Review of Bicentennial Man (1999) by Bill C — 10 Sep 2010

An examination of the human condition, by first subtracting all humanity and adding it in piecemeal. Robin Williams (Andrew) organically evolves through the course of this 2 Hour long movie from a amusing quirky robot to a leading scientist and human being.

Embeth Davidtz Plays Andrews friend, love Interest and foil through the movie. She Ranks up with Julia Ormand and Emily Mortimer as my favorite supporting actresses. Very good at there craft and very pleasant to look at.

Davidtz plays Amanda (Little Miss) and here grand daughter Portia. I never was a big Robins Williams comedian/actor fan, all that manic stuff at best make chuckle but not usually. Luckily this movie is pretty much devoid of his comedy routines and he puts his actors hat on and turns in a very good performance.

Dam Neil plays Richard Martin, but like many B List actors he always plays the same charcter, as a father who is a step behind keeping up with the evolution of Andrew or his own children. Oliver Platt revives the movie when it starts to get slow in the middle.

He plays the son of the eclectic inventor of the major subsystems of Andrew?s robotic body. Along with his custom idiosyncratic robot Galetea form a team with Andrew and invent upgrades to their robotic bodies witch lead to the creation of synthetic human organs and replacement limbs and parts.

I missed it the first time, but up graded Galetea appears in the final scene. I?ve read all the Asimov et al science fiction books growing up and they were groundbreaking. However, in difference to the Sci-Fi purist the classics are so singly focused, they make boring movies unless you tack-on a some sintering CGI eye candy.

The movie suffers a bit from the pseudo socialist mentality of most science fiction of the 50s through 70s.