Customer Reviews

The Strange Case of Senor Computer [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I saw this movie at the Egyptian in Los Angeles a few months ago. Finally a science fictional movie where they put more thought into the story than the special effects. It's both comical and poignant. Ike is a homemade robot who is troubled by how hopelessly unhappy Charles, his nerdy creator is. Ike, being a robot, has no trouble figuring out how the female mind works, which is something his scientist "father" could never hope to do. He practices on women over the phone, and then in Cyrano fashion arranges for one of them to meet Charles. He gives Charles dating lessons and thus manages to bootstrap his creator into a relationship that he is totally incapable of sustaining. We can relate to Charles' social ineptitude and how he lapses into depression, but what is most moving is the robot's despair. For all his analytical ability, Ike cannot save this one human who means everything to him.

The acting is on target and the dialog efficient. The production values are rough, but that makes the movie's wit and clear sense of itself all the more refreshing.

One of the funniest, and most touching sci-fi movies I have ever seen. On no budget whatsoever, writer-director Tom Sawyer has created wacked-out characters and situations, and some of the most brilliant dialogue in the recent history of American cinema. Has he also touched on the "meaning of life?" This is one robot to be reckoned with. The DVD includes a perceptive commentary with the director and a respected indie producer-fan. And the not-to-be-missed "Leave It to Roll-oh," a 1940 Jam Handy industrial short made for General Motors, of astonishing studipity and misogyny featuring the proto-robot Roll-oh.

I had never heard of this movie, but decided to watch it with a friend. The dialogue in this movie is amazingly funny! By the end of the movie you'll feel attached to Ike the robot.

This movie is original and clever. A computer A.I. that can't do math is so ironic I loved it. The computer is a more successful human than its depressed and brilliant creator. The only reason I did not give this movie a 5 is the computer's voice is hard to understand at times, subtitles would of helped greatly. Production costs were low and it shows. This movie really makes me realize how good of a movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still" is.

you may start watching this and prematurely decide you hate it. You can definitely see it's a very low budget film (the black and white helps cover it up a bit) but the writing is pure gold. The laughs may be a bit mild at first but once the robot starts interacting with his "father" the clever dialog will hit you.. and hit you hard. At that point the cheap design of the robot and it's unemotional body language adds to the hilarity. I'm damn proud to have found this movie and to have incorporated it into my collection.

This had potential, in concept. After reading the first two positive reviews I was excited and got the movie. I wanted to like it. I tried. I even watched the whole thing (okay, I fast forwarded through some of it). But the writing, acting, and especially the annoying use of video effects and computer voice just ruined the experience for me. Rather than the standard old "Macintalk Fred" voice, a real person's voice through an effect would have made for a more expressive and entertaining robot character.

I can look past low quality video because I understand not everybody can afford expensive video cameras (I sure wish I had a really nice camera, but I don't). But those effects in some of the "through the robot's eyes" scenes just make the low video quality more obvious, and some of them are too easily identifiable as cheezy video editing plug-ins. Switching between them for apparently no reason didn't help, either.

The included Roll-oh the Robot bit obviously shows what the director likes and wants to give homage to, but he hit pretty far from target. The philosophical aspects of the robot and the interactions between the robot and his creator just didn't work for me at all. I'm not one for fluff, but I think this would have worked much better being a silly dorky light-hearted movie rather than trying to be dark. For serious material to work, the quality needs to be a little higher.

I understand the difficulties involved in making low budget movies, because I've made some. But I also differentiate between what should and should not be shown to others. If I had made this movie, it would have stayed on the shelf, or maybe passed a few copies out to friends. Better luck on future projects, though.