4.0 out of 5 stars
A rare find., May 3 2004
This review is from: The Strange Case of Senor Computer (DVD)
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.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
A rather amateur attempt at a philosiphical robot sitcom, Dec 7 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: The Strange Case of Senor Computer (DVD)
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.
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