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A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Widescreen Special Edition)

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Widescreen Special Edition)

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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worst movie EVER!
Review: I honestly cannot belive some of these reviews. AI is, by far, the worst movie i've seen since Jurassic Park 2. The moive is boring, pointless, and absurd, and with an ending like that, i'm astounded at how anyone can give this movie 5 stars. If you ever feel like leaving the theater, leave. It only gets worse. Teddy rules though.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: AI: To be enjoyed on several levels
Review: From the opening scenes, reminiscent of a Rembrandt painting about an anatomy lesson, to the skewed sepia-tone-like footage of the ending, reminiscent of Kubrick, this fairy tale, like all fairy tales, entertains but asks that we ask ourselves questions. The film is an homage to Kubrick, and Spielberg does the late Kubrick justice: sets from "A Clockwork Orange," camera angles and a cowboy hat from "Dr. Strangelove," a plot twist from "2001." On this level, the film is also filled with Hollywoodiana: Gigolo Joe dances like Gene Kelly in "Singing in the Rain"; the Blue Fairy looks like the fairy in Walt Disney's "Pinnochio"; Gigolo Joe resembles the thespian fox who accompanies Pinnochio on his quest; a virtual reality avatar takes the place of the Wizard in "The Wizard of Oz"; a teddy bear fills the role of Jiminy Cricket; the moon rises like the moon in "ET."

And it is all a fairy tale: it is not science fiction. It is a tale of wonder, and like other fairy tales, it has its scarey moments. And all fairy tales end happily, that's part of the definition. So, this film is meant to entertain and ask the reader/viewer to ask questions. Fairy tales are written to make the reader ask questions, or at least think about some issue. Little boys and girls might ponder the consequences of lieing after reading "Pinnochio." "AI" similarly wants its viewers to ask questions.

So, don't get caught up in the lack of AI, scientific terminology and robotic mumbo-jumbo. It's not there. Oh yes, it has special effects, and deals with robots, and has some wonderful blue screen effects. But this is the A or AI. If any question should be asked at this stage, it should be "What is intelligence?" And if you think you know what it is, then "What is artificial intelligence?" And "What does it mean to be human?"

Children accept fairy tales. They believe them, and they learn from them. Adults in "AI" tell David, the mecha with a capacity to love, that fairy tales are not true. However, David after 2000 years of cryogenic (this is a wonderful parallel to something else that happens early in the movie)isolation, emerges still a child, at least from the standpoint of his being able to believe. And he retains his capacity to love. What else is needed to be a human?

What an incredibly moving, thought-provoking and cinematically interesting film. Thank you, Messrs. Spieberg and Kubrick.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Millenium Boy - The Sequel
Review: As my title suggests, this should have been called Millenium Boy-the sequel, as it plays as a poor second to the recent movie Millenium Man with Robin Williams (which was not that great either). Last night's mashed potatoes had a clearer plot than this mix of the pinnochio fable and Blade-Runner. Spielberg's attempt at a tribute to Kubrick also falls flat as he ducks the strong message Kubrick would have forged had he directed this picture.

My advice - Go get some popcorn, rent Blade-Runner and enjoy a picture that really tells this story with style and direction.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A.I. is A.O.K.
Review: The mix of Spielberg and Kubrick makes A.I. an instant cult classic. Altho Kubrick died before this movie was made, Spielberg had Kubrick's story boards. I think Spielberg honors Kubrick by staying close to Kubrick's vision of a future that shows what can happen to us after we blythly destroy our planet for the sake of profit. I think the film's view of an alternative future satisfyingly goes farther and deeper than other sci fi films of this genre such as Soylent Green or Blade Runner.

Also, I like the element of suggestion that maybe E.T. aliens known as the Greys might actually be tourists from our future who come to see our world recalling a lost existence just as we might do today by visiting a natural history museum.

For fun, when A.I. comes out on video, I want to do my own editing to make it a perfect 5 star film by my standards. I will shorten the vroom-vroom mass appeal portion, as well as shorten the number of Haley Joel Osment's cloying "Mommy-Mommy" scenes. Wow! Isn't Osment a great actor!!! Can he really be a child????

My favorite scene was when the three A.I.s are lost in the woods. Each has limited knowledge of the real world. Their three minds collectively still didn't know enough, yet their limitations were so endearing.

One further observation: At the very start of the film, the characters talk using really BIG words....wow!! I have never seen that done before!! I hope viewers will scramble to a dictionary and look up some of those beautiful 25 cent words...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A.I.--A Film With Heart And Brains
Review: In regards to this latest film from cinematic great Steven Spielberg, a futuristic drama which might have been done by Stanley Kubrick had he lived, there is obviously a huge firestorm of debate as to its quality.

Even at 145 minutes, I found this story to be very moving and very thought-provoking, something that a lot of summer blockbusters have an incredibly difficult time of doing. Haley Joel Osment is brilliant in his role of a robot boy who simply wants to be a real boy and love people like one. And even though she leaves Osment in the forest (not to be reunited with him until two thousand years have passed), Frances O'Connor gives a moving performance as his intended mother.

I honorably but strongly disagree with those who call the last half-hour of the film bad. Only someone like Spielberg or Kubrick could be as touching and thoughtful in this sequence. The film is obviously not for little kids. It is also not for those who aren't willing to use their hearts and minds while watching. But for those who, like myself, want to be intellectually and emotionally involved, A.I. is a masterpiece from two of the greatest cinematic minds in history.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What a Waste!
Review: Saw the movie last weekend. What a waste of almost 2 1/2 hours. It starts off well, lots of tension between the adoptive family and the boy, but then quickly degenerates into a visual "free for all". The plot goes nowhere for and hour!

I did like the ending - very Speilberg, but did we have to wade through and hour of video muck to get there?

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Interesting Concept/Troubling Implementation
Review: If you take the collective of reviews here you can definitely get an accurate take on AI. It is very segmented, the transitions do not flow smoothly (from a filmmaker/viewer sense). The one over-riding point that many have made which I agree with 125% is that it appears, upon first viewing, to contain a useless extension. There is the MOST perfect MOST beautiful ending to this tale (SPOILER?:ferris wheel) but someone thought it was not complete and perhaps did not listen to viewer pre-screening surveys as is evident from the recurring public sentiment here. Maybe on the DVD they can release it with "perfect ending" and "oh let's add more ending". My feeble diagnosis is that this is related to the seemingly forced synergy between Kubrick and Spielberg. I have a great deal of admiration for most of both director's works but I have to wonder what it would have been like if it was purely a Kubrick piece.

That being said, let me say that this movie does touch on some outstanding concepts in terms of the intracacies of the interaction between man and intelligent machine as well as intelligent machine and environment/situation which we will surely see in the coming years (25-50?).

If you are a Science/Technology/SciFi fan you should take this Film in and digest the concepts it offers as platforms of thought.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A.I. or "How I converted 2 hours of time into total agony".
Review: This is the biggest pile of self-indulgent excrement I have ever witnessed. It only proves that Kubrik(sp?) was not a genius, just lucky. The only saving grace is Haley Joel Osment and Jude Law. They are excellent! Haley Joel should be nominated for an Oscar for his perfromance. Sadly, not even a great perfromance can overcome such a bad script. The film begins well, but after about 45 minutes, meanders all over the place with no direction, making us wish we were robots so we could not feel the pain of watching it finally grind to a boring non-sensical ending.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The perfect example of marketing winning out over creation
Review: The reviewer who thought that AI brought back memories of the emotional manipulation at the end of CONTACT was right on, I think. In AI, it seems as though a truer (and, I guess, less "wholesome") ending was ready to be had for all in the audience where I saw it, while in CONTACT the ending sprung from Zemeckis acceptance of a script that veered poorly from a novel that is in my top 10 all time... AI could have gone with the extended ending it did, ...; a silent storytelling through movement and visual metaphor by the futuristic AIs that let us subtlely know that both the human race was extinct and that they treasured David as a machine who might harken back to that age would have been enough... David could not, in truth, fulfill his goal; it was too late. Allow us to cry for David...a goal unacheivable is a moving, scary, proposition that we all experience...we are looking for heroes that suffer in the same way while maintaining their dignity. All that being said, Haley Joel Osment deserves an Oscar for his work, mainly because the skill he exhibits shows us he would have been able to pull off an even more moving (read "cheeseless") story. Imagine how Episode I might have been if Robin Gurland and Lucas had sought his talents instead of a "look."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A good film - love it or hate it
Review: Almost everybody agrees that the first half, even the first two-thirds of the film is amazing. But the ending is something that you're going to love or hate. For me, the film was an amazing and inspiring experience. It is a Kubrick film in almost every way, but one that is undeniably executed by Spielberg. Spielberg makes a great tribute to the late filmmaker with "A.I.", but he also gives the film his own unique charm. This makes for a somewhat warmer picture than one would expect from Kubrick, but not a worse one. Critics who hate Spielberg (and most do), and people who use the term, "Spielbergesque," "Spielbergian," or something similar, will probably not hasten to say that the film is terrible. But this film is indeed quite different from any other film Spielberg has directed and is very intriguing. The premise of "A.I." alone is something that is rarely studied in film, so there are countless interpretations that can be (and many more that have yet to be) made about the nature of an artificial being. Spielberg has explored this nature in his own unique style throughout the film, chilling at times and warm at others. Those who argue that the ending is senseless and ruins the film have either never seen a Kubrick film, or are in denial of Kubrick's style. "2001" was similarly panned during its release. Overall, the message of the film is something you have to see and judge for yourself. The production quality itself is flawless; the acting is unbelievably good and Osment and Law give remarkable performances. The special effects in the film are unbelievable as well. At times, they are so good that you forget you're actually looking at effects, and not real characters and locations. Though it is not suited for young children, "A.I." is definitely one of the best films released this summer.


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