Posted Jul 9th 2009 at 5:09 am in Open Thread |
178014171 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bighollywood/2009/07/09/open-thread-thursday-3/Open+Thread+Thursday2009-07-09+12%3A09%3A25Big+Hollywood
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No that would be called "N. S." (Nationalized Stupidity). Artificial Intelligence will never be able to compete with the stupidity of large groups that have the power to rule over large populations.
I saw a special on TCM (I thing) about Stanley Kubrick. Spielberg was saying basically, that Kubrick nudged him into making this instead of making it himself. Or something close to this.
Weird that this is the poster today, I just watched this movie a couple of weeks ago. I saw it back when it was new and thought it was interesting. This movie is a very deep movie with many layers and a lot going on. I know many didn't like it, I am not one. I thought this movie along with Bicentennial Man were very good movies that speak to humanity and what makes us human. Of course both avoid spiritual issues completely, but both are science fiction so they shouldn't be viewed as movies rooted in reality.
Weird that this is the poster today, I just watched this movie a couple of weeks ago. I saw it back when it was new and thought it was interesting. This movie is a very deep movie with many layers and a lot going on. I know many didn't like it, I am not one. I thought this movie along with Bicentennial Man were very good movies that speak to humanity and what makes us human. Of course both avoid spiritual issues completely, but both are science fiction so they shouldn't be viewed as movies rooted in reality.
But both of these movies showed us that even if technology advances to point of creating realistic artificial life, that it is still artificial life. AI made this point in the fact that the androids didn't cry out when they were being destroyed in the "flesh fairs". It also made this point when the love robot played by Jude Law is captured and carried away to his supposed doom, he says: "I am… I was." There is no fear for his life because he isn't life, he is a machine.
To view this movie on its surface, without dealing with the underlying themes of the movie, will leave the viewer unsatisfied. But to realize that this movie has a lot going on underneath about human-beings and how we deal with the world around us, then you can start to piece together what Kubrick and Spielberg were trying to do and to say. It also helps to watch this film multiple times.
I find that there are only two camps on this movie: those that hate it and those that love it. There really isn't many in the middle on this one.
I also have a huge crush on Frances O'Connor so that may have something to do with my liking this movie.
Andre - July 9th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
No. It was a stinker. It should have ended 2 hours and 25 minutes earlier. I always picture Spielberg watching rushes, surrounded by lackeys. "Do you think maybe it's TOO much?" he asks and everyone says, "Oh no. How could it be? It's you and Stanley Kubrick…sheer genius."
Scruvy5 - July 9th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
actually Spielberg wasn't totally honest about why Kubrick was talking to him about the movie. Kubrick was picking Spielberg's brain about Visual Effects for the movie. Kubrick was going to make it himself. But when he died, Spielberg just assumed that Kubrick would want him to do the movie. Pretty ego driven assumption, if you ask me.
I actually preferred Bicentennial Man, to me, it got the message across better… as noted, AI just went on too long… If it had ended 25-30 minutes sooner, it would have been so panned as it was.
For the ADD/AD/HD riddled among you start watching about 6:30 (to about 8:45).
You get to see that Obama is actually Mugabe. Chrysler dealership franchise taken away from one businessman at Obama's direction and GIVEN to politically connected Democrats (Mack McLarty and Robert Johnson).
I won't argue that there are too many endings, but I don't believe they ARE aliens at the end. They're super advanced robots that continue to survive after mankind has died out. That's sort of the irony of David's situation. In the beginning, he's the lone robot in the world of humans. At the end, he's the lone human-like robot in a world of robots. He never fits into either world, but serves as the link between the two. In this way, his dream of finally becoming a real boy is NEARLy reached – to the super advanced robots of the future, he is the closest thing to a real boy.
joe melnick - July 9th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
I always hated this movie, and the tag line "His love is real" is both absurd and totally wrong. He was programmed specifically to love without regard to any external information. The woman treats him like crap but he loves her unconditionally. That happens in real life too, but the movie starts off false and goes downhill. And runs half an hour too long, they should have left him at the bottom of the ocean staring at the statue.
Bicentennial Man was definitely easier to follow, IMO. Of course, being familiar with Isaac Asimov's works, including the short story and the novel on which Bicentennial Man is based, helped a bit
Don't you have it the other way around? Isn't Manhattan a frozen tundra at the end of the film (which would disprove global warming)? Or is there a line of dialogue I'm forgetting? I haven't seen the film in years.
Well, the thing that nags at me is the whole "rising waters" thing due to "global warming" during David's foray to find his maker ( remember, Manhattan was almost below sea level then), and yet not 2,000 years later the Earth is in an Ice Age.
you may have a point. But because it was vague enough to be either (at least in my memory) it pulled me out of the movie, and I stopped caring. If that is what really happened, I might care. I will rewatch it to see.
–"Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of."–
Don't we call that genocide around here???
Oh, and you would think a Supreme Court Justice would know better than to end a sentence with a preposition…..
No, the one about Congress was "Idiocracy" by Mike Judge.
humblepen7 - July 9th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Well, even if I am right and it makes a little more sense from a narrative perspective, I still think the ending is flawed. Spielberg's need to give every movie a happy ending is what sort of sunk this one. The film should have ended with David trapped on the bottom of the ocean, repeatedly wishing to be a real boy while the world around him froze and died. Depressing, but better. (I won't comment on the accepted assumption that the world will eventual freeze through global warming…)
but you are forgetting. according to Al Gore and the Day After Tomorow, global warming is going to cause the next Ice Age and make it happen overnight. We all better crank up or AC's and keep our window's open, making sure the colder air will heat things up to keep us from freezing.
I can see your point here. I had a buddy that thought it should have ended with David finding the Blue Fairy and continually asking to be a real boy.
Of course, Spielberg has to have a sappy, happy ending thus we get aliens using Monica's hair to bring her back if only for a day. And we see David content in the end since he had the one day with Monica. I tend to agree that maybe it should have ended with him at the bottom of the ocean begging the blue fairy to be a real boy. I think it would have said more as well.
Margaret Sanger….a big believer in eugenics. I heard from one of those guys that has "The Devil" printed on his business cards that she has her own ring of Hell.
Hutch, I have one for you. The Man That Knew Too Much. I recently DVR'd it from TCM and it is a great movie by a great director. James Stewart and Doris Day are wonderful in it. A must see.
I have Rope DVR'd too. I remember watching this one a few years ago and not caring for it. But a post here about the movie got me interested in watching it again.
Apparently someone didn't like my post about Greg Iles. Unfortunately, since they didn't bother to post a comment, we won't know whether their issue is with the book or me.
The movie was so depressing and … STOP NATIONAL HEALTH CARE … huh? what? … uh … anyway, the artificial child left in the ocean, isn't that the ending? A major downer.
I had two problems with the film. First, it had a real schizophrenic feel. It felt like it had been made by two very different directors at once. Secondly, I think that Spielberg mistakes long periods of silence for depth. Unless there's some meaning to go with the silence, silence is just silence.
Well, was it a personalized card, engraved and hand-signed? Or just a form letter type of card?
liberty - July 9th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
The best part of this movie was the amazing online 'game' that was created to market it. The movie was a bust… but 'the beast' was a first of it's kind and really utilized the web and created an ad hoc community (cloudmakers) that should be studied in marketing classes.
I will say that having played the game and having been immersed in that 'world' the movie made a lot more sense to me than I imagine it made to the rest of the world.
only a form card. Apparently, like Pinky and the Brain, or Professor Kaos, I'm only evil "lite". All my attempts to take over the world have failed.
David Murphy - July 9th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Anyone who follows Spielberg's work (I thought that was the masses?)…should know he likes to have a big payoff with his movies.. to show something spectacular and wow us. A.I. was the last great movie he made in my opin.
Okay? I've been sniffin' a few to many exhaust fumes today so you have speak "really slow" for me! I'm having a Biden Moment! Your saying the the guy's who do MST (Mike Nelson) are called "Rifftrax"? Or are they an offshoot of MST? Kinda wanna see the Battlefield Earth rip that Sandra mentioned above…..
as i mentioned a couple of hours ago, by the time i got to that point in the movie, I didn't care anymore. Isn't the job of a movie to keep you interested? It was a step or two too far for me to follow them on. So whether they are alien robots or what, I could not have cared less.
I actually liked A.I. but I really agree with your point. If he had come to love the mom out of genuine compassion and come to love her not because he was programmed to but because he actually felt a connection, then I think the film would've been substantially better. If his love came from him, rather then what some robot scientist wanted him to feel.
I am always bewildered at how much I dislike A.I. Not as much as my white-hot hatred of Magnolia, but I think A.I. is in my top 10 least favorite movies.
the best part of Homer getting rid of his clones (did he? Marge seemed happy with his replacement) was the cacophony of Doh's! as they cascaded over the cliff chasing the giant donut… next to 'The Raven', best Halloween Simpsons short ever…
that's loserboy David Brock's site, they specialize in making conservative molehills into mountains and vice versa… many times things are edited for time as much as content and the edited stuff isn't all that exculpatory.
You should see what the MSM edits out…
rcstohr - July 9th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
You paid!?!?! I confess I've "seen" it, but it was in the context of a drinking game. Take a shot every time you see a Star Wars dissolve to change a scene. I got wasted in 30 mins.
A.I. Should have ended about 20 minutes before it did. Aliens!? really? Should have just left him (David was it?)down there with his atomic batteries running out. Sad, yes. But he was a robot.
Note to Hollywood (Spielberg): Aliens showing up for no good reason is one deus ex machina too many. It kills the suspension of disbelief.
I never made it through Battlefield Earth, I turned it off when they were flying the thousand year old Harrier jets (which were fueled and ready to go) wondering why there are no lines on the ground to match the ones on the map.
Yes I paid, and not only for me. I took my nephew and two of his friends! They had to see it! Man do I feel used………
I think I'd have to get drunk before I played a drinking game involving that movie…
Disclaimer: I have not seen the movie so I have to go on what I see in the comments here.
Now if I have this correct, the end of the movie shows the world devoid of humanity that was wiped out by an ice age. If modern man is unable to survive such a thing, can someone explain to me how PRIMITIVE man, armed with nothing but a few rudimentary fire making skills and pointed sticks manage to survive the last ice age?
just be glad I didn't take a web shot. you would've lost your lunch too.
Jeff Weimer - July 9th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
The ending to me was the classic super-sappy Spielberg pulling-your-heartstrings-until-they-break ending – and it was jarring in comparison to the rest of the movie, which was a bleak dystopian vision of the future and VERY Kubrickian. They two just didn't mesh, and the deux-ex-machina plot device used to bridge the gap seemed contrived. It just seemed to me to be Spielberg pulling the emotional levers just a bit too hard. I can't watch the movie again just because of that ending – it just plain ruined the movie.
Your partisanship makes you blind. Are you saying this didn’t happen (frequently) or are you dismissing it because the website is one that you consider unreliable? I don’t fault those who side with the right but I have a fear there are many righties who justify lying and intentional distortion because they feel that their higher calling rationalizes it.
Just keep in mind that in the 21st century you can never win over a majority using smoke and mirrors.
"Just keep in mind that in the 21st century you can never win over a majority using smoke and mirrors."
Absolutely wrong. That's exactly how Obama got elected. he won despite having ties to radicals like Ayers and Wright. He won despite having absolutely no experience leading anything. He won despite being unabel to give a speech without a teleprompter. It is precisely smoke and mirrors that won over the majority.
It is the website that I consider unreliable. Like I said, I'm not a real big fan of Hannity, but that quote didn't change the complexion of the statement IMHO. Obama refused to acknowledge that it was reagan that dropped the iron curtain, not "Democrat and Republican Presidents". I don;t abide lying and distortion, but many lefties do, just do some reading on Sarah Palin and you'll see that.
I never watched the movie but I want to say that it sucks because so many other people will agree with me. Besides I'm really bored and well at the moment I don't have a life !!
Has California fallen into the pacific yet? PLEASE KEEP ME INFORMED.
Funny ain't it! I particularly like the Library scene, with the thousand year old books that looked like they just came off the shelf at a Barnes & Noble! Ratty covers, perfect white pages!
I'm just suprised it didn't at least get an Oscar nomination that year……………..
But falling through thin ice would not hurt someone so well preserved in formaldehyde! Maybe she just has nightmares of trying to dance to Michael's "Beat It."
IronMike - July 9th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
This movie pissed me off because basically the feelings of the father were disregarded. It was all about the mother and the relationship btwn her and the robot. What about the dad? Great special effects cannot save a crap story.
Basically, he and Spielberg spoke about the film over a span of many years. Kubrick felt it spoke to Spielberg's sensibilities.
As for me, I find this movie conflicting! I like the ideas and the acting (Jude Law is excellent) and the craftsmanship is certainly top-notch (ILM and Stan Winston at their best) but there's just something about the film that makes it hard for me to watch and I can't explain why. You have the whole Oedipal subtext not to mention some genuinely creepy images (like David eating spinach and his mouth sagging open). Should the film have ended 20 minutes earlier? I don't know. Those are futuristic robots at the end, even though I always thought they were aliens, too.
This was also the last film I watched before leaving for FSU (read: Hell) so the separation anxiety theme certainly hit close to home for me. Again, I admire the film but it's a downer. It's not a Spielberg film I'm eager to revisit, unlike Jaws and Indy.
NeoConJedi - July 9th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
I love the production design and the music of this film, but that's it. It just shows that Spielberg is incapable of handling anything that requires some subtlety.
And I love how the beginning preaches against excess — HOLLYWOOD preaching against excess … unreal. That's not even to mention the global warming propaganda in it.
I honestly can't talk about the movie because by then, I felt Spielberg had lost most of what originally made him good and was way too full of himself so I didn't see it. That said, I do remember a book from around 2003 by the best selling author Greg Iles. I think it was titled "The Footprints of God," but it may have been subsequently changed to "Dark Matter." I just remember this book getting into some incredibly interesting variations on A.I. and the common theme of super computers becoming smarter than their creators. I would recommend it to those interested in this topic and compelling fiction. It actually does touch on the issue of our spirituality.
Hutch, I have one for you. The Man That Knew Too Much. I recently DVR'd it from TCM and it is a great movie by a great director. James Stewart and Doris Day are wonderful in it. A must see.
I have Rope DVR'd too. I remember watching this one a few years ago and not caring for it. But a post here about the movie got me interested in watching it again.
Edit: It may have been a post over at Commentarama.
Open thread news:Check out Drudge. One Dem is gettin' "second stimulus" already!
jshub - July 9th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
"A.I " was brilliantly photographed and produced with all of the technical acumen we have come to expect from Spielberg. The problem was that I felt about a foot shorterr afte seeing it because of the way the message kept beating me over the head. It was one of those films where the total was less than the sum of it's parts.
I counted 4 endings to AI. What was really special was the audience reaction when it was all over. Nobody said anything. Everyone just got up, looked at each other with a "Let's forget we just wasted our money on that" look, and silently left the theater. One thing I will say, though, is that Haley Joel Osment did a heck of a job depicting a robot, to the point that I didn't perceive the main character as a real person.
You, sir, are clearly either a sadist for suggesting anyone watch that movie even once.
I agree with BuckwheatPicard that I never cared enough to give it much thought to figure out what they were. I say this as a science fiction fan (I've been to plenty of science fiction conventions) and a person who lost his own mother as a child (I found the ending pretty twisted). The first three endings were better than the last one and they rapidly started going down hill after the second one.
I liked AI, but I can understand why some hated it and others were troubled by it.
My theory on the film, and I formulated it as I watched it for the first time, is that this is what happens when a director like Spielberg tries to emulate a director like Kubrick. Both men are geniuses behind a camera, but in entirely different ways. In short, Spielberg hedged: he attempted to create a Stanley Kubrick film using the Spielberg style. The film is a failure, but a beautiful one.
There is something positively eerie about the application of the sentimentality from films like ET and Close Encounters being poured into a Kubrick pet obsession. Hence, the hated by most, and the wholesale discomfort it inspires in those of us who enjoyed it (if "enjoy" is even the proper word).
"Just keep in mind that in the 21st century you can never win over a majority using smoke and mirrors."
Absolutely wrong. That's exactly how Obama got elected. he won despite having ties to radicals like Ayers and Wright. He won despite having absolutely no experience leading anything. He won despite being unabel to give a speech without a teleprompter. It is precisely smoke and mirrors that won over the majority.
It is the website that I consider unreliable. Like I said, I'm not a real big fan of Hannity, but that quote didn't change the complexion of the statement IMHO. Obama refused to acknowledge that it was Reagan that dropped the iron curtain, not "Democrat and Republican Presidents". I don't abide lying and distortion, but many lefties do, just do some reading on Sarah Palin and you'll see that. If you don't, then it is you that is blind.
The problem with this movie is that it isn't even good SF. Very few "science fiction" movies are actually SF, anyway — since SF is usually more about the effect of technology on people than about robots and lasers and blowing stuff up (although I suppose it's different if you're reading Doc Smith).
I'd just like to take advantage of the open thread to let anyone who's interested know about an excellent SF feature that's been out for a few weeks or so. Moon originally opened in limited release, but Sony Pictures actually has more faith in it than I'd hoped, so it's opening wider on Friday. The direction and story are by Duncan Jones (an ad director who may or may not turn out to be the next Ridley Scott), the script is by Nathan Parker, and the acting — for all but seven minutes — is by Sam Rockwell, a man whose versatility I never properly recognized until now. Rockwell literally spends most of this film talking to himself (or to a computer played by Douglas Rain Kevin Spacey), but he never strains one's credibility or allows one to become bored with the pace of the story; if this movie doesn't raise him above the status of "character actor", I don't know what will.
I don't know if it's an explicitly conservative film. It asks questions about the morality of big business — what movie doesn't anymore? — but also questions about identity and the value of human life that I think anyone of any political stripe would find uncomfortable. But it is a damned well-made and well-acted piece of borderline-"hard" SF, and I encourage anyone reading this message to support it when it opens in their town. This kind of effort deserves to be awarded. (I'm also curious to hear our Editor in Chief's take on it — this damn thing's been playing in LA for just under two weeks at this point, John at the very least has to have heard about it.)
(Bonus points: There's next to no CGI in this film. They actually brought back the outdated concept of the model shot.)
Forlourned - July 10th, 2009 at 4:15 am
No, his lackeys where nothing but nodding heads to speilberg. He knew what he was doing from the very first day, the nodding heads confirmed what he already knew.
I still want my money back for this pile of refuse. even then the special effects where getting old.
didn't you get the memo? it's now called Climate Change. with this Madison Avenue approved re-branding, mankind is now responsible whether the temperature goes up, goes down, or stays the same… and the only solution to Climate Change is to tax everyone for the privilege of breathing!
every breath you take (O2 goes in, CO2 comes out), you owe the feddle gummint some tax revenue. if you don't like it, stop breathing! if you don't want your kids to have to pay this tax, Planned Parenthood will be more than happy to help you.
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171 Comments
I've never seen this movie, is it about Congress?
One awful movie.
No that would be called "N. S." (Nationalized Stupidity). Artificial Intelligence will never be able to compete with the stupidity of large groups that have the power to rule over large populations.
I saw a special on TCM (I thing) about Stanley Kubrick. Spielberg was saying basically, that Kubrick nudged him into making this instead of making it himself. Or something close to this.
Well, A.I. they should put some of this in the whitehouse these days!!!!
Obama just gave away all our Atomic Batteries.
No Innocence, No Goodwill and not much Redeeming about it . Are you Sure it's not about Congress?
Not Aliens at the end, folks. Those were much more advanced robots.
Weird that this is the poster today, I just watched this movie a couple of weeks ago. I saw it back when it was new and thought it was interesting. This movie is a very deep movie with many layers and a lot going on. I know many didn't like it, I am not one. I thought this movie along with Bicentennial Man were very good movies that speak to humanity and what makes us human. Of course both avoid spiritual issues completely, but both are science fiction so they shouldn't be viewed as movies rooted in reality.
Weird that this is the poster today, I just watched this movie a couple of weeks ago. I saw it back when it was new and thought it was interesting. This movie is a very deep movie with many layers and a lot going on. I know many didn't like it, I am not one. I thought this movie along with Bicentennial Man were very good movies that speak to humanity and what makes us human. Of course both avoid spiritual issues completely, but both are science fiction so they shouldn't be viewed as movies rooted in reality.
But both of these movies showed us that even if technology advances to point of creating realistic artificial life, that it is still artificial life. AI made this point in the fact that the androids didn't cry out when they were being destroyed in the "flesh fairs". It also made this point when the love robot played by Jude Law is captured and carried away to his supposed doom, he says: "I am… I was." There is no fear for his life because he isn't life, he is a machine.
To view this movie on its surface, without dealing with the underlying themes of the movie, will leave the viewer unsatisfied. But to realize that this movie has a lot going on underneath about human-beings and how we deal with the world around us, then you can start to piece together what Kubrick and Spielberg were trying to do and to say. It also helps to watch this film multiple times.
I find that there are only two camps on this movie: those that hate it and those that love it. There really isn't many in the middle on this one.
I also have a huge crush on Frances O'Connor so that may have something to do with my liking this movie.
No. It was a stinker. It should have ended 2 hours and 25 minutes earlier. I always picture Spielberg watching rushes, surrounded by lackeys. "Do you think maybe it's TOO much?" he asks and everyone says, "Oh no. How could it be? It's you and Stanley Kubrick…sheer genius."
actually Spielberg wasn't totally honest about why Kubrick was talking to him about the movie. Kubrick was picking Spielberg's brain about Visual Effects for the movie. Kubrick was going to make it himself. But when he died, Spielberg just assumed that Kubrick would want him to do the movie. Pretty ego driven assumption, if you ask me.
I actually preferred Bicentennial Man, to me, it got the message across better… as noted, AI just went on too long… If it had ended 25-30 minutes sooner, it would have been so panned as it was.
I guess all Congress needs is a catchy tune
Ok, here's a good one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaRIeHNJ6jI
For the ADD/AD/HD riddled among you start watching about 6:30 (to about 8:45).
You get to see that Obama is actually Mugabe. Chrysler dealership franchise taken away from one businessman at Obama's direction and GIVEN to politically connected Democrats (Mack McLarty and Robert Johnson).
part 1 is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQDWEdDMHd8
part 3 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JtjX9_sOvQ
This movie lost me when they dumped robot boy in the woods like Homer Simpson getting rid of his clones….
It had potential but decended into a pretentious snore-fest….
Blech movie. By the way, whatever happened to John Nolte's TCM recommendations? I finally have TCM and he stopped doing them!
True because any intelligence there is definitely artificial.
Why are my comments being moderated and deleted???
Arrrgh! Why did you remind me of that, now I'm going to be whizzed all day, all over again.
I would gather that Haley Joel Osment, is smarter in this movie then say it aint so Joe Biden… J/K
Too funny……probably true
I won't argue that there are too many endings, but I don't believe they ARE aliens at the end. They're super advanced robots that continue to survive after mankind has died out. That's sort of the irony of David's situation. In the beginning, he's the lone robot in the world of humans. At the end, he's the lone human-like robot in a world of robots. He never fits into either world, but serves as the link between the two. In this way, his dream of finally becoming a real boy is NEARLy reached – to the super advanced robots of the future, he is the closest thing to a real boy.
I always hated this movie, and the tag line "His love is real" is both absurd and totally wrong. He was programmed specifically to love without regard to any external information. The woman treats him like crap but he loves her unconditionally. That happens in real life too, but the movie starts off false and goes downhill. And runs half an hour too long, they should have left him at the bottom of the ocean staring at the statue.
Awful.
Bicentennial Man was definitely easier to follow, IMO. Of course, being familiar with Isaac Asimov's works, including the short story and the novel on which Bicentennial Man is based, helped a bit
I think most of us agree that the movie was about 25 mins too long, but how else was Spielberg going to deliver that last jab about global warning???
LoL There you go Aggie.
Don't you have it the other way around? Isn't Manhattan a frozen tundra at the end of the film (which would disprove global warming)? Or is there a line of dialogue I'm forgetting? I haven't seen the film in years.
"No Justice" Ginsberg has a go at intelligence:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pag...
I'm with you on this one. I enjoyed the film but got the feeling that they couldn't really figure out how to end it.
Well, the thing that nags at me is the whole "rising waters" thing due to "global warming" during David's foray to find his maker ( remember, Manhattan was almost below sea level then), and yet not 2,000 years later the Earth is in an Ice Age.
Ah. I'd forgot about that. Thanks.
Ah. I'd forgot about that part. Thanks.
you may have a point. But because it was vague enough to be either (at least in my memory) it pulled me out of the movie, and I stopped caring. If that is what really happened, I might care. I will rewatch it to see.
excellent Cris – she must have been reading that silly "Population Bomb" that turned out a bit like global warming.
maybe so, but by then I had stopped caring, and was ready for it to be over.
–"Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of."–
Don't we call that genocide around here???
Oh, and you would think a Supreme Court Justice would know better than to end a sentence with a preposition…..
No problem!
No, the one about Congress was "Idiocracy" by Mike Judge.
Well, even if I am right and it makes a little more sense from a narrative perspective, I still think the ending is flawed. Spielberg's need to give every movie a happy ending is what sort of sunk this one. The film should have ended with David trapped on the bottom of the ocean, repeatedly wishing to be a real boy while the world around him froze and died. Depressing, but better. (I won't comment on the accepted assumption that the world will eventual freeze through global warming…)
they alreayd have one: "Dare to be Stupid" by Wierd Al Yankovick
they already have one: "Dare to be Stupid" by Wierd Al Yankovick
One of the worst movies I've ever seen.
but you are forgetting. according to Al Gore and the Day After Tomorow, global warming is going to cause the next Ice Age and make it happen overnight. We all better crank up or AC's and keep our window's open, making sure the colder air will heat things up to keep us from freezing.
A.I. was a strange movie to me. I wanted to like it, for some reason I just can't.
I can see your point here. I had a buddy that thought it should have ended with David finding the Blue Fairy and continually asking to be a real boy.
Of course, Spielberg has to have a sappy, happy ending thus we get aliens using Monica's hair to bring her back if only for a day. And we see David content in the end since he had the one day with Monica. I tend to agree that maybe it should have ended with him at the bottom of the ocean begging the blue fairy to be a real boy. I think it would have said more as well.
Wasn't the founder of Planned Parenthood a Nazi sympathizer that wanted to control population expansion of those "undesireable minorities"?
Good one, though "Constipated" is a close second
Margaret Sanger….a big believer in eugenics. I heard from one of those guys that has "The Devil" printed on his business cards that she has her own ring of Hell.
You forgot to add that it will all be BUSH'S FAULT!!11!!ONE!!!
Hutch, I have one for you. The Man That Knew Too Much. I recently DVR'd it from TCM and it is a great movie by a great director. James Stewart and Doris Day are wonderful in it. A must see.
I have Rope DVR'd too. I remember watching this one a few years ago and not caring for it. But a post here about the movie got me interested in watching it again.
And here I thought it was "The Lifespan of the Dung Beetle"….
Pretentious…right on the money, Hank!!!
Apparently someone didn't like my post about Greg Iles. Unfortunately, since they didn't bother to post a comment, we won't know whether their issue is with the book or me.
That about sums it up.
I think it was that last bit about "spirituality"
Thanks for the recommendation!
That was us (the article on Rope) — last Friday!
Let me second The Man Who Know Too Much — great film!
I too miss Nolte's TCM recommendations. He pointed out several movies I'd never heard of and they turned out to be pretty good.
really with Ishtar still on the table??
The movie was so depressing and … STOP NATIONAL HEALTH CARE … huh? what? … uh … anyway, the artificial child left in the ocean, isn't that the ending? A major downer.
I had two problems with the film. First, it had a real schizophrenic feel. It felt like it had been made by two very different directors at once. Secondly, I think that Spielberg mistakes long periods of silence for depth. Unless there's some meaning to go with the silence, silence is just silence.
now THAT'S funny, I don't care who you are….
Something Interesting….
http://mediamatters.org/research/200907080007
And…………Battlefield Earth!
I'm still pissed about paying to see that one!
I thought that was TOTUS?
Oh man, how could I forget about that disaster….
I'm not sure how anything could be worse that Batman and Robin. Nipples on the bat suit …
Something interesting, too….
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/po...
That was totally weak dude. I'm not a big fan of Hannity, but citing a left-wing whackjob website as proof of anything is like I said…..weak….
indeed. No more pizza parties for Congress!
a bit backwards there. Congress doesn't consume dung, they produce it.
Watch Battlefield Earth with "Rifftrax," those guys that did Mystery Science Theater 3000. If it wasn't for them, that movie is a complete waste.
Thank ye, Hank.
indeed, how careless of me to forget that one. Bad wolfie, no biscuit!
No fair! She gets her own ring and Hell has only given me a thank you card.
Just becasue it is a OPEN THREAD…..
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat, has proposed the resolution in Jackson's honor.
Such a resolution is a nonbinding but symbolic expression from lawmakers.
This is absolutely HILARIOUS!!!!! believe it or not…. Pelosi actually turned this down!
Love MST 3000! I've never heard of "Rifftrax". Explain Please?
Imagine going to see a really bad movie with3 of the funniest people you know….
WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!?!?!?!??!
VERY good point.
Well, was it a personalized card, engraved and hand-signed? Or just a form letter type of card?
The best part of this movie was the amazing online 'game' that was created to market it. The movie was a bust… but 'the beast' was a first of it's kind and really utilized the web and created an ad hoc community (cloudmakers) that should be studied in marketing classes.
I will say that having played the game and having been immersed in that 'world' the movie made a lot more sense to me than I imagine it made to the rest of the world.
thank you. but yes, it's the rest of us whom congress expects to consume it once their done.
Those aren't aliens! Go back and watch it! Those are robots made on earth!
only a form card. Apparently, like Pinky and the Brain, or Professor Kaos, I'm only evil "lite". All my attempts to take over the world have failed.
Anyone who follows Spielberg's work (I thought that was the masses?)…should know he likes to have a big payoff with his movies.. to show something spectacular and wow us. A.I. was the last great movie he made in my opin.
Perhaps you should leave "Jewish Ninja Zombie Stomper" off your resume
Don't forget Batgirl's thong, either….
Hey now… Alicia Silverstone in a thong can't be a bad thing can it?
I knew there was an ugly word I was trying to think of, and drawing a blank… But yeah, Genocide comes to mind right off the bat.
Absolutely not!! It was the lone saving grace for that pile of cinematic excrement….
Yeah, that does have A. I……
BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA
This just in!!!!
Should President Barack Obama declare a Michael Jackson national holiday?
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24703.h...
This just in!!!!
Should President Barack Obama declare a Michael Jackson national holiday?
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24703.h...
Okay? I've been sniffin' a few to many exhaust fumes today so you have speak "really slow" for me! I'm having a Biden Moment! Your saying the the guy's who do MST (Mike Nelson) are called "Rifftrax"? Or are they an offshoot of MST? Kinda wanna see the Battlefield Earth rip that Sandra mentioned above…..
as i mentioned a couple of hours ago, by the time i got to that point in the movie, I didn't care anymore. Isn't the job of a movie to keep you interested? It was a step or two too far for me to follow them on. So whether they are alien robots or what, I could not have cared less.
http://www.rifftrax.com/
I actually liked A.I. but I really agree with your point. If he had come to love the mom out of genuine compassion and come to love her not because he was programmed to but because he actually felt a connection, then I think the film would've been substantially better. If his love came from him, rather then what some robot scientist wanted him to feel.
I am always bewildered at how much I dislike A.I. Not as much as my white-hot hatred of Magnolia, but I think A.I. is in my top 10 least favorite movies.
the best part of Homer getting rid of his clones (did he? Marge seemed happy with his replacement) was the cacophony of Doh's! as they cascaded over the cliff chasing the giant donut… next to 'The Raven', best Halloween Simpsons short ever…
that's loserboy David Brock's site, they specialize in making conservative molehills into mountains and vice versa… many times things are edited for time as much as content and the edited stuff isn't all that exculpatory.
You should see what the MSM edits out…
You paid!?!?! I confess I've "seen" it, but it was in the context of a drinking game. Take a shot every time you see a Star Wars dissolve to change a scene. I got wasted in 30 mins.
A.I. Should have ended about 20 minutes before it did. Aliens!? really? Should have just left him (David was it?)down there with his atomic batteries running out. Sad, yes. But he was a robot.
Note to Hollywood (Spielberg): Aliens showing up for no good reason is one deus ex machina too many. It kills the suspension of disbelief.
I never made it through Battlefield Earth, I turned it off when they were flying the thousand year old Harrier jets (which were fueled and ready to go) wondering why there are no lines on the ground to match the ones on the map.
That is way cool! Thank you kind sir……Now I have something else to put on the list of things I shouldn't be doing while I'm working.
It's good to be the boss!
I live to serve….
Yes I paid, and not only for me. I took my nephew and two of his friends! They had to see it! Man do I feel used………
I think I'd have to get drunk before I played a drinking game involving that movie…
the cacophony of Doh's!
ahhh finally something to beat the silence of the lambs.
Y'all try wearing one and then get back to me
Took us seven minutes….but then I'm a bit of a lightweight.
a little point that just occured to me.
Disclaimer: I have not seen the movie so I have to go on what I see in the comments here.
Now if I have this correct, the end of the movie shows the world devoid of humanity that was wiped out by an ice age. If modern man is unable to survive such a thing, can someone explain to me how PRIMITIVE man, armed with nothing but a few rudimentary fire making skills and pointed sticks manage to survive the last ice age?
indeed, same here.. like posting here in BH. But I'm adding Rifftrax too.
hmmm you're right.. it does feel wierd.
hmmm I gues Pelosi is starting to understand she is skating on thin ice.
There was no Congress around….
Seriously though, the movie implied the whole world was encased in ice. But the Sun was shining….
Damn…there goes my soda…..
I think George Lucas has the same problem.
WORST MOVIE OF ALL TIME.__Period.
Why so bewildered? It makes perfect sense to detest this movie. Too bad, it's not the only lousy movie Spielberg has ever made.
ah ha! My Mother is right! We should always close the refigerator door!
just be glad I didn't take a web shot. you would've lost your lunch too.
The ending to me was the classic super-sappy Spielberg pulling-your-heartstrings-until-they-break ending – and it was jarring in comparison to the rest of the movie, which was a bleak dystopian vision of the future and VERY Kubrickian. They two just didn't mesh, and the deux-ex-machina plot device used to bridge the gap seemed contrived. It just seemed to me to be Spielberg pulling the emotional levers just a bit too hard. I can't watch the movie again just because of that ending – it just plain ruined the movie.
BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Your partisanship makes you blind. Are you saying this didn’t happen (frequently) or are you dismissing it because the website is one that you consider unreliable? I don’t fault those who side with the right but I have a fear there are many righties who justify lying and intentional distortion because they feel that their higher calling rationalizes it.
Just keep in mind that in the 21st century you can never win over a majority using smoke and mirrors.
"Just keep in mind that in the 21st century you can never win over a majority using smoke and mirrors."
Absolutely wrong. That's exactly how Obama got elected. he won despite having ties to radicals like Ayers and Wright. He won despite having absolutely no experience leading anything. He won despite being unabel to give a speech without a teleprompter. It is precisely smoke and mirrors that won over the majority.
It is the website that I consider unreliable. Like I said, I'm not a real big fan of Hannity, but that quote didn't change the complexion of the statement IMHO. Obama refused to acknowledge that it was reagan that dropped the iron curtain, not "Democrat and Republican Presidents". I don;t abide lying and distortion, but many lefties do, just do some reading on Sarah Palin and you'll see that.
I never watched the movie but I want to say that it sucks because so many other people will agree with me. Besides I'm really bored and well at the moment I don't have a life !!
Has California fallen into the pacific yet? PLEASE KEEP ME INFORMED.
Funny ain't it! I particularly like the Library scene, with the thousand year old books that looked like they just came off the shelf at a Barnes & Noble! Ratty covers, perfect white pages!
I'm just suprised it didn't at least get an Oscar nomination that year……………..
Basically, it was "E.T." for grown-ups.
No innocence, no goodwill, and about the only redeeming thing in the film was the closing song.
And did I mention the nod to AGW??
The Man Who Knew Too Much is one of the few remakes I like. The original is pretty good, too.
Rope is flawed, but I still like it. I'm a sucker for any movie with James Stewart.
The Man Who Knew Too Much is one of the few remakes I like. The original is pretty good, too.
Rope is flawed, but I still like it. I'm a sucker for any movie with James Stewart.
Would of rather have the Kubrick version. Spielberg is too sappy nowadays.
But falling through thin ice would not hurt someone so well preserved in formaldehyde! Maybe she just has nightmares of trying to dance to Michael's "Beat It."
This movie pissed me off because basically the feelings of the father were disregarded. It was all about the mother and the relationship btwn her and the robot. What about the dad? Great special effects cannot save a crap story.
She is treading cold water at this point…….and churning it into ice!!!
For more info about Kubrick's initial involvement, please click here: http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/faq/index2.html#sl...
Basically, he and Spielberg spoke about the film over a span of many years. Kubrick felt it spoke to Spielberg's sensibilities.
As for me, I find this movie conflicting! I like the ideas and the acting (Jude Law is excellent) and the craftsmanship is certainly top-notch (ILM and Stan Winston at their best) but there's just something about the film that makes it hard for me to watch and I can't explain why. You have the whole Oedipal subtext not to mention some genuinely creepy images (like David eating spinach and his mouth sagging open). Should the film have ended 20 minutes earlier? I don't know. Those are futuristic robots at the end, even though I always thought they were aliens, too.
This was also the last film I watched before leaving for FSU (read: Hell) so the separation anxiety theme certainly hit close to home for me.
Again, I admire the film but it's a downer. It's not a Spielberg film I'm eager to revisit, unlike Jaws and Indy.
I love the production design and the music of this film, but that's it. It just shows that Spielberg is incapable of handling anything that requires some subtlety.
And I love how the beginning preaches against excess — HOLLYWOOD preaching against excess … unreal. That's not even to mention the global warming propaganda in it.
everyone see this? Andrew Breitbart had this posted on Twitter where I first saw it http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/07/024...
I honestly can't talk about the movie because by then, I felt Spielberg had lost most of what originally made him good and was way too full of himself so I didn't see it. That said, I do remember a book from around 2003 by the best selling author Greg Iles. I think it was titled "The Footprints of God," but it may have been subsequently changed to "Dark Matter." I just remember this book getting into some incredibly interesting variations on A.I. and the common theme of super computers becoming smarter than their creators. I would recommend it to those interested in this topic and compelling fiction. It actually does touch on the issue of our spirituality.
Hutch, I have one for you. The Man That Knew Too Much. I recently DVR'd it from TCM and it is a great movie by a great director. James Stewart and Doris Day are wonderful in it. A must see.
I have Rope DVR'd too. I remember watching this one a few years ago and not caring for it. But a post here about the movie got me interested in watching it again.
Edit: It may have been a post over at Commentarama.
Open thread news:Check out Drudge. One Dem is gettin' "second stimulus" already!
"A.I " was brilliantly photographed and produced with all of the technical acumen we have come to expect from Spielberg. The problem was that I felt about a foot shorterr afte seeing it because of the way the message kept beating me over the head. It was one of those films where the total was less than the sum of it's parts.
fixed it. Tx for recommend.
Just caught this over @ Drudge. G8 my @ss…looks like a couple of players out on the prowl owl…
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/France-President-Ni...
Real classy.
Fowl Owl on the Prowl…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2LedoHwygE&fe...
Looks like CrisD beat me to the punch…enjoy it just the same.
I counted 4 endings to AI. What was really special was the audience reaction when it was all over. Nobody said anything. Everyone just got up, looked at each other with a "Let's forget we just wasted our money on that" look, and silently left the theater. One thing I will say, though, is that Haley Joel Osment did a heck of a job depicting a robot, to the point that I didn't perceive the main character as a real person.
"Go back and watch it!" ????
You, sir, are clearly either a sadist for suggesting anyone watch that movie even once.
I agree with BuckwheatPicard that I never cared enough to give it much thought to figure out what they were. I say this as a science fiction fan (I've been to plenty of science fiction conventions) and a person who lost his own mother as a child (I found the ending pretty twisted). The first three endings were better than the last one and they rapidly started going down hill after the second one.
I liked AI, but I can understand why some hated it and others were troubled by it.
My theory on the film, and I formulated it as I watched it for the first time, is that this is what happens when a director like Spielberg tries to emulate a director like Kubrick. Both men are geniuses behind a camera, but in entirely different ways. In short, Spielberg hedged: he attempted to create a Stanley Kubrick film using the Spielberg style. The film is a failure, but a beautiful one.
There is something positively eerie about the application of the sentimentality from films like ET and Close Encounters being poured into a Kubrick pet obsession. Hence, the hated by most, and the wholesale discomfort it inspires in those of us who enjoyed it (if "enjoy" is even the proper word).
"Just keep in mind that in the 21st century you can never win over a majority using smoke and mirrors."
Absolutely wrong. That's exactly how Obama got elected. he won despite having ties to radicals like Ayers and Wright. He won despite having absolutely no experience leading anything. He won despite being unabel to give a speech without a teleprompter. It is precisely smoke and mirrors that won over the majority.
It is the website that I consider unreliable. Like I said, I'm not a real big fan of Hannity, but that quote didn't change the complexion of the statement IMHO. Obama refused to acknowledge that it was Reagan that dropped the iron curtain, not "Democrat and Republican Presidents". I don't abide lying and distortion, but many lefties do, just do some reading on Sarah Palin and you'll see that. If you don't, then it is you that is blind.
The problem with this movie is that it isn't even good SF. Very few "science fiction" movies are actually SF, anyway — since SF is usually more about the effect of technology on people than about robots and lasers and blowing stuff up (although I suppose it's different if you're reading Doc Smith).
I'd just like to take advantage of the open thread to let anyone who's interested know about an excellent SF feature that's been out for a few weeks or so. Moon originally opened in limited release, but Sony Pictures actually has more faith in it than I'd hoped, so it's opening wider on Friday. The direction and story are by Duncan Jones (an ad director who may or may not turn out to be the next Ridley Scott), the script is by Nathan Parker, and the acting — for all but seven minutes — is by Sam Rockwell, a man whose versatility I never properly recognized until now. Rockwell literally spends most of this film talking to himself (or to a computer played by
Douglas RainKevin Spacey), but he never strains one's credibility or allows one to become bored with the pace of the story; if this movie doesn't raise him above the status of "character actor", I don't know what will.I don't know if it's an explicitly conservative film. It asks questions about the morality of big business — what movie doesn't anymore? — but also questions about identity and the value of human life that I think anyone of any political stripe would find uncomfortable. But it is a damned well-made and well-acted piece of borderline-"hard" SF, and I encourage anyone reading this message to support it when it opens in their town. This kind of effort deserves to be awarded. (I'm also curious to hear our Editor in Chief's take on it — this damn thing's been playing in LA for just under two weeks at this point, John at the very least has to have heard about it.)
(Bonus points: There's next to no CGI in this film. They actually brought back the outdated concept of the model shot.)
No, his lackeys where nothing but nodding heads to speilberg. He knew what he was doing from the very first day, the nodding heads confirmed what he already knew.
I still want my money back for this pile of refuse. even then the special effects where getting old.
What? It was worse than Manos: The Hands of Fate?
(That was only viewable thanks to MST3K.)
….don't worry, I lost some SAN points just at the concept.
I think I will stick to kilts.
not to worry, thus chubby knuckledragger will not do Bruno moments.
Kilts? Did someone type KILTS???
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/miscella...
Ahhh…a man in a kilt….sigh….
I could, but those skills have gotten me so many rail yard construction projects. One must maintain profitability.
yes, spent a little time in Scotland and picked up a few habits…
love the utilikilt. puttin the order in now for that and the chainmail t-shirt. If I'm gonna be a geek I'm going all the way!
hmmm I'm not sure the filters would let me type out what is churning in that water once she falls in it.
indeed, she would pickle the entire lake.
Heh! I already have a chain mail shirt
didn't you get the memo? it's now called Climate Change. with this Madison Avenue approved re-branding, mankind is now responsible whether the temperature goes up, goes down, or stays the same… and the only solution to Climate Change is to tax everyone for the privilege of breathing!
every breath you take (O2 goes in, CO2 comes out), you owe the feddle gummint some tax revenue. if you don't like it, stop breathing! if you don't want your kids to have to pay this tax, Planned Parenthood will be more than happy to help you.
we must shop the same stores.
If your taste in clothing, music, and weaponry is anything to go by, then yes
hmmm we wouldn't happen to have been twins separated at birth by chance?
Hmmm…..I think Hank, you and me could be triplets
almost the making of our own rock band.
Why not? The Police and Rush had only three members!
Wolf…. maybe my mind is in the gutter with that comment about churning but I just got the chills thinking about what could be in the water!!!!!
Glad that they were chills and not "tingles". It conifrms your sanity.
Put me down in the loved it camp. Disturbing and profoundly sad. It stayed with me for quite some time. Haley Joel Osmont and Jude Law were excellent.
I don't think they were aliens, I think they were supposed to be what the machines evolved into after all the humans were dead.
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