leaves us wishing his part had been bigger.

Agreed, the film is not for everyone, only for those whose breath comes a little quicker and whose attention is captured when they hear the words "once upon a time".

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Homo Sapiens
Review: I'm concise. This movie confronts our species in ways that few of our members do. Questions and confrontations abound. Frankly, either the homo sapiens who hated this movie didn't "get it," or human experience has been conditioned to be subconsciously adverse to such movies-- various institutions do a great job of this. Go ahead and watch or own this movie. Small-scale evolution and increased consciousness are not out of reach. We certainly are THE ridiculous species, the one that has advanced beyond the point of seeing itself for what it really is.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A.I. - I couldn't wait for it to end!
Review: I bought this DeLuxe Double DVD set with all the bells and whistles for about eight dollars at a used bookstore. That should have been the tipoff right there.

Watching A.I. was a miserable, depressing experience.

Something went really, really wrong here. I can't imagine what sort of group the target audience for this movie could be, other than a few reclusive souls who may have only vague or juvenile interactions with others to use as a point of reference regarding reality and fantasy.

Calling this movie "Sceince Fiction" is a stretch, since most of what takes place is more in the realm of fantasy. Modern sceince basically tells us what can be possible, and based on what is known about what is and is not possible, something like the scenario described will never happen.

Overall, the movie looks and feels like a Godawful version of Pinnochio, which was fantasy, and an awful story in its own right.

The screenplay is basically built around this non-human kid-thing with feelings that eventually gets caught up in a quagmire of its own making. Like the wooden puppet created by Gepetto, it wants to be a real boy.

The story of Pinnochio was cold, but this scenario is a sheer wall of ice. The human characters portrayed are, basically, less human than the robots they are struggling to create. They react to situations in ways that seem rather arbitrary and almost nonsensical at times, given the circumstances.

It was truly a hateful experience to watch this dog. The thing seemed to go on and on, forever. Then, when I thought it was going to finally end, the aliens showed up. I can't tell you how cheated I felt. The next day, I sold it back to the store that I bought it from. I couldn't wait to get rid of it.

Oh well... Word of mouth took this film out of the theatres and hopefully, word of mouth will erase this pile of garbage from history.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Didn't recieve the attention it deserved
Review: I don't know what happened when this movie came out, but it as well as it should have. And no nominations or awards, what's up with that? Breathtaking visual effects and amzing directing are what mak this film truly remarkable. And the screenplay? 100% attention grabbing. This movie drags you in to take you on a ride full of emotions as you wonder what will happen next. And the very interesting subject of artificial intelligence and robots appears once again, and the question of how far will it go? comes up of course as a result of that.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Intelligent and different
Review: Don't have any pre-conceived ideas before watching this movie. It's not an action film. A reviewer said the movie is sad and cold and he/She(re) hopes to never, never get into such a world. That's part of the movies' point: In the future, Technology mixed with human emotions such as love, hate and greed will make it a bad place to live. Kind of like the Present. But it reminds us that there is no substitute for real life(humans and pets). We should never even TRY to give machines emotions:It would be very dangerous. But we are already using technology dangerously: Nukes, small pox production(even in the US),Cloning, genetic enginering of food, pestisides and other unnatural substances causing cancer,diabetes,Etc.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: This movie finished at around 1 hour 50 minutes
Review: The first one hour and fifty minutes of this movie are brilliant, and evocative of Kubrick's bleak social commentary softened with Spielberg optimism. Many reviewers find the movie chops excessively but I thought the change of pace worked well, after a fairly slow start.

A.I. explores the moral dilemma of creating beings with human capacities in a complex and intelligent way, it is a thought provoking film. The special effects are dazzling and the vision of the future is realised beautifully.

But there is a big problem. At around one hour and fifty minutes the film ends. It ends clearly. It ends with what is called a tragic ending. Don't be frightened folks, the ancient Greeks used to have these all the time, and European directors are known to produce them still. So why is it seemingly impossible for Hollywood? After the film ends it surprises us by continuing. It keeps going for a half hour of the biggest cop out I have ever seen, and there is no doubt in my mind that this is all Spielberg. Its pretty to look at, but the sweetness is all saccharin.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Interesting film
Review: I was surprised--I liked this film a lot more than expected. As it turns out, David's preoccupation with his orga 'mother' is fascinating and not overly sentimental, since it shows how irrational and innocently human his desire is, against impossible odds and despite the utter moral failing on her part. Very well handled. I thought the acting was very good, and I especially enjoyed Jude Law's presence as Gigolo Joe, and was pleased to see William Hurt reasserting himself. There were a couple gratuitous cameos (Chris Rock and Robin Williams), but they weren't overly offensive. The cityscape of Rouge and other sets were spectacular, and I think overall this film is a nice couterpoint to Ridley Scott's dark noirish Blade Runner, that also presented interesting views on the future interface between humans and their robotic reflections. The Flesh Fair was a little campy--I can't really see that happening. But overall, a thought-provoking film, and the ending didn't disenchant me in the least.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Boring
Review: Spielberg's die-hard fans or followers will disagree, but this film was boring enough to not watching it till the end. When I was waiting for some better scenes (some action, something interesting), the story came with a disgusting part that made me stop it right there.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: bad way to end
Review: Kubrick was one of the greatest filmmakers we've had. He made such classics as Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, 2001, Lolita, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket. He had his bad movies, like Barry Lyndon. And Eyes Wide Shut, which was a horrible movie to end up being his last. And he spent years planning on A.I. Two stinkers in a row, but to be fair, he wanted Spielberg to direct it and himself produce it. He felt it was more alon the lines of a Spielberg movie. And in a way he was right. There are many problems though. One is that Spielberg tried to make it a 'Kubrick' movie, which he can't do. It didn't have the dark humor or Strangelove, the coldness of 2001, or the creepiness of A Clockwork Orange. Nor was this movie cutting edge like Kubrick's work is (as he ages, Spielberg relies more and more on special effects and less on story). Second is that stories along this line never seem to quite work (see Bicentennial Man). The story is good on the page, but doesn't transfer well to the screen. And nobody can quite pull off acting human, but not-quite-human--the way a robot would. Not even an accomplished actor could do it, much less Jude Law. The story just wasn't great. I will say that the look of the film was impressive. The costumes, makeup, set pieces, and special effects made it a nice looking movie. All flash, no substance. It didn't even try to tackle the moral and ethical issues of a robot who has feelings. And the ending...well, the last 20 minutes of the movie was dull and should have been removed.

Thank god there is no commentary track, because I don't think I could have watched it a second time, at least not without months of space in between. The reason I gave the dvd three stars was a little to do with the film, but as a dvd it really covers the process of making the movie. Everything involved. And for the Kubrick scholar, it's a good dvd to have because a lot of time is spent discussing him. I say pass on this movie unless you are a film scholar. And even then, it's the extras and not the movie that makes it valuable.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Wanted it to end
Review: I watched this movie for the first time on DVD, which I purchased. I had heard that it was so-so, but it looked like something I would really enjoy. And I did- for the first two hours or so. This movie was very well acted, the visual effects are exciting. I was really enjoying this movie; but it just kept going, and going, and soon it was clear to me that Spielberg had no idea where it was going either. The plot started to drag, take unsatisfactory twists, ramble around, and then ended ... but didn't, and then it got worse. I won't even begin to list the technical problems with the ending of this movie, but the cheese was almost unbearable. It's probably worth watching if you've never seen it before, but please rent it before you buy it. I'm taking my DVD to the pawn shop, as I'll never bother watching it again.


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