I, ROBOT review by FLETCH...

I, Robot is set in the not so distant future, Robots are in humans lives as manual labour, they are there to collect your rubbish and take your dogs for walks but when a new model robot is set to change your life, detective Del Spooner is a little wary of the creators motives.

Director Alex Proyas follows up cult classics The Crow and Dark City, with an adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s story and hits the mark with this well made Hollywood actioner. He handles the complexities of making a futuristic film with such ease, the amount of special effects is astounding and Proyas manages to blend all the layers very well.

Will Smith is as good as ever as the cop with an attitude and doesn’t ever look out of place with all the obvious green screen performances around him. It is quite clearly his film as you struggle to remember who the other cast members are. The computer doctor on hand to help is Bridget Moynahan and she looks the part as the character with the inside track on all that is going on. The bad guy is really the system, but the face of global power is played by Bruce Greenwood who is calmly nasty enough.

Competing with Will for most of the film is the jaw dropping sfx. I can’t remember a film with so many levels of cgi, there’s the robots (for a start) all the endless exterior shots and so many set piece moments that include car and bike chases. As you can imagine with a film like this, product placement is on overdrive with some companies getting some major exposure for future designs – Let’s hope it cost them a fortune !!!

Comparisons to Minority Report are obvious but this is a film that can stand alone, It has the feeling of a great thriller that just happens to be set in the future and the leading character has issues and a past that we slowly get to learn about, but it doesn’t ever cheat the audience or try to complicate things from the opening to the closing shot and if anything this film just gets better and better right up to the fantastic inevitable finale.

It’s not the best film this year and to be honest it probably won’t get into many people’s top 10 for 2004 but what is refreshing is that a summer blockbuster can live up to it’s expectation. I, Robot does deliver and the box office should be healthy for Twentieth Century Fox because all involved have made an intelligent popcorn flick.

I think you should 7/10

Minority Report meets Bad Boys


OPEN WATER review by FLETCH...

OPEN WATER review by Fletch...

This indie low budget thriller sees a couple on a well-deserved holiday get left behind on a diving trip. Alone in the water for hours surviving by keeping each other going they slowly become more and more vulnerable to the isolated surroundings until nightfall when they become bait!

Based on a true story this very low budget film shot on digital has an eerie honesty about it as you are with these characters in the water for 90% of the movie. It’s a strange connection forged by the viewer and the screen but you really feel for the couple throughout.

Word of mouth on this film will be split as it was with The Blair Witch Project, and similarities between the two will be made – Created from folklore storytelling and left for the individual to decide. But believe me if you have a fear of open spaces or you can’t swim let alone if you hate sharks this will terrify you!

The production was independently financed and the actors are all unknown and with about as much experience behind the camera this left the project in a great position. It was raw, unnervy and just what you needed to get the realism across for the believability of the story.

The script is tight and natural and portrayed with truth as the two main leads work off of each other very well. Lighting, sound and design are pretty much vacant as the minimal feel of a documentary again heightens the tension for the audience.

The film is short (80 minutes or so) but the lack of screen action makes it feel very long which detracts you from loving it – I am not sure if it was intentional or a budget issue but mid-way through you do urge it to get going!

It is a movie that stays with you and will trigger many a debate questioning the ifs and buts of the morals but you can’t help respecting the filmmakers getting their project on screen and with the right campaign and audience will be found.

The question of whether it will be discussed isn’t the issue, it is whether this type of film can work again after so many people were burnt by The Blair Witch Project phenomenon.

Go and see - you have to !

3/5

Jaws meets Bowling for Columbine (er...maybe not).