Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
72 Adela
39 Adventures of Power
78 Afghan Star
61 After the Storm
66 Afterschool
xx All the Best
58 American Casino
72 Amreeka
48 Antichrist
73 Araya
62 Art & Copy
55 As Seen Through These Eyes
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
13 Beautiful Life, A
70 Beeswax
35 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71 Big Fan
66 Black Dynamite
51 Blind Date
xx Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76 Bliss
35 Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57 Boys Are Back, The
45 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
70 Bronson
45 Burning Plain, The
xx Carriers
55 Casi Divas
57 Chelsea on the Rocks
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
68 Collapse
44 Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
67 Departures
xx Dil Bole Hadippa
71 Disgrace
xx Do Knot Disturb
70 Earth Days
24 Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
xx Eulogy for a Vampire
xx Everyone Else
xx Fatal Promises
56 Fifty Dead Men Walking
62 Five Minutes of Heaven
74 Flame & Citron
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
28 Free Style
xx From Mexico with Love
50 Fuel
25 Gentlemen Broncos
50 Give Me Your Hand
58 Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
52 Grace
64 Harmony and Me
81 Headless Woman, The
xx Heretics, The
63 Horse Boy, The
73 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
74 Humpday
94 Hurt Locker, The
29 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16 If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75 In Search of Beethoven
83 In the Loop
61 Intimate Enemies
42 Irene in Time
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
19 Labor Day
xx Laila's Birthday
41 Little Ashes
41 Little Traitor, The
66 Liverpool
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
85 Maid, The
xx Ministers, The
59 More Than a Game
67 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
xx Mystery Team
48 New York, I Love You
73 Night and Day
66 No Impact Man
47 Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34 Other Man, The
xx Painter Sam Francis, The
54 Paper Heart
xx Paradise
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
44 Peter and Vandy
35 Play the Game
xx Pretty Ugly People
65 Providence Effect, The
76 Rembrandt's J'accuse
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
40 Shrink
61 Skin
77 Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx Skiptracers
52 Splinterheads
39 St. Trinian's
89 Still Walking
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
55 Storm
65 Tetro
74 That Evening Sun
72 Thirst
xx Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61 Trucker
xx Turning Green
83 U2 3D
66 Unmade Beds
66 Unmistaken Child
70 Visual Acoustics
55 Walt & El Grupo
67 Way We Get By, The
69 We Live in Public
64 Wedding Song, The
64 Where is Where?
xx White on Rice
74 Woman in Berlin, A
69 World's Greatest Dad
70 Yes Men Fix the World
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx You, the Living

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Bicentennial Man

EMAILPRINTBuena Vista Pictures

Bicentennial Man reviews
42
6.9 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 12 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Sci-fi

Written by: Isaac Asimov (short story and novel The Positronic Man)
Robert Silverberg (novel The Positronic Man)
Nicholas Kazan

Directed by: Chris Columbus

Release Date:
Theatrical: December 17, 1999
DVD: June 13, 2000

Running Time: 130 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: PG for language and some sexual content

Starring Robin Williams, Sam Neill, Oliver Platt, Embeth Davidtz, and Hallie Kate Eisenberg

Follows the life and times of Andrew (Williams), a robot purchased by the Martin family as a household appliance programmed to perform menial tasks. As Andrew begins to experience emotions and creative thought, the Martins soon discover they don't have an ordinary robot. (Touchstone Pictures)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Finally becomes a somber, sentimental and rather profound romantic fantasy that is more true to the spirit of the Golden Age of science-fiction writing than possibly any other movie of the '90s.

Read Full Review >
70

Film.com Tom Keogh

Captivating an audience from the get-go and drawing our attention and emotions ever deeper into the layered mysteries of a dreamy fable.

Read Full Review >
67

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

More a meditation on the nature of life itself than anything else, and a welcome respite from Robin Williams, the emotion sponge.

Read Full Review >
63

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Few actors apart from Williams could bring it off.

Read Full Review >
63

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

May wrestle with big ideas, but it does so through a succession of small emotional moments.

Read Full Review >
63

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

A fragmented, episodic feel and a conclusion that seems both remote and remote-controlled.

Read Full Review >
63

Miami Herald Curtis Morgan

Entertains but never quite engages.

60

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

A mainstream holiday movie, complete with stupendous special effects, amazing make-up artistry and sumptuous production design.

Read Full Review >
60

TNT RoughCut Bill McLochlin

Though Williams gives one of his better performances in recent years -- finding the right combination of humor and restraint for this role -- none of the human characters are fleshed out in any way.

50

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

Reinforcing the chasm between movie magic and wishful thinking.

50

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

The sad fact is Williams is at his best while trapped in Andrew's original sleek form. His performance is subtle, his reactions restrained. The more Robin is exposed, the more ham is served.

50

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Except for Williams, the sitcom-meets-sci-fi acting throughout the movie is strictly of television caliber.

Read Full Review >
50

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Begins with promise, proceeds in fits and starts, and finally sinks into a cornball drone of greeting-card sentiment.

Read Full Review >
50

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Has heart, but lacks bite.

50

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

Has a certain slow, mechanical quality.

Read Full Review >
50

New York Post Lou Lumenick

The once-funny Robin Williams is still stuck in his excruciating touchy-feely mode.

50

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Kids may yawn at the movie's dawdling pace.

Read Full Review >
50

Variety Todd McCarthy

Columbus' approach is intended to cloak such topics as mortality and human identity in the warm glow of greeting card sentiment, which renders the prescription palatable for mass consumption but hopelessly diluted.

Read Full Review >
42

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Director Chris Columbus...seals this comedy in an impenetrable bubble of hollow humanism.

Read Full Review >
40

TV Guide Ken Fox

The play for the heartstrings is so cold and calculated that the movie's sentimentality feels as synthetic as its hero, and the philosophy is simpleminded and lazy.

Read Full Review >
40

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

The childish humor and sensationalistic effects undercut the movie's philosophical agenda.

Read Full Review >
38

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

I'll be darned if I can think of a more excruciating, ponderous, remarkably unfunny and inert cinemagoing experience to come down the pike in ages.

38

Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark

This saga of one robot's determined quest to become human is so coldly calculated it could give you frostbite.

33

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

You're likelier to shrink in astonished horror from it than laugh.

30

LA Weekly Nicole Campos

With this desperately eager-to-please fable based on a short story and novel by Isaac Asimov, director Chris Columbus clinches his berth as the master of shiny-happy message movies.

Read Full Review >
30

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A cold, protracted and unemotional affair.

Read Full Review >
30

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Amid the complacent self-congratulation...is a bizarre reactionary bent.

Read Full Review >
30

Dallas Observer Andy Klein

It's not really a kids' film, nor it is particularly funny, by either design or execution. It is, rather, Columbus' latest attempt at a comically tinged tearjerker.

Read Full Review >
30

Time Richard Corliss

The tone is cloying, the running time bloated.

25

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Must be among the most blatantly manipulative movies ever made. It's cold, calculated and treats its audience like its robotic central character.

20

Newsweek David Ansen

Kids will be bored, the rest of us baffled.

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 6.9 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Keith H. gave it a1:
A boring movie. I was intrigued, when in the beginning they recapped asimov's three laws of robotics, but then they never used them. At the end, one robot even seems to break them. Plodding pace, a weepy score that will put you to sleep and Robin Williams mugging for the camera in almost every scene (not for the first time either) make this a movie to avoid.

[Anonymous] gave it a7:
Flawed, but I liked it. A bit too much Robin Williams in the mix, though. While I, Robot was a good actioner/thriller that interplayed the three laws of robotics, this one looks from a calmer perspective, feeling more like an Asimov short story.

Rachel M gave it a5:
This story approaches classic Sci-Fi ones, introducing the topic "how things would be when...", or better, "how men would be when...", reflecting on vital topics, etc. Asimov's story is great in this sense, but Buena Vista adaptation is focused on commercial success and some special effects. And the result is POOR! The worst in this movie is its construction: time seems to fly, leaving no time for emotion or reflectio. Of course, anything performed by R.Williams is great, but I'm afraid he is too human to perform a robot! I didn't like it.

Hans S gave it a10:
Makes you think how much more fun we could have, how much more we could get out of life if we were more rational and of service to others. Presents the wonders of intelligent systems better than anything to date. I'm sorry to see that most reviewers can't be considered such. As with most things, with emotion, less is more. "The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think." -Horace Walpole.

Gilbert Mulroneycakes Must Die gave it a 3:
Asimov'd spit. The story is great, one of the best Isaac wrote (and he wrote some glorious ones). But poor old Chris "I discovered America!" (points down) "Look, there it is!" "Stop doing that." Columbus turns it from a thought-proving piece of SF into a sappy, sentimental mess. Shame.

Victor gave it an 8:
Original short story / remade novel aside, let's look at the movie itself. Poignant to excess, (e.g. Little Miss' holding Andrew's first expression of creativity in her dying hands), this movie engages the viewer to consider, "What really is humanity?" At its most humorous when Robin Williams' creativity is caged by the robotic form ("Good ... Night"), this movie is certainly not the laugh riot that the studio publicists tout. The underlying message of the movie is that change is unavoidable. The only thing that we can control is how we react to it. Even the character of Andrew, who fights human aging because of his own needs, finally acceeds to the inevitable. There is indeed a natural order of things, and only in acceptance can we find peace. After 200 years, we finally understand.

Jennifer T. gave it a 10:
This is the most amazing movie I have ever seen in my life!! It touches the heart on so many different levels that other movies can't even come close too. It is amazing.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: Fantasy Football | Madden NFL10 | PGA Championship | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | US Open | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use