A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - Spielberg's robot fairy tale surges with both heart and mind

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A curiosity-sparking, very dark poster for Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence

In the late 22nd century, a family whose son is in an induced coma start to live with the prototype of a robot boy instead. But when one day their real son can be revived, their family structure experiences upheaval, until they ultimately decide to get rid of the robot boy, who as a result is sent on a far-reaching journey in search of his own maker.

I have watched A.I. on several occasions. One of them was a screening I arranged for a bunch of kids, many of whom did not understand English. That was the time I realized that A.I. is not only a great film but truly a cinema masterpiece. That stuffy, hot room full of tired kids fell almost completely silent within the first 10 minutes and then stayed that way for the rest of the almost 2½ hour film, transfixed by its story. It is related with visual mastery (cinematography by Janusz Kaminski (Schindler's List (1993))) that goes way beyond its words. - Every single one of those kids were totally enthralled in A.I., in the destiny of the robot boy David, the tragic loss of his family that he suffers through and his journey towards being a real boy. It is a Pinocchio-like story, partly sci-fi, partly fairy tale, of amazing strength and universal appeal. It is very melancholic, incredibly beautiful - and an irrepressible emotional rollercoaster. For me, it beats Disney's Pinocchio (1940) by many lengths.
Filled with ethics concerning robots, creation of life and artificial intelligence, Biblical references, a perfect score by John Williams (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)) and led by a formidable performance by Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense (1999)) as David, A.I. engages both minds and hearts from start to finish. It is hard and bold in its portrayal of the facts of life, but never hopeless.
The film was originally a project of Stanley Kubrick's, which he developed for two decades without feeling that the technology had come far enough yet to tell the story. Kubrick handed the project over to Ohioan master filmmaker Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan (1998)) four years prior to his death, and Kubrick couldn't possibly have made it a better movie than Spielberg has achieved here. A.I., his 19th feature, is one of his absolute best, and a unique cinematic masterpiece.
It is written by Spielberg, with Ian Watson (EarthPulse (2002-03), documentary TV-series) contributing story elements, based on Brian Aldiss' (The Rain Will Stop (2000)) short story Super-Toys Last All Summer Long (1969).

Related posts:

Steven Spielberg: War Horse (2011) - Spielberg visits WWI with problematic horse drama
Super 8 (2011) - Abrams' nostalgic family crowdpleaser (producer)

Top 10: Best future-set movies 

The 2000s in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Band of Brothers - TV mini-series (2001) - WWII-sacrifice and -comradeship portrayed with skill and integrity (producer)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) - Spielberg's greatest accomplishment
Amistad (1997) or, Must... Free... Slaves! 
Twilight Zone The Movie (1983) - Fear takes many forms in tragedy-struck anthology
1941 (1979) - Spielberg's bizarre 'comedy spectacular' sinks like a rock  
Duel (1971) - Spielberg's truck terror is ideal afternoon fare

A collage of some of the images from Steven Spielberg's A.I.

Watch the official international trailer for the film here

Cost: 100 mil. $
Box office: 235.9 mil. $
= Minor flop (returned 2.35 times its cost)
[A.I. Artificial Intelligence premiered 26 June and runs 146 minutes. Kubrick reportedly began developing the film in the late 1970s and contacted Spielberg in the mid-1980s about it. Shooting took place from August - November 2000 in Los Angeles, California and in Oregon. The film opened #1 to a 29.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#3) and grossed 78.6 mil. $ (33.3 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 11.6 mil. $ (4.9 %) and France with 8 mil. $ (3.4 %). The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Score, lost to Howard Shore for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and Best Visual Effects, also lost to the first LOTR movie. A.I. was also nominated for 3 Golden Globes, a BAFTA, a Grammy and scores of other awards, making it onto the National Board of Review's Top 10 list of the year. Roger Ebert awarded it 4/4 stars, in line with the review here, while many other especially American critics teared it most undeservedly to shreds. Spielberg returned with Minority Report (2002). Osment returned in Family Guy (2000-01) and theatrically in Edges of the Lord (2001), Jude Law (Vox Lux (2018)) in Road to Perdition (2002). A.I. Artificial Intelligence is certified fresh at 73 % with a 6.6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of A.I. Artificial Intelligence?

Army of Darkness (1992) or, Medieval Dead

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An awesome, painted poster for Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness - with a very funny tagline

Army of Darkness is the 6th feature by and third film in Michigander master filmmaker Sam Raimi's (Spider-Man (2002)) Evil Dead franchise; it has deservedly become a cult hit. - Blending comedy, horror and action with great skill, Army of Darkness is a gem and a take-off from the, however, also sensational first Evil Dead two films, in that it takes place somewhere around year 1300. Raimi wrote the imaginative screenplay with his brother Ivan Raimi (Darkman (1990)).

Familiar hero Ash this time gets caught in the Middle Ages, battling different kinds of medieval death in order to return back to the comfy 1990s.

The humor is light, physically centered and genre-prone throughout. Army of Darkness was definitely innovative and ingenious in terms of its staggering effects, - the flying arrows and swords that the camera follows, for instance, or the mini-attackers, the live skeletons etc. - All brought to life with impressive visual expertise. It brings you back the enthusiasm of watching old Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts (1963), associate producer/special visual effects creator) films with its effects-heavy zeal for everything fantastic. Army of Darkness by turn thrills, awes, scares and amuses.
Bruce Campbell's (The Evil Dead (1981)) returns as Ash, and Campbell's great, physical acting talent is used in almost every shot of the film, back in top shape here in a very demanding role.
Enormously entertaining and good-looking; everyone who were involved must and rightly should be very proud of Army of Darkness.

Related posts:

Sam Raimi: Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) - A fun, eye-popping adventure
2013 in films - according to Film Excess
Evil Dead (2013) - One hell of a ride (producer)
Drag Me to Hell (2009) - Raimi returns to horror in high style 

 

Star Bruce Campbell talks of his work in the film here

Cost: 11 mil. $
Box office: 21.5 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.95 times its cost)
[Army of Darkness premiered 9 October (Sitges Film Festival, Spain) and runs 81 minutes (US theatrical release)/88 minutes (international release)/96 minutes (director's cut). Financing came together with Universal Pictures due to producer Dino De Laurentiis' deal with them. Filming took place from May - August 1991 in California, including in a castle built on the edge of the Mojave Desert. Universal demanded cuts to get a PG-13 rating for the film and refused Raimi's own ending, which he, Campbell and producer Robert Tapert (The Grudge (2004)) had put up 1 mil. $ off their own salaries to shoot. The rating never got lower than an R, despite cuts, and Raimi and co. later had their ending made available on home video. Disagreements between Universal and De Laurentiis (about the rights to the Hannibal Lecter character) pushed the general release of the film from the summer of '92 to February '93. It opened #6 to a 4.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it played only 3 weeks and grossed 11.5 mil. $ (53.5 % of the total gross.) Despite being the highest-grossing Evil Dead film to date, Army of Darkness' ballooned budget means it wasn't financially successful theatrically at least. The franchise has since spawned a 2013 remake (Evil Dead) and a successful TV-series, Ash vs Evil Dead (2015-) by creators Sam and Ivan Raimi and Tom Spezialy. Army of Darkness is fresh at 72 % with a 6.9/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]


What do you think of Army of Darkness?

Alien: Resurrection (1997) or, Queen of the Goo Massacre!

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The unusual combination of two female stars in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Alien: Resurrection have gigantic faces that are suspended in icky green color in space on this poster for the film

Ripley (Sigourney Weaver (The Ice Storm (1997))) has slept for 200 years and now wakes up a half-alien.  

The very idea to revive the Alien franchise once again with this (...) invention, - following Ridley Scott's watershed great space horror Alien (1979), James Cameron's explosive Aliens (1986) actioner and David Fincher's so-so prison-set Alien 3 (1992), - was a bad one.
The all-around overkill of Alien: Resurrection extends to its effects, which are competently done but so pervasive and disgusting (in an uncool way) that it feels like the original spirit of the Alien universe is by this chapter firmly buried somewhere in a mountain of snot, slime and blood.
The characters here, good and evil alike, are uninteresting, flat, and many of them sort of amateur-philosophers, (which doesn't make them more interesting), and the dialog is almost completely reduced to one-liners. Resurrection is directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie/Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001)) and written by Hollywood's later mega-mogul, Joss Whedon (The Avengers/Avengers Assemble (2012)), who has since denounced the final film, calling it "almost unwatchable."
He was right. But Ressurection's cool underwater scenes with aliens do, however, pull it up a bit. - If you do decide to give the film a chance, I say; do it strictly for the monsters!

Related posts:

The Alien franchise: Alien (1979) or, Space Eggs Are Bad News!
Aliens (1986) or, Alien War
Alien 3 (1992) or, The Monsters Go to Jail!
AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004) or, Everyone Loses
Prometheus (2012) or, Even Then, Space Eggs Were Bad News
Jean-Pierre Jeunet: Amélie/Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) - Pretentious French fluffy-puff poop
Delicatessen (1991) or, The Brown Quirk

Watching Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Alien: Resurrection feels a lot like what Sigourney Weaver appears to be doing in this photo: Immersing oneself in gooey crap

Here is a trailer for the film, captured off of a VHS tape

Cost: Estimated 75 mil. $

Box office: 161.3 mil. $

= Flop (returned likely 2.15 times its cost)
[Alien: Resurrection premiered 6 November (Paris, France) and runs 109 minutes. Whedon and Jeunet both took the job of making the film mostly as a career opportunity too great to turn down, it seems. Jeunet for a long time fought to have the aliens equipped with a mix of male and female genitals, which he did not succeed with in getting into the film. Weaver was reportedly paid 11 mil. $ for her performance, along with a co-producer credit on the film. Shooting took place from November 1996 - April 1997 in California and Manitoba and Ontario, Canada as the first Alien film shoot done entirely outside of England. The film opened #2, behind Flubber, to a 16.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week at #2 before leaving the top 5, only running a total of 4 weeks domestically, grossing 47.7 mil. $ (29.6 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Jeunet's native France with 16.3 mil. $ (10.1 %) and Japan with 16.1 mil. $ (10%). Alien: Resurrection was only the 47th highest-grossing film in North America of 1997, quite bad for an Alien movie. It is the first and only film in the franchise so far to be highly financially unsuccessful. Roger Ebert gave the film a 1½/4 star review, translating to a notch under its rating here, and called it one of the worst film of the year. An extended version of the film was released on DVD in 2003, but Jeunet says that the theatrical edition is his favorite. The franchise has since gotten two poor, unrelated sequels (AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)), a prequel by Ridley Scott (Prometheus (2012)), and is getting another Scott entry in 2017 in Alien: Covenant. Jeunet returned with Amélie (2001). Weaver returned in A Map of the World (1999), Winona Ryder (Mr. Deeds (2002)) in The Larry Sanders Show (1998, TV-series) and theatrically in Celebrity (1998). Alien: Resurrection is rotten at 54 % with a 5.8/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
 

What do you think of Alien: Resurrection?

Alien 3 (1992) or, The Monsters Go to Jail!

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An effective, icky still make up the majority of this dark poster for David Fincher's Alien 3. Don't miss the foolishly long tagline under the title. - Pretty silly stuff, hu?

Ripley, girl Newt, Hicks and android Bishop escape a fire on their space vessel and land in a penal colony on a strange planet, where bloody deaths later lead Ripley to believe that they may have brought an unwelcome life form along with them.

Coloradoan master filmmaker David Fincher (Se7en (1995)) debuted with Alien 3 after years of music video works. - Imagine the pressure after the first two distinctive worldwide smash hits and genre innovators by Ridley Scott and James Cameron, who both by the 1990s were established masters of cinema. Entering a creative plane full of strife, disagreements, egos and big money as a young, unproven agent assuming the directing responsibilities, I think Fincher actually did really well with Alien 3, all things considered. 
Alien 3 manages straight away to take a big step away from the previous films by relying on a minimum of guns and electronics and changing the scenery dramatically to that of a prison planet. The visual side has evolved as well. And so although many of Fincher's later films are better, it is clear already here that he is himself a highly capable and visionary filmmaker.
All the prisoner-related stuff in the movie works so-so, and at times Alien 3 seems both a bit predictable and a bit overlong. SPOILER But the ending with Ripley and the iron alien is pretty darn cool. It is written by Larry Ferguson (The Presidio (1988)), Walter Hill (Streets of Fire (1984)) and David Giler (The Parallax View (1974)), with Vincent Ward (Vigil (1984)) contributing story elements.

Related posts:

David Fincher: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) - Fincher's Nordic noir is technically astute but overlong and redundant 

The Social Network (2010) - Fincher's a-hole biopic leaves me cold (and more anti-Facebook than ever)

The Alien franchise: AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004) or, Everyone Loses (spin-off)
Alien: Resurrection (1997) or, Queen of the Goo Massacre!
Aliens (1986) or, Alien War
Alien (1979) or, Space Eggs Are Bad News

 

Watch a teaser trailer for the film here

Cost: 50 - 55 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: 159.8 mil. $
= Box office success (returned at least 2.90 times its cost)
[Alien 3 was released 22 May and runs 114 minutes. The film had a long development process with reportedly 7 mil. $ spent before production could begin. Filming took place in England and California from January - May 1991. The film opened #2, behind holdover hit Lethal Weapon 3, to 23.1 mil. $ in North America, where is spent another week in the top 5 (#3), only ran for 6 weeks and grossed 55.4 mil. $ (34.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 28.8 mil. $ (18%) and the UK with 12.7 mil. $ (7.9 %). The film was Oscar-nominated for Best Visual Effects, lost to Death Becomes Her, and for the corresponding BAFTA. In 2003, a 145 minute 'Assembly Cut' of the film was released without the involvement of Fincher, who isn't too fond of the film. Fincher returned with 9 commercials and music videos, before he dared to go back to a feature with thriller masterpiece Se7en (1995). Weaver  returned in 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992). Alien 3 is rotten at 44 % with a 5.4/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Alien 3?

Hyde Park on Hudson (2012) - 20th century history with your host, Bill Murray

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Laura Linney and Bill Murray as historically important characters in a gold-rimmed setting on this pleasant, neat poster for Roger Michell's Hyde Park on Hudson

In 1939, Europe was on the brink of another calamitous world war. The US still struggled in the shadows of the Depression. President Franklin D. Roosevelt spent as much of his time as possible in his mother's upstate New York residence. And there the royal family of Great Britain visited America for the first time ever, disguised hat-in-hand, to persuade them to join in and rescue Europe from the evils of Nazism.

Hyde Park on Hudson disrobes European, monarchic snobbery and exacts laughs from the meeting between democratic and royal behavior. It will therefore appeal especially to those with some sense of humor about the royal institutions of the world. Written by American screen and playwright Richard Nelson (Ethan Frome (1993)), the humor of Hyde Park is irreverent and human, American to its core, without a single British tongue-in-cheek moment. It fit my taste perfectly.
The film mostly centers on two days; one almost unending evening and night, and the following day with its common hotdog picnic planned for the visiting honor guests. Though of course this is a historical drama with political elements, - and very interesting for these qualities, - the core of Hyde Park is actually a love story between a distant cousin and President Roosevelt, a true-story enduring secret until her death, - and a matter of dispute among FDR experts. It is played out here beautifully as a story of compromise, human flaws and acceptance, sides to the hidden life of the president in light of his wife Eleanor's homosexuality.
Much of the film's power issues from Bill Murray's (St. Vincent (2014)) lead portrayal of FDR, a man that he instills with great humor, warmth and dignity. Though I had expected nothing else from long time favorite Murray, he deserves great accolades again for his work here.
Other noteworthy performances come especially from the British; Samuel West (Foyle's War (2004), TV-series) in the part of King George VI 'Bertie', whom Colin Firth previously portrayed so brilliantly in Tom Hooper's great smash hit masterpiece The King's Speech (2010). West stands out on his own, and we believe in him as that man, just three years after Firth's total triumph, which is a real feat. Fellow Brit, Olivia Colman (The Iron Lady (2011)) also excels as Queen Elizabeth, who, fraught with dissatisfaction and indignation, struggles with her American hosts' style and decidedly more frank etiquette.
Seasoned South African director Roger Michell (Notting Hill (1999)) steers the ship deftly.
Hyde Park is a fine film which critics generally have been lukewarm towards. SPOILER - I can only suspect that they are not satisfied with the film's long build-up to a climax which is basically a grown man eating a hotdog. - This will be explained if you see the film. Allegations against the script's structure, which have been made by some tireless critics, seem largely baseless in my opinion.
Few films could be better summer entertainment than this, so go out with an open mind and have some fun at Hyde Park on Hudson, which has terrifically beautiful countryside vistas, historical sweep and great production value.

Related post:

Roger Michell: Morning Glory (2010) - McAdams, morning TV and great co-stars spell good fun

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 10.9 mil. $
= Unknown (likely a big or huge flop)
[Hyde Park on Hudson premiered 31 August (Telluride Film Festival, Colorado) and runs 95 minutes. Nelson had met Daisy Suckley, (FDR's cousin, on whose letters and diaries the film is based upon), in 1991. His script was first reworked as a radio play, before Michell became available. Filming took place in England. The film has received critique for taking too much of a creative license with the story. It opened #32 to a 81k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #20 and in 222 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 6.3 mil. $ (57.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 1.1 mil. $ (10%) and France with 1 mil. $ (9.2 %). Without knowing the budget, it isn't possibly to accurately determine the film's theatrical performance; although if it had a likely 10-20 mil. $ cost, it would count as a big-to-huge flop. Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5/4 stars, equal to its rating here. Murray was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance in the film. Michell returned with Le Week-End (2013). Murray returned in A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III (2012), Linney in Enduring Legacy (2012, short), The Big C (2010-13) and then theatrically in The Fifth Estate (2013). Hyde Park on Hudson is rotten at 37 % with a 5.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hyde Park on Hudson?