Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001)
The Cast
Haley Joel Osment .... David
Frances O'Connor .... Monica Swinton
Sam Robards .... Henry Swinton
Jake Thomas .... Martin Swinton
Jude Law .... Gigolo Joe
William Hurt .... Prof. Hobby, the Visionary
Clark Gregg .... Supernerd
It's hard to believe that two recognizable filmmaking geniuses such as Steven Spielberg & Stanley Kubrick could collaborate on a project that doesn't live up to either one of their past film credits. I mean, I'd take Hook over this movie, any day of the week. Also, to be completely honest, I've never seen what the big deal about Kubrick is, even though I've only watched two of his movies. A Clockwork Orange was entertaining enough, but I'm desensitised to shock value, so it really didn't offend me or anything, & Eyes Wide Shut was just so very boring.
Kubrick had apparently been working on this movie for 12 years or so, prior to his death in 1999. He uh... didn't work on it after that.. obviously. Sometime along the lines he brought Spielberg aboard to direct, though I have no idea why Spielberg would want to get involved in such a schizophrenic film. Throughout the movie the plot goes in so many different directions, you're really not sure which genre it's going to end with. Basically, it's like some sort of Blade Runner remix of a combination of Child's Play & The Good Son.
There are a few good things about the movie, namely the fact that it looks absolutely gorgeous. It's not a bleak near-future that we're watching, it's a stream-lined more aerodynamic version of our present, with a lot of undesirables eliminated. Namely: having children without a licence. Seriously, when the movie tried to paint this idea as a bad one, that's when I knew I was going to be in for a long two & a half preachy hours.
The cast, for the most part, is alright, especially O'Connor, whom I've always had a thing for. She just seems so classy in every role I've seen her in. Jude Law's alright as the lover-robot, Gigolo Joe, though it was essentially a two-dimensional part. He's a freakin' robot hooker, how many dimesions could he have? I was quite excited to see Enrico Colantoni (Keith Mars on the Veronica Mars TV show, & a Canadian!) in the movie for about 30 seconds. Then I was bored by the absolute mundaneness of this future world again.
The coolest thing about the movie could've been that Teddy bear, except he had the creepiest voice, & his name was goddamn TEDDY. There's apparently no creativity allowed in the sterile future world of A.I.. Haley Joel Osment varied his performance between being robotic, whiny, clingy & eventually annoying in almost every way. The ending of the movie was hollow & unsatisfying, leaving me cursing my parents relatively terrible movie collection. 1.5 outta 5.