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Bicentennial Man
review by Zach B.
Rated PG
Starring Robin Williams, Embeth Davitz, Sam Neil and
Oliver Platt
Written by Nicholas Kazan, based on the short story by
Isaac Asimov and the novel "The Posttronic Man" by Isaac
Asimov and Robert Silverberg
Directed by Chris Columbus
Retail Price: 32.99
Features: Theatrical Trailer, Trailer for "Music of the
Heart", Production Featurette
Specs: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, 5.1 Dolby Digital
(English), Dolby Surround (French), English Captions,
Chapter Search
Way back in 1993, Chris Columbus and Robin Williams
struck major box office gold with a smash hit, award winning
comedy entitled "Mrs. Doubtfire". Since then, Columbus has
been directing successful comedies like "Nine Months" and
Williams won an Academy Award®, while making some
schlocky faire, such as "Patch Adams" and "Jakob The Liar".
However, the mega Disney empire, thinking they could earn
some major revenues for the 1999 holiday season by having
the two team up again, give us Bicentennial Man, a movie
that simply has no idea what it wants to be or has no clue
what is going for it. The movie was critically panned when
it was released, and in fact, you may have heard that
filming almost did not even take place due to the incredibly
high budget (Columbia Pictures then stepped in to
co-finance). While the overdone sets and costumes did remind
me of "Batman and Robin", I actually found this movie not as
bad as it was made out to be (and no, I was not intoxicated
upon viewing the film). It's not the greatest film ever, but
I do personally think it was bashed a little too much.
This little over two hour "masterpiece" (yes, a little
sarcasm there) begins in the year 2005. It seems that
technology is taking over the world, and in homes everywhere
people are buying robots to cook, to clean, and do a good
majority of busy work (lazy humans!). However, one
particular family (who don't have last name, and their first
names are incredibly sketchy) purchases a robot, only to
find that he shows an array human characteristics and
feelings. This robot is known as Andrew (Williams), after
the young daughter of the family mispronounces "android" as
"Andrew". As time progresses, Andrew becomes very close to
the family, falls in love with the young daughter, and soon
enough, wants to become human. So he begins a quest... to
become a normal human being. Yet over the two centuries,
Andrew faces a number of obstacles and challenges to achieve
the goal of "true humanity". And from the preview, you see
that he is "upgraded" to have physical looks of a human.
I'm sorry I could not describe the plot in better detail,
but I do not want to wish to ruin the ending, and there is
simply too much of the plot to cover. Bicentennial Man has
too much going for it and is trying to cram it all in during
the 131 minute run time. What's worse, is that movie is
advertised as one of those feel good, heartwarming comedies
for the whole family to enjoy and treasure, but deep down,
it's truly a depressing drama (especially the climax!). The
performances actually brought some depth to this film
(Williams was his usual self, but I found Oliver Platt and
Sam Neill to be quite good), but Columbus' direction is
incredibly sloppy. He's trying to tug at your heartstrings,
while making you enjoy the whole story at the same time. The
effects are pretty nice, but the costumes and sets do
sometimes distract you away from the film.
Despite the flaws, Bicentennial Man is actually a decent
film. Sure, it's not that really that funny, and you're more
than likely to feel bad after seeing it then feel good, and
the the script could use some major balancing. But it's
enjoyable to an extent, and I feel that critics were a bit
harsh, all because of the recent films Robin Williams has
done.
It seems that Disney is finally jumping on the anamorphic
bandwagon, and Bicentennial Man is a perfect example of how
good these Disney anamorphic transfers are. Colors are bold
and vibrant, and detail is very well crisp, you can really
take in what this film has to offer. I did not notice any
bleeding, but there is some slight pixelation toward the
start of the film. There are also some artifacts now and
then, but they are pretty rare and do not distract from
viewing at all.
Bicentennial Man is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, and
it does sound pretty nice. I like to call the audio "half
and half". The movie is dialogue driven, but it does boast
some very nice effects, such as futuristic cars flying,
ocean waves crashing and certain electronic sounds, like an
automatic futuristic door. They all sounded nice, and pretty
contained. I found the .1 LFE to be pretty minimal, but when
used, I found it to be pretty useful. James Horner's score
fits very nicely into this when played, and sort of enhances
everything a little. The sound mix is not as creative as it
could have been, but I found it to be fine for the movie. A
French language track is included as well.
Bicentennial Man's original theatrical trailer is
included in full frame, with 5 channel sound. The sound mix
is decent, and the trailer transfer, though in full frame,
looks pretty good. This trailer does give a lot of the good
parts to the film away, and shows a good amount of what
happens, so if you like to be surprised, you have been
warned.
The only "forced trailer" this time around is for "Music
of the Heart", and thankfully, it's just one trailer, not
several.
Also, an eight minute Production Featurette is included.
This is all marketing fluff, and features clips from the
trailer and has interviews with the actors and Chris
Columbus, and their thoughts on the movie and how it relates
to life in general. It's not really all that engaging.
On a side note, the menus have a lot of flair to them.
They have this very industrious and futuristic style to
them, which I think are eye candy. It's a shame they are not
interactive, but are nice to look at.
Bicentennial Man is a movie that was panned a little too
much upon it's original release, and I found it to be pretty
entertaining. The acting gives the movie an extra level, but
Columbus' direction is off, and the script needs a little
work. The movie is not the greatest, but certainly not the
worst either, and is overall pretty depressing. However,
with a decent sound mix and a nice transfer, if you have
never seen Bicentennial Man and had a slight interest in it,
be sure to check it out. I would have liked to see some more
extras, but its a standard Disney release.
 (3/5, NOT included in
final score)
 (4/5)
 (3.5/5)
 (1/5)
(3/5,
NOT an average)
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